CHRISTIAN POST/ Jon Brown-
The Vatican’s doctrinal office issued a five-page statement Thursday clarifying last month’s controversial “Fiducia Supplicans” guidance, which led to an eruption of pushback from theologically conservative Roman Catholic prelates worldwide.
The office headed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández addressed the reception to the guidance while urging “a full and calm reading of the Declaration so as to better understand its meaning and purpose,” according to Vatican News.
“Fiducia Supplicans,” which was issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by Pope Francis on Dec. 18, permits priests to “bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”
The Vatican advised, however, that “one should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation.”
The guidance drew an adverse reaction from Catholic bishops, mainly in Africa and Eastern Europe.
Tomash Peta, who has served as metropolitan archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana since 2003, went so far as to publicly admonish the pontiff and prohibit any form of blessing for same-sex couples in churches under his authority.
In Kenya, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement explaining that the new guidance is “causing anxiety and even confusion among the Christians, and in general the people of God.” Continue reading…
