(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Marian Eleganti has responded to the Vatican declaration Fiducia supplicans by explaining the reasons why same-sex couples cannot be blessed.
“The so-called magisterium of Francis, which is presented as something new and unprecedented in contrast to tradition, is a nonsensical conceptual neologism by Cardinal Fernandez, because popes, like bishops, are guardians of the Church’s teaching and its unbroken tradition,” Eleganti wrote in an essay published by kath.net.
“Truths are eternal and do not change with the spirit of the age. In other words, popes and bishops do not bring anything of their own, but interpret the constant faith of the Church along the lines of tradition without breaking with it.”
“It therefore remains the case that a sinful practice and union cannot be blessed because it contradicts the order of creation and the will of God, and in such a case, the blessing can neither be fruitfully given nor received (cf. the justification in the Responsum ad dubium of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the blessing of unions of persons of the same sex from 2021 under Card. Ladaria).”
“The Church has always taught this,” the former auxiliary bishop of Chur stated.
Eleganti explained that a blessing is a sacramental and is therefore only valid if the recipient and the administrator have the proper disposition. It differs from the seven sacraments, which are always valid independent of one’s inner beliefs.
“Blessings without the right inner disposition of the administrator and the recipient are ineffective because blessings do not work ex opere operato (from the work performed) like the sacraments,” the Swiss bishop said.
“They are sacramentals. There is no new, expanded understanding in this regard, only false assertions. In the traditional understanding, there is no first-class (liturgical) and second-class (spontaneous) blessing by priests.”
“However, if the right inner disposition is given in our context, then these people try to repent, to give up an objectively sinful practice (concubinage and sexual interaction) and to correct it,” he continued.
“For this, they can receive the blessing for growth in grace and for the success of their moral efforts and their next steps in the good direction, but not as a couple because of the misunderstanding and impossibility of such a blessing.”
“‘May the LORD grant you right understanding, strengthen you in the good, and strengthen you in your decision to keep His commandments. May He accompany you in your repentance with His grace!’ Anything that goes beyond that is sophistry and does not adhere to the teachings of the Church but undermines them,” Eleganti stated.
“This is about theology, not psychology. The Church cannot contradict itself through the ages but grows in its understanding of revelation. The negative evaluation of homosexuality belongs to the latter.”
READ: Swiss bishops welcome Pope Francis’ approval of ‘blessings’ for homosexual couples
Eleganti also addressed the semantic distinction drawn between the “blessing” of a “couple” and a “union.”
“Individuals could always be blessed if their inner disposition was appropriate,” he said. “Since, according to ‘Fiducia supplicans,’ homosexual unions or concubinages (so-called irregular relationships) cannot be blessed liturgically in order not to confuse them with marriage or cause confusion with regard to their unchanged evaluation [of the sinfulness of homosexual acts], it logically follows that such couples should not be blessed at all, not even with a kind of downgraded blessing according to ‘extended understanding.’”
“You cannot bless a couple but not bless their union, bless a couple but not ‘convalidate’ their objectively sinful lifestyle (cf. FS), as is attempted.”
“These are moves that never work in practice. The opposite will be the case. The press has already issued the corresponding bold headlines. They show how the matter is being received at the grassroots level.”
Eleganti also addressed the constant attempt by the current magisterium to divorce the orthodox teaching from the sinful “lived experience” in practice.
“Every action is imbued with theory,” the Swiss prelate wrote. “Orthodoxy and orthopraxy therefore must not be placed in an opposing or contradictory position to one another, as has been done constantly since the Council and in this pontificate.”
“As if a contradiction to doctrine in pastoral practice (2 plus 2 equals 5) were justified, even necessary, because the reality (of life) supposedly stands above the idea (doctrine) (a nonsensical principle, because ideas change reality, are translated into action, have often proved revolutionary by overturning the so-called reality of life; ideas belong to reality and are highly effective in practice; no action without theory).”
“Orthodoxy and orthopraxy are congruent, or they do not deserve their name. They do not cancel each other out,” he continued. “Where they do the latter, we have arrived at heresy and schism in the Church, at its self-dissolution through practice. This is neither a reform nor a blessing.”
While Eleganti spoke out against the heterodox Vatican document, the Swiss bishops conference welcomed the new declaration that allows the “blessing” of same-sex couples in certain situations.
“The decision [by the Vatican] is in line with the Swiss bishops’ desire for an open Church that takes people in different relationship situations seriously, respects and accompanies them,” the Swiss Bishop Conference’s December 19 statement reads. The heads of the German and Austrian Bishops’ Conferences also welcomed and praised Fiducia supplicans.
However, the bishops of Malawi have officially declared that no blessing of any kind can be given for same-sex unions of any kind in that country. Bishops in Kazakhstan have stated that blessings may not be performed over “couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples.”
READ: Archbishop Peta, Bishop Schneider ban ‘blessings’ of homosexual couples in Kazakhstan archdiocese