(LifeSiteNews) — Bishops in the ecclesiastical province of Antilles and Guyana have issued their rejection of blessings for homosexual “couples” and couples in “irregular situations.”
Published January 21, the statement read that “in accordance with the fundamental principles of Fiducia Supplicans and in order to avoid any confusion,” priests could bless individuals but were forbidden from conferring blessings “in irregular situations or [on couples] of the same sex.”
Led by Archbishop David Macaire, the statement was signed by two other bishops of the province along with three vicar generals. Thus six dioceses were represented by name on the document.
An additional video statement issued by the ecclesiastical province featured Archbishop Gabriel Malzaire of the Archdiocese of Roseau, who noted that the Church could not offer blessings which would involve the “acceptance of a sinful situation.”
No clergy under his command were permitted to offer blessings “on any sinful union,” added Malzaire.
The written statement from the ecclesiastical province cited the “many” bishops’ conferences that had already taken a similar stance in opposing the blessing of homosexual couples.
READ: Pope Francis directly involved in Africa’s rejection of blessings for homosexual ‘couples’
Opposition to Fiducia Supplicans has now grown to the extent that several prominent cardinals have condemned the document, and the president of the bishops’ conferences in Africa flew to Rome to inform the Pope that the continent would not be offering same-sex couple blessings.
READ: FULL LIST – Where do bishops stand on blessings for homosexual couples?
While, perhaps unsurprisingly, close aides of the Pope have supported the controversial text, other members of the Roman Curia have highlighted the debilitating effect the text has had on ecumenical relations.
Leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as well as from the Russian Orthodox Church, have noted their opposition to the text and observed that offering blessings to homosexual couples risks condoning their lifestyle.
Writing in early January, Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Guinean prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship, stated that opposition to Fiducia Supplicans is not an opposition to Pope Francis. Instead it is a move “firmly and radically opposing a heresy that seriously undermines the Church, the Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and Tradition,” Sarah asserted.