Last updated on March 25th, 2021 at 01:34 pm
In a sharp rebuke to heterodox theologians, bishops, and priests, on March 15 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the assent of Pope Francis, ruled that the Catholic Church “does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex….”
In recent years, certain leftwing Catholics both within and outside of the Church hierarchy, especially in Germany, Latin America, and the United States have been advocating for the blessing of same-sex civil unions and marriages. A question (or “dubium” in Church terminology) was submitted to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as to whether such a practice can be permitted in the Catholic Church. Using unequivocal language, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith held that God “does not and cannot bless sin”; as a result, “it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involved sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and women open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”
This ruling is an especially strong rebuke to leftwing ecclesiastical leaders in Germany, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz, who had been calling for the blessing of same-sex unions. Likewise, the ruling is a blow to American Jesuit priest James Martin, an outspoken radical supporter of changing Church teaching on homosexuality.
Significantly, the ruling stymied the hopes of those who believed that Pope Francis’s recent statements allegedly supporting same-sex unions would lead to a transformation of Church teaching on this issue. In the end, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pope Francis decided to uphold over 2,000 years of Church doctrine and remain a bulwark of truth against the ways of the world.