(LifeSiteNews) — The Society of St. Pius X’s (SSPX) superior general has strongly denounced the Vatican’s declaration allowing blessings for same-sex couples as “accelerat[ing] the loss of souls.”
Father Davide Pagliarani published a statement on Tuesday to make clear that despite the “convoluted language” of Fiducia Supplicans, which was issued on December 18 by Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the document effectively “reinforces” gravely sinful homosexual unions by teaching that a minister of the Church can “call down God’s blessing” upon them.
The document specifically allows “blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex,” who ask that “all that is true, good and humanly valuable in their lives and in their relationships be invested, healed and elevated by the presence of the Holy Ghost.”
Pagliarani pointed out that promoting the belief that such an inherently sinful union “could have any positive value is the worst kind of deception, and the most serious lack of charity towards these lost souls.”
He clarified that the Catholic Church “never refuses a blessing to sinners who legitimately ask for it,” but that such a blessing’s goal would only be to “help the soul to overcome sin in order to live in a state of grace.” Therefore, the Church can “bless any individual, even a pagan,” but never an inherently sinful union.
The blessing of a couple automatically signifies the blessing of the “relationship that unites them,” Pagliarani noted.
The consequences of blessing same-sex unions, according to Pagliarani, will inevitably be the “systematic acceptance” of morally sinful situations, despite Fiducia Supplicans’ purported attempt to avoid confusion between same-sex unions and marriage.
Such acceptance of serious sin stems from an ideology that “no longer believes in the power of grace and rejects the cross,” and “replaces true forgiveness and true mercy with a sadly impotent amnesty.”
This ideology “only accelerates the loss of souls and the destruction of Catholic morality,” wrote Pagliarani, noting that it aligns with prior claims of Pope Francis, who has suggested that not everyone is “capable” of certain moral behaviors.
Pagliarani added that such ideas also accord with “a naturalistic and defeatist spirit that loosely aligns itself with the spirit of the world, the enemy of God.”
The superior general invoked the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking that she “especially protect those most exposed to this chaos: children, now forced to grow up in a new Babylon, without reference points or a guide that reminds them of the moral law.”
Independent of Pagliarani’s own personally authored commentary, the SSPX issued a statement on Tuesday condemning Fiducia Supplicans as “scandalous.”