(LifeSiteNews) — One of the world’s most famous soccer players and his civilly married wife have received a religious blessing following their wedding ceremony under the new norms set by Fiducia Supplicans.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and model Georgina Rodríguez, his long-term partner, were married civilly on August 11 at their home before travelling to Fatima, Portugal. There, a priest reportedly blessed them and their children as a family. They later attended Mass at the Marian shrine. The blessing appears to have been given as an application of Pope Francis’ 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans, which provides for “the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations.”
Ronaldo’s first stop after getting Married? The Virgin Mary.
Cristiano Ronaldo visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima after their wedding and receiving a priestly blessing. pic.twitter.com/RNR5ErgIB8
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Ronaldo’s management confirmed his civil marriage in comments to Reuters on August 12. According to Spanish Catholic outlet Vida Nueva Digital, the ceremony was held privately in the living room of the couple’s residence in Cascais, Portugal.
After the civil ceremony, the family travelled to Fatima where a priest gave the couple a blessing at the sanctuary, in the Chapel of Nossa Senhora das Dores, located within the shrine complex.
Under the prescriptions of Fiducia supplicans, “couples in irregular situations,” including “same-sex couples,” may receive a “blessing.”
The document and subsequent Vatican statements specify that such blessings must not resemble any “liturgical rite” and must not be confused with the “[r]ite that is proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.”
While no express reason for declining to have a Catholic wedding has been publicized, in comments to British VOGUE magazine, Rodríguez revealed that the couple wished for “something intimate” and “to do it in the living room of our house … where we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and where we live the reality of our lives.” She added that, “In the future we will have a big wedding, so we can celebrate with family and friends,” but did not specify that there would be a Catholic ceremony.
Rodríguez later described the civil marriage as “exactly as I had imagined” and said the five children they raise together were “the protagonists, as they are in our day-to-day life.”
Rodríguez is the biological mother of Alana Martina (9) and Bella Esmeralda (4). The mother of Ronaldo’s eldest son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. (16), has not been publicly disclosed. The twins Eva María and Mateo (9) were born through surrogacy. Also in this case, the identity of the surrogate mothers is unknown. Vida Nueva Digital described Ronaldo as an “apostle of surrogacy.”
Ronaldo publicly identifies as Catholic. In a 2018 interview with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, he said: “I go to church every week. Every week. I am Catholic and I go to thank God for what He gives me. I don’t ask for anything – thank God I have everything – I simply thank Him for protecting my family and friends. I change church every week because in Turin you can choose, there are many.”
Rodríguez has publicly expressed a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, previously displaying that devotion on social media and at a 2025 fashion event in New York.
Ronaldo, 41, has been in a relationship with Rodríguez since 2016 and is one of football’s most decorated players, having played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. He has won the Ballon d’Or, an annual title awarded to the world’s top soccer player, five times.
The Catholic Church does not recognize civil divorce and marriages of Catholics outside of the Church. Catholic tradition holds that marriage is a covenant which cannot be dissolved, since it is a vow made before God and the Church, and ends only at the death of one of the spouses.
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When a baptized person marries outside the Church without canonical form, the union is considered invalid. If one or both spouses were previously married sacramentally, entering a new civil union constitutes a state of adultery, since the first bond remains valid until death.
The Church also condemns surrogacy because it separates procreation from the conjugal act and treats the child as an economic product rather than the fruit of mutual self-giving. Surrogacy violates the dignity of both the woman who carries the child and the child himself, who has the right to be conceived, carried, and raised within the unity of a stable marriage. For this reason, Catholic moral teaching regards it as gravely immoral, even when motivated by compassion or a strong desire for parenthood.