Concerning the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (DDF’s) Declaration, Fiducia Supplicans (FS), On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.
I write this statement in an attempt to clarify questions that many have raised in response to the Vatican’s publication of the above referenced document. Recent news reports, such as “Pope approves blessing of gay couples” or similar headlines appearing on newsfeeds and social media sites over the past several weeks have caused confusion and prompted questions by concerned Catholics and others as to whether the Church has changed her teaching on marriage or human sexuality.
The short answer is “NO”! Nothing in the Declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Fiducia Supplicans (FS), changes the definition of marriage. The Document clearly states that “marriage” is the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children” (FS 4). As the Document’s title suggests, it deals primarily with the nature and understanding of what we call “blessings”. The Document states that its intended purpose is to respond to questions that have come to the Dicastery in recent years concerning the offering of blessings for opposite-sex couples in irregular situations (i.e. not in a valid Catholic marriage) or same-sex couples.
While the Document does not state it, one must, I think, consider that the Declaration might well have been written, at least in part, as a response to the actions taken by some bishops in Germany who are advocating for formal, liturgical-like blessings for same-sex couples that, at least appear, to legitimize or solemnize those unions. One cannot wonder if the Document was an effort on Rome’s part to make some concessions to the Germans without changing Church teaching in hopes of avoiding a possible schism. (This is merely speculation on my part)
Fiducia Supplicans states that the “Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing, similar to a liturgical rite, that can create confusion” (FS Presentation). FS goes on to say, “The value of this Document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective” (FS Presentation). While the Document states that one of its purposes was to avoid confusion, many would say that it, in fact, brought on confusion.
Fiducia Supplicans highlights the differences between “liturgical blessings” such as the blessing of the married couple at a Catholic wedding, and what it calls “spontaneous blessing,” such as a blessing that someone might request from a priest before they depart on a vacation or if they are in the midst of some struggle and are seeking God’s help.
All that said, many find the Document confusing because it speaks not merely of blessings of individuals in an objectively sinful union, but it speaks of the blessing of “couples” and thus, at least in the mind of many, appears to legitimize such unions. Critics have said that the Document lacks verbiage that clearly speaks of seeking God’s blessing specifically to lead people to repentance from sin (from commentary by Trent Horn). Greater clarity could have been provided if the Document had included language from the 2021 document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that clearly stated that God “does not and cannot bless sin: he blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by him. He in fact ‘takes us as we are, but never leaves us as we are’” (Responsum, DDF, 22 Feb. 2021).
A DDF Press Release on January 4th, 2024, issued to address the many pastoral concerns raised by the Declaration, affirms long standing Church teaching by stating, “the Church has always considered only those sexual relations that are lived out within marriage to be morally licit, the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.” The Press Release goes on to state that “the real novelty of this Declaration… is the invitation to distinguish between two different forms of blessings: ‘liturgical or ritualized’ and ‘spontaneous or pastoral’”.
In summary, it appears that the Declaration does not intend to change the Church’s teaching on marriage but intends to further define the pastoral application of “spontaneous blessings”. The DDF’s Press Release characterized “this non-ritualized form of blessing” to be “solely the response of a pastor towards two persons who ask for God’s help.” So, to conclude, “No!” the Church has not changed her teaching on marriage or on human sexuality. But in attempting to further define “spontaneous blessings”, some believe that the Declaration still leaves questions as to what such blessings might imply.