The decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Monday last week to ban blessings of same-sex couples has provoked rifts and disagreements at the highest levels of the Church.
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the only American on the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals, said that while Francis wants to be close to people in their everyday challenges, “the Church has a very clear teaching about marriage that needs to be proclaimed”.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, who leads the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, concurred. He said that although the Pope has “concern and solicitude” for the needs of LGBT people, the Church is also “a path to salvation”.
He recalled meeting two Catholics who led a “gay parish” in London with the approval of “the Cardinal Archbishop”.“But out of respect for the sacrament, for what marriage is as a sacrament, they’ve decided not to ask for marriage. So you can have this coming from the gay community itself.”
However, more than 12 Austrian and German bishops have publicly expressed their dismay and disappointment concerning the CDF “no” to gay blessings. More than 2,000 priests have said they will continue to bless gay couples and more than 200 Catholic theologians signed a protest statement accusing the CDF of ignoring “scientific findings”.
The bishops include German conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, and Austrian conference president Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg. Three German bishops – Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, Stefan Oster of Passau and Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt expressed their gratitude to the CDF and to Pope Francis for clearly explaining canon law on the issue.
In France Reims auxiliary bishop Bruno Feillet, head of the Family and Society Council of the bishops’ conference, said “the people engaged in supporting the people concerned were moved, and distraught at this note”.
The Bishop of Antwerp Johan Bonny said the CDF wheeled out its “heaviest moral artillery” in calling gay sexual relations “sin”.
In the Flemish daily De Standaard he wrote: “How do I feel after the responsum? Bad. I feel vicarious shame for my Church... I would like to apologise to all for whom this responsumis painful and incomprehensible … Their pain for the Church is mine today.”
In a statement on the Archdiocese of Chicago website Cardinal Blase Cupich said the CDF response “offers nothing new on the Church’s teaching on the Sacrament of Matrimony. Regardless, it needs to be read in the context of the teachings in the Catechism and the encouraging statements of Pope Francis to LGBTQ persons about their relationship to the church, as well as his urging that pastors welcome them with respect and sensitivity, recognising, as the Congregation response does, the many positive elements in same-sex relationships.”
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