MALAGA, Spain (LifeSiteNews) — A bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV said that being homosexual “is not a sin,” supported blessings for same-sex “couples,” and called for expanded governing roles for women in the Church.
On February 15, in the local newspaper Málaga Hoy, Bishop José Antonio Satué addressed questions concerning homosexuality and same-sex blessings. He also outlined his position on the implementation of the Vatican declaration Fiducia supplicans, as well as the participation of women in positions of responsibility within diocesan and Roman structures.
“Being homosexual is not a sin. Indeed, it is not,” Satué stated. “The blessing of people who have a same‑sex relationship project is, in my view, a step forward,” adding that “we will have to find a way to better incorporate this undeniable reality into our pastoral practice.”
Speaking about the participation of women in positions of responsibility, Satué said that priestly ordination “is a door that, as of today, remains closed” for women and “it is not a possibility in the near future.” However, the unchanging teaching of the Church is that it is always impossible for women to become priests.
The bishop insisted that a prior challenge lies in ensuring that women take part “in everything in which it is possible for them to participate.” He noted that it is still unusual for women to head Vatican dicasteries and argued that this reality “must be normalized” at the level of public opinion. He also called for a greater presence of women in positions of responsibility within dioceses.
READ: Newly appointed Spanish bishop on record supporting homosexual ‘blessings’
According to the Spanish bishop, “we are not living in an era of change, but in a change of era.” For this reason, the Church has the duty “to remain attentive to new cultural categories and ways of life in which the Gospel must take shape.”
Satué’s statement that “being homosexual is not a sin” can be considered technically correct only if understood in light of the classical distinction between inclination and acts. Catholic moral tradition teaches that the homosexual tendency, while objectively disordered, is not sinful in itself, whereas homosexual acts are always morally disordered and gravely sinful insofar as they are voluntary.
The formulation used by the bishop, however, does not make this distinction explicit, as it can be understood as a denial of the intrinsically illicit nature of homosexual acts. This ambiguity appears particularly significant in the context of his statements in favor of blessing same‑sex “couples” as envisioned by the document Fiducia supplicans, since the blessing of a couple necessarily implies a positive reference to the relationship itself, which by its nature is also expressed in the sexual dimension.
On December 29, 2023, while serving as bishop of Teruel and Albarracín, Satué publicly endorsed the pastoral approach of Fiducia supplicans. “The possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same‑sex couples,” Satué said on that occasion, “expresses the merciful embrace of God and the motherhood of the Church.”
In Fiducia supplicans, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said that non-liturgical blessings may be imparted to couples in irregular situations, including same-sex “couples,” sparking wide debate within the conservative Catholic world and beyond, particularly among the African bishops.
Satué’s interview in support of a greater governing role for women, published on February 15, comes almost in parallel with the remarks of the modernist Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who defended Pope Francis’s decision to appoint women to several key positions within the Curia and Vatican governance, arguing that the traditional understanding of power of orders as “qualifying” for the power of governance should be complemented by a new (though not clearly defined) notion of “charismatic power.”