(LifeSiteNews) — A 2024 letter reportedly written by the head of Pope Francis’ Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, to German Bishop Stephan Ackermann reveals that the Vatican rejected the German bishops conference’s (DBK) proposed homosexual “blessings,” just months before the bishops published official guidelines for “blessings” of homosexual and other irregular “couples.”
In the November 2024 letter to Bishop Ackermann of Trier, which was made public by the DDF on May 4, Fernández said that the DBK’s proposed guidelines for the “blessing” of homosexual “couples” contradict the 2023 Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, which allows for the spontaneous, “non-liturgical blessing” of homosexuals.
Ackermann had forwarded a copy of the guidelines to Fernández on behalf of then-DBK president Georg Bätzing, according to the letter.
After “respectfully offering” his observations, Fernández closed the letter by stressing his “sentiments of distinguished esteem” towards the heterodox German prelate.
Just months after receiving the Vatican’s letter, the DBK published official guidelines for the “blessings” of homosexual “couples,” the divorced and civilly “remarried,” and other irregular unions, citing “the pastoral approach of the pontificate of Pope Francis.”
“The Declaration Fiducia supplicans states that: ‘The Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when this, in some way, could offer a form of moral legitimization to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice’ (n. 11, nor to those who claim ‘the legitimization of their own status, (cf. n. 31)‘” Fernández wrote.
“In the text of the Vademecum, however, there is mention of a union and an ‘official regulation,” on the part of pastors, of couples who are outside of marriage — with those pastors also becoming the object of a genuine ‘acclamation,’ a gesture that is normally part of the marriage ritual,” he added. “In this sense, the Vademecum effectively legitimizes the status of such couples, in a manner contrary to what is affirmed in Fiducia supplicans.”
Fernández told the German bishops that Fiducia Supplicans does not permit any type of liturgical blessing, saying that the DBK’s proposal would sow confusion among the faithful.
However, while Fiducia Supplicans may not allow for the formal, liturgical “blessing” of homosexual “couples,” numerous prominent Catholic prelates have condemned the document for even permitting the “blessing” of homosexual “couples” at all and have accused it of also causing confusion.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who served as the head of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith before Fernández, in a 2024 essay for First Things, urged Church leaders and the faithful to reject these “blessings” endorsed by Pope Francis because they contradict Catholic teaching and “lead to heresy.”
READ: Cardinal Müller: Fiducia Supplicans leads to ‘heresy,’ Catholics cannot accept it
“Fiducia Supplicans must be considered doctrinally problematic, for it contains a denial of Catholic doctrine,” the German prelate wrote.
Cardinal Müller warned that such a proposal is “contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church” and “logically leads to heresy.”
“This means that these pastoral blessings for irregular unions cannot be accepted by the Catholic faithful, and especially by those who, in assuming an ecclesiastical office, have taken the Profession of Faith and the Oath of Fidelity, which calls first of all for the preservation of the deposit of faith in its entirety,” he wrote.
In April 2025, just days after the death of Pope Francis, the DBK and the lay organization Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) announced that they had adopted the text of the guidelines during a joint conference.
The “blessings” are meant to be an offer for “divorced and remarried couples, couples of all [so-called] gender identities and sexual orientations, as well as couples who do not want to or cannot receive the sacrament of marriage for other reasons,” per the DBK.
The guidelines state that the “blessings” can be carried out by clerics as well as laypeople with an episcopal assignment. The ceremony for the “blessings” should be marked by “greater spontaneity and freedom with regard to the life situation of those who ask for the blessing.”
However, it’s worth noting that the document is not legally binding and merely represents “practical advice.” “For this reason, no approved liturgical celebrations and prayers are planned for the blessings,” the document states.
An October 2025 report revealed that the DDF did not approve these guidelines, despite claims made by German bishops that suggested it had.