Victor EzejaContrary to what has been circulating on various media platforms, Catholic clerics have given detailed explanation of what the Church meant in its recent declaration about the blessings of people including those in same-s3x unions.
Pope Francis on Monday approved a document titled “Declaration Fiducia Supplicans On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” issued by the Vatican announcing a new guidelines allowing priests to extend blessings to people in “irregular union” – gay couples.
Introductory part of the text, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Church, said that the new declaration remained “firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage.”
Cardinal Fernández stressed that the me position as espoused in the document does not validate the status of same-s3x couples in the eyes of the Catholic Church.
The Church had been under pressure by LGBTQ activists to endorse gay marriage.
Hours after the document was released, social media platforms went viral with narratives that Pope Francis had approved that priest should solemnise same-s3x marriages.
READ ALSO: Women Priests Rejected, Blessing Of Same-sex Marriages Likely – Pope Responds To Conservative Cardinals’ Challenge
However some clergy in reaction have given detailed explaination of what the Church meant in the document about blessing people in same-s3x union.
Same-s3x marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal s3x (between man and man or between woman and woman).
Speaking on this, Papal Nuncio to Czech Republic and Archbishop of Novicia, Most Rev. Jude Thaddeus Okolo, in an interview said the Pope cannot authorise anybody to bless gay marriages.
He explained that what the Pope had said all the while was that people who are homos3xuals should be treated as normal humans created by God when they engage on s3xual activity, it is sinful just like fornication or adultery.
He maintained that normal blessing by a priest be done to any person or group of people that approaches him for that as everyone- saint or sinner, is in need of God’s mercy but that doesn’t mean formerly endorsing a gay union when such people meet him.
‘Pope Francis has not authorized anybody to bless gay marriages. Pope Francis has all through said that those who are homosexuals, we don’t understand how they feel but we should respect them because they are also human being,” Archbishop Okolo said.
He continued: “But when a gay person does s3xual act with another gay person, it is a sin as it applies to unmarried persons who engage in s3xual activity without marriage in Catholic Church. For the Pope, every human being is a child of God whether a saint or a sinner. If it happens that an individual who is said to be a gay approaches a priest for blessing, he should not be dismissed, because such a person is a child of God and deserves blessing. But if two women or men approach saying please bless our union, that the church cannot bless because marriage is between woman and man or man and woman.”
Defending the Church’s stance not blessing gay marriage the Papal Nuncio said that in beginning of the world, God created man and woman told them to go and increase and mutiply to fill the earth.
He further emphasised that if such unnatural union is allowed to exist for years, human beings face the danger of going into extinction.
Also writing on the meaning of the blessing gay people, Bishop of San Bernardino Diocese, Alberto Rojas, the Vatican declaration through the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith affirmed that the Sacrament of Marriage can only be between one man and one woman, but the love and mercy of Jesus is for all.
According to him, “A blessing is not a sacrament and anybody can give a blessing to anybody else. A blessing in the Biblical sense is the general
gesture to wish good to others.
“As disciples of Jesus, we are called to extend His love and mercy to all our brothers and sisters, including LGBTQ+ couples, without qualification or judgement.”
Also explaining the document on blessing gay people, Rev. Fr. Okhueleigbe Osemhantie said the Church’s teaching about marriage hasn’t changed, adding that the document distinguishes between ritual and liturgical blessings and what he called “spontaneous ones more akin to signs of popular devotion.”
Explaining the difference between blessing people and a marriage, the cleric wrote: “Marriage is a liturgical act and not a spontaneous one; thus, it has proper place, persons, form, and matter. In marriage, the Church blesses in a liturgical act the union and the persons.
“But in the issue of blessing for those in irregular marriage, the Church only prays for the individual and NOT their union, and the Church lacks their records as those whose togetherness is recognized or solemnized as marriage.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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