ASTANA, Kazakhstan (LifeSiteNews) — The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, in conjunction with Saint Mary’s Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, have banned priests in the archdiocese from accepting or allowing any forms of “blessings” for “irregular” or homosexual couples.
“We exhort and prohibit priests and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana from accepting or performing any form of blessing whatsoever of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples,” they wrote in a statement released today.
“Such a blessing, directly and seriously contradicts Divine Revelation and the uninterrupted, bi-millennial doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church,” they added. “With such blessings, the Catholic Church becomes, if not in theory, then in practice, a propagandist of the globalist and ungodly ‘gender ideology.’”
Their statement, which can be read in full below, comes in response to Pope Francis’ heterodox document Fiducia supplicans, which was released on Monday, December 18. The document claims that priests may impart “spontaneous” blessings on “irregular” and homosexual “couples” in certain non-liturgical settings. It further maintains that such a “blessing” does not in any way “officially validat[e] their status” or alter the Church’s doctrinal teachings on sexuality and marriage.
Archbishop Tomas Peta was appointed Metropolitan of the Saint Mary Archdiocese in 2003 by John Paul II. Bishop Schneider was named an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese in 2011. In their document, Peta and Schneider state that there is “great deception and … evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples.”
“To bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples is a serious abuse of the most Holy Name of God,” they explain, “since this name is invoked upon an objectively sinful union of adultery or of homosexual activity.”
Supporters of Fiducia supplicans have argued that the mainstream media has blown out of proportion what it actually permits. Many argue that it has been misread (or not read it at all) and that its critics are glossing over how it speaks of blessings for individuals trying to live holier lives. An accurate reading of the document, however, clearly shows that it calls for “the possibility of blessings of couples in irregular situations and of same-sex couples.” Archbishop Peta and Bishop Schneider did not fail to notice this fact.
“None, not even the most beautiful, of the statements contained in this Declaration of the Holy See, can minimize the far-reaching and destructive consequences resulting from this effort to legitimize such blessings,” they say. Only a “sincerely repentant sinner with the firm intention to no longer sin and to put an end to his public sinful situation (such as, e.g., cohabitation outside of a canonically valid marriage, union between people of the same sex) can receive a blessing.”
Peta and Schneider concluded their statement by calling on Francis to recant the permission Fiducia supplicans grants to priests.
“With sincere brotherly love, and with due respect, we address Pope Francis, who – by allowing the blessing of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples – “does not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel” (see Gal. 2:14), to borrow the words with which Saint Paul the Apostle publicly admonished the first Pope in Antioch,” they state.
“Therefore, in the spirit of episcopal collegiality, we ask Pope Francis to revoke the permission to bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples, so that the Catholic Church may shine clearly as the ‘pillar and ground of the truth’ (1 Tim 3:15) for all those who sincerely seek to know the will of God and, by fulfilling it, to attain eternal life.”
Read the full-text of the statement of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana below:
Statement of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana regarding the Declaration Fiducia supplicans, published by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of Faith and approved by Pope Francis on December 18, 2023
The manifest purpose of the Declaration of the Holy See, Fiducia supplicans, is to allow “the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples”. At the same time, the document insists that such blessings are performed “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage”.
The fact that the document does not give permission for the “marriage” of same-sex couples should not blind pastors and faithful to the great deception and the evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples. Such a blessing directly and seriously contradicts Divine Revelation and the uninterrupted, bimillennial doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church. To bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples is a serious abuse of the most Holy Name of God, since this name is invoked upon an objectively sinful union of adultery or of homosexual activity.
Therefore, none, not even the most beautiful, of the statements contained in this Declaration of the Holy See, can minimize the far-reaching and destructive consequences resulting from this effort to legitimize such blessings. With such blessings, the Catholic Church becomes, if not in theory, then in practice, a propagandist of the globalist and ungodly “gender ideology”.
As successors of the Apostles, and faithful to our solemn oath on the occasion of our episcopal consecration “to preserve the deposit of faith in purity and integrity, according to the tradition always and everywhere observed in the Church since the time of the Apostles”, we exhort and prohibit priests and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana from accepting or performing any form of blessing whatsoever of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples. It goes without saying that every sincerely repentant sinner with the firm intention to no longer sin and to put an end to his public sinful situation (such as, e.g., cohabitation outside of a canonically valid marriage, union between people of the same sex) can receive a blessing.
With sincere brotherly love, and with due respect, we address Pope Francis, who – by allowing the blessing of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples – “does not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel” (see Gal. 2:14), to borrow the words with which Saint Paul the Apostle publicly admonished the first Pope in Antioch. Therefore, in the spirit of episcopal collegiality, we ask Pope Francis to revoke the permission to bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples, so that the Catholic Church may shine clearly as the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15) for all those who sincerely seek to know the will of God and, by fulfilling it, to attain eternal life.
Astana, 19 December 2023
+ Tomash Peta, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana