VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has stated that outrage over Fiducia Supplicans is “hypocrisy,” adding that he does not bless homosexual “marriage” but “two people who love each other.”
The Pontiff made the remarks in an interview he gave to the weekly Italian journal Credere, which is due to be released February 8, but a preview of which was issued to the press today.
Speaking to Credere’s editor, Father Vincenzo Vitale, Pope Francis gave his thoughts on a number of topics including Fiducia Supplicans and blessings of homosexual couples, the role of women in the Church, and a Church which is “close” to people.
Asked about the controversial document, Pope Francis replied: “I do not bless a ‘homosexual marriage,’ I bless two people who love each other and I also ask them to pray for me.”
“No one is shocked if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who maybe exploits people, and that is a very serious sin,” he said. “Whereas they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual… This is hypocrisy! The heart of the document is welcome.”
NEW: #PopeFrancis in intvw being released Feb 8:
No one is shocked if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who maybe exploits people: & that is a very serious sin. Whereas they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual..This is hypocrisy! The heart of the document is welcome pic.twitter.com/eWkPqWF3YR— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) February 7, 2024
Prior to these lines – as revealed in more extensive comments from the interview released by Vatican News – Francis stated, “Always in confessions, when these situations arrive, homosexual people, remarried people, I always pray and bless. The blessing should not be denied to anyone. Everyone, everyone, everyone.”
“Be careful,” he continued. “I’m talking about people: those who are capable of receiving Baptism. The most serious sins are those that disguise thmselves with a more ‘angelic’ appearance.”
Francis’ answer to Credere also appears to misrepresent both Fiducia Supplicans and the opposition which it has received. In the preview of his answers provided to the press, the Pope presents a scenario of blessing an individual on his own, whilst Fiducia Supplicans expressly speaks about the blessing of “couples.”
His complaint has already been swiftly criticized by clergy and lay commentators as being a “straw man” argument, for he was defending a form of blessing – of an individual on his own – which no one was opposing.
Authored by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fiducia Supplicans states in section 31 that “within the horizon outlined here is the possibility of blessings of couples in irregular situations and of same-sex couples.”
Fernández outlined that such blessings should not imitate or be confused with marriage. He also added that there should not be an expectation of “the same moral conditions for a simple blessing that are called for in the reception of the sacraments.”
The widespread opposition to Fiducia Supplicans has spread throughout the Church to all corners of the globe, as clerics of all ranks refused to implement the blessings of homosexual couples proposed in the text which the Pope approved.
READ: FULL LIST – Where do bishops stand on blessings for homosexual couples?
In recent weeks, both Fernández and Francis have attempted to calm the waters by arguing that the the proposed blessings are not of the union of two people, but of the two people themselves who make the request together. Francis stated to the CDF assembly in late January:
I would like to emphasize briefly two things: the first is that these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, do not require moral perfection to be received; the second, that when a couple spontaneously approaches to ask for them, one does not bless the union, but simply the people who together made the request.
Not the union, but the people — of course taking into account the context, the sensitivities, the places where people live and the most appropriate ways to do it.
The then-CDF’s 2021 note which ruled out the possibility of blessings “unions of persons of the same-sex,” stated that blessings could be provided to individuals who came alone, seeking a blessing.
Written by former CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria, S.J., the note read that:
The answer to the proposed dubium does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching. Rather, it declares illicit any form of blessing that tends to acknowledge their unions as such.
In this case, in fact, the blessing would manifest not the intention to entrust such individual persons to the protection and help of God, in the sense mentioned above, but to approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” The catechism is very clear that homosexual activity can never be approved, and repeats that “[h]omosexual persons are called to chastity.”
LifeSiteNews will provide further coverage of the Pope’s extended comments upon their release.