Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 23, 2024 / 18:01 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), met with the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church to discuss a rift caused by the recent Vatican declaration that permits nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples.
In March — less than three months after the DDF published the declaration Fiducia Supplicans — the Coptic Orthodox Church suspended dialogue with the Catholic Church amid concerns about the blessings. In a meeting with Coptic Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria on Wednesday, May 22, Fernández sought to ease some of those tensions.
Fernández told Tawadros during the meeting that the Catholic Church remains opposed to marriage blessings for same-sex couples and emphasized that nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples cannot be performed in a way that would confuse the blessing with a marriage, according to the Holy See’s official news organization Vatican News.
The cardinal further affirmed that the Holy See agrees with the Coptic Orthodox Church’s March 7 statement, which affirmed the “firm position of rejecting all forms of homosexual relationships, because they violate the holy Bible and the law by which God created man as male and female” and added that “the [Coptic] Church considers any blessing of such relations, whatever its type, to be a blessing for sin, and this is unacceptable.”
According to Vatican News, Fernández pointed to a clarification issued by the DDF in early January, which emphasized that the declaration did not change Church teaching on marriage or sexuality. He also told Tawadros that the blessings are not provided to the union itself and that they must be spontaneous and brief, without any rite or liturgical vestments.
The cardinal added that these nonliturgical pastoral blessings are available to every person, regardless of the person’s condition, and does not impart “sanctifying grace” but does provide “actual graces” that push sinners toward conversion and maturation, according to the article.
According to a news release issued by the Coptic Church, Tawadros told Fernández there is a path of love between the two churches and an importance of dialogue.
Pope Francis met with Tawadros in May 2023 to mark the 50-year anniversary of restored relations between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church. However, since March, formal ecumenical dialogue remains suspended.
In May 2023, Francis also added 21 Coptic martyrs who were killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria into the liturgical book of saints.
The Coptic Church is Oriental Orthodox. The division between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches occurred in the mid-400s after the Council of Chalcedon amid Christological disputes about the natures of Christ.
The Vatican declaration on nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples has elicited controversy from within the Catholic Church as well. Although some bishops approved of the declaration, numerous bishops voiced concerns with the document, particularly bishops in Africa.
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G.K. Chesterton highlighted the difference between the word “fire” and “firefly.” As for this latest clarification regarding the non-blessing/blessing, and the word “couples” as selected in Fiducia Supplicans, the document consistently uses the term “couples” eleven times, as in:
“What has been said in this Declaration regarding the blessings [?] of same-sex couples [!] is sufficient to guide the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers in this regard. Thus, beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings [?] of this type” (Fiducia Supplicans, n. 41).
Well, as needed restitution for the international scandal caused by the carefully selected wording, a street-level world would appreciate the walking-back (!) of photo-op/signaling blessed upon Fr. James Martin and New Ways Ministries” Jeanine Gramick, and of Cardinal Hollerich with his “sociological and scientific foundations” for overturning moral theology specifically for homosexual couples…
And, walking back, too, of the patronizing reference to continental Africa as simply a “special case”—wording so reminiscent of Cardinal Kasper who, in 2014 at the beginning of this trajectory, simmilarly announced that “[Africans] should not tell us too much what we have to do.”
By all means, qualify and clarify the message with the Coptic Church! And with all the Orthodox Churches. And–within the Catholic Church–with Poland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Peru, Ukraine, parts of Argentina, France and Spain, and other national bishops’ conferences.
Qualify and clarify. But, then, why the countervailing and still-intact word: “couples”?
Are Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernandez totally hardened to the creepiness they impart?
Pure Peronism. More cleaver infidelity from this pontificate. Consider we can call the roll out of Amoris Laetitia a contraceptive theology: eventually, the heteropraxy of blessing couples in irregular relationships will overwhelm orthodoxy. Time is greater than space. Whatever this pontificate says to mollify the opposition, the document says “couples.” Even a child can see Fr. James Martin, SJ “blessing” a homosexual couple in the NYTimes. 💋
Every news story has Cardinal Fernandez offering the same “reassurances” about Fiducia Supplicans that he has been offering all along: the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage and sexuality hasn’t changed, the “blessings” can’t be done in a way that looks like marriage, the “couple” isn’t blessed, only the individual, etc., etc. He’s re-explaining the same things he previously explained, as if anyone questioning his explanations is a slow-witted dummy who failed to properly understand his intended meaning. Nothing has changed, nothing new has been offered.
So I don’t see where this “charm initiative” will change anything for the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, despite the gracious reception by Tawadros II. Or any of the other Oriental Orthodox churches who share their position about Fiducia Supplicans. I don’t even see why they’d have an interest in restarting the ecumenical dialogue thst the halted in March. For what purpose? Despite the apparent belief by some Roman Catholics that Pope Francis secretly exerts a mysterious pull on the Orthodox, many of the Orthodox churches have shown little interest in ecumenical dialogue. The Coptic Orthodox Church was one of the exceptions and now that’s gone.
But as always, if anyone more knowledgeable about the Orthodox churches than I am can correct me, I would appreciate it.