The Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland has “warmly” welcomed Fiducia Supplicans, the recent declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples and other Catholics living in “irregular” situations.
In a statement, the leadership of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), Frs Roy Donovan, Tim Hazelwood and Gerry O’Connor, said Fiducia Supplicans is Pope Francis’s “gift to our Church of reason and compassion”.
Describing it as an “historic and hopeful initiative” the Association applauded what It termed as the “unequivocal and unambiguous intervention” by the Vatican with Pope Francis’ active support.
The ACP said the declaration had brought, “if not a new dawn, at least a new focus, a new impetus and a new freedom to the search for a more sensitive and humane response to urgent pastoral needs”.
The group, which represents one third of Irish priests, said this bold move by Pope Francis, “who has always stressed the need for a pastorally sensitive and imaginative approach to accompany individuals struggling on their spiritual journeys”, has created new space and new boundaries to facilitate a pastoral reform of long-standing and oppressive requirements.
They also indicated that the declaration is here to stay as popes generally refrain from undoing reforms put in place by their predecessors.
“As with other Francis-inspired reforms, the much-needed refinement that Fiducia Supplicans introduces into Catholic Church pastoral practice will become irreversible,” they stated.
The leader of the Irish Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin, also responded to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on blessing same-sex couples outside of the liturgy.
Speaking to The Tablet, the Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh admitted that its publication “did take me by some surprise” and he “wasn't expecting it before Christmas”.
He said it was clear, even in the preface, that this is a matter which has been under some consideration for some time and that the Dicastery had consulted taken advice on.
The hurts and anxieties experienced by people identifying as LGBT+ had been heard “very loudly within the Church”, he said.
Welcoming the fact that the document is “very clear that there is no change to the perennial teaching of the Church on marriage as between a man and a woman”, he added: “At a practical level as a priest, I welcome the clarity in this document. The Pope is very clear that these pastoral blessings are not a kind of a liturgical or ritual acknowledgment that these unions are equivalent or in any way analogous to the marriage between a man or a woman.”
Speaking to The Tablet he continued, “The Pope is very clear that these pastoral blessings are not a liturgical or ritual acknowledgment that the union is equivalent, or in any way analogous to the marriage between a man or a woman.
“Marriage between a man and a woman is something which is stable, something which is exclusive and open to their generation of children.”
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