Vatican City, Oct 18, 2023 / 13:28 pm (CNA).
In response to a question about blessing same-sex unions, a Latvian archbishop at the Synod on Synodality warned that telling someone living in sin that “everything is all right” places that person in great spiritual danger.
Speaking at a synod press conference on Oct. 18, Archbishop Zbigņev Stankevičs of Riga, Latvia, said that the Church teaches that people with same-sex attraction should be accepted with respect, quoting Pope Francis that there is room for everyone in the Church.
“We welcome with love and respect, but true love cannot be separated from truth because if love is separated from truth, it is no longer love,” Stankevičs said.
“If there is a person living in sin and we tell this person, ‘Everything is all right with you, it’s OK, go ahead,’ we do harm because this person is in danger. When he dies, he will be in great danger,” he added.
The archbishop also spoke about the complementarity of men and women and in favor of giving women “more room in the Church, but without changing what is in the Gospel and what is in tradition of the Church.”
Stankevičs, who has served as the archbishop of Riga since 2010, underlined that in response to the issues of women’s participation in the Church and same-sex blessings, “we must be faithful to the holy Scriptures, and what the Church for 2,000 years has discovered by interpreting the Scriptures.”
“But if we talk about blessing, I would say if a homosexual comes as an individual person and says, ‘I would like to live in God’s grace,’ I see no contraindication to pray for him and help him,” he said.
“If two come and say ‘we want to live in chastity … and we are tempted,’ you can pray for them and also bless them to help them to live in chastity.”
“But if two come and say ‘we live together like a husband and wife and want to obtain a blessing,’ I see a big problem here because in this way we bless living in sin,” he added.
He pointed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches in paragraph 2358 that people with same-sex attractions “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
The 68-year-old archbishop said that he had personally undergone “a pastoral conversion” in regard to this issue and learned to be more sensitive in his interactions.
“Jesus says that we must love our neighbor … also homosexuals are our neighbors and I must love them — to love in truth … and not a love that allows everything,” he added.
During the press conference, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, archbishop of Manaus, Brazil, was asked about prior statements he has made in support of same-sex unions and whether he believes the Synod on Synodality could present “concrete steps” for Church teaching to change on this issue.
In response, Steiner said that this month’s synod assembly is not meant to “lead to determinations or conclusions.”
“It is the wish of the Holy Father that the session that will happen next year look at [concrete issues],” he said, adding that it is “a very good thing that this debate has come up” on these topics.
“But as far as concrete issues are concerned, well, they will have to be addressed during next year’s session,” he said.
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John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. To obey God is to love God. To sin is hatred for God. The only thing in existence worth allowing human free will, through which all hatred, sin, death and damnation flows, is the glorious free-willed gift of obedient love to God.
To sin is to hate God. Our whole purpose in life is to love God through obedience to God. How could the Catholic Church ever bless unrepentant hatred for God, for hatred for God is through which all damnation of souls flows?
John 15:22
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father. If I had not come to them and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; now, however, their sin cannot be excused. To hate me is to hate my Father. If I had not works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
Catechism of the Catholic Church; Ten Commandments
Catechism 2055 When someone asks him, “Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” Jesus replies: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.” The Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this twofold yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law: The commandments: “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
John 14:15
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Catechism 2052 “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answers first by invoking the necessity to recognize God as the “One there is who is good,” as the supreme Good and the source of all good. Then Jesus tells him: “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” And he cites for his questioner the precepts that concern love of neighbor: “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.” Finally Jesus sums up these commandments positively: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
John 5:27
“The Father has given over to him power to pass judgment because he is Son of Man; no need for you to be surprised at this, for an hour is coming in which all those in their tombs shall hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done right shall rise to live; the evildoers shall rise to be damned.”
Catechism 2068 The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them; The Second Vatican Council confirms: “The bishops, successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord . . . the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the observance of the Commandments.”
Catechism 2083 Jesus summed up man’s duties toward God in this saying: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This immediately echoes the solemn call: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.” God has loved us first. the love of the One God is recalled in the first of the “ten words.” the commandments then make explicit the response of love that man is called to give to his God.
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P78.HTM?
1 John 5:3
For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome
“But as far as concrete issues are concerned, well, they will have to be addressed during next year’s session,” explained Cardinal Steiner.
As if moral judgments and “decisions” are now the same thing. This transposition is already concretely (!) addressed (!) by the magisterium, in Veritatis Splendor:
“A separation, or even an opposition [!], is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid and general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision [no longer a ‘moral judgment’!] about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called ‘pastoral’ solutions [!] contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a ‘creative’ hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept [thou shalt not!]” (Veritatis Splendor, n. 56).