Cardinal Fernandez: The declaration is very clear in distinguishing the two forms of blessing: one with a liturgical-ritual format and the other proper to pastoral work — this is its specific contribution.
Some episcopates had advanced in ritualized forms of blessing irregular couples, and this is inadmissible. They should reformulate their proposal in that regard.
Below is a hopeful and good interview by the Pillar of Cardinal Fernandez just released. I read it over quickly and it is definitely damage control as the world’s bishops cascade into schism over this subject and interpreting a very poor theology about blessings put forward by the DDF in terms of casual blessings on public sinners.
I did not see a question about the papal flip-flop from one document to the next from the DDF. The first stated that there could be no blessing for couples in immoral and sinful relationships which are publicly known and are asked for by the couple. So one day no and the next day yes. That is a major problem.
The day before the declaration, I had never had same sex couples come up to me to ask for a blessing, although individuals in all kinds of situations opposed by the Church have. And even beyond that, for example, they are sick, maybe dying, where I would hear their confession, anoint and offer Holy Communion.
After the decision, I can see same sex and heterosexuals living in public sin calling me for an appointment for a blessing together. It is clear they seek a blessing not just to be nicer to each other, but to get ecclesial recognition of their union even if unofficial. Do I have to interrogate them if they are using the casual blessing I give to advertise to the world that the Church blesses their union? Isn’t that what Fr. James Martin narcissistically did when he asked the New York Times to cover his first public blessing of two homosexual men in an actively homosexual union? Did Martin use the new document to further his agenda towards the Church officially blessing immoral unions of all kinds and recognizing same sex “marriages” in an official, unofficial way?
At any rate, the uproar and schismatic seeds that this document has sown has caused Cardinal Fernandez to do damage control and that is good and there are some clarifications, especially what the pope will do about Germany and its schismatic way. It is odd that he cracks downs on traditionalists and progressives about the Liturgy, one ban for the TLM the other the ban on celebrating an Eastern Rite Liturgy facing the people. Very strange that the bishops of a country heading for full schism are treated with kid papal pontifical gloves.
Press for interview:
Cardinal Fernández: Same-sex blessing ‘does not validate or justify anything’
In an interview with 'The Pillar,' the DDF's prefect discusses 'Fiducia supplicans'
2 comments:
Is this the result of bypassing the review processes in the Vatican and releasing these documents directly to the public? As students we were tasked to write detailed proposals, engineering, and operational instructions that were then turned over to a wide variety of people with various backgrounds to see if they understood and correctly executed them. It was surprising how far off intelligent people could be and thereby gave us an appreciation and acceptance of editors. By the way, I am being as charitable as I can with this because I really think they knew no group of Catholic editors would let this through and that they are scrambling like schoolboys caught in a fib to restate what they really mean.
In regard to the interview that The Pillar had conducted with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández: I do not find anything about the interview that could be regarded as "damage control."
But I found the interview interesting and helpful.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Post a Comment