Pope Francis: Condemning LGBTQ+ Blessings While Ignoring Real Injustice Is Hypocrisy

In his latest remarks about blessing same-gender couples, Pope Francis criticized as hypocrites those faithful who seem to negatively obsess about LGBTQ+ people, while ignoring the world’s real injustices. Today’s post includes this news and more updates on the reception of Fiducia Supplicans that remains ongoing.

Pope Emphasizes Blessings Are About Welcome

Pope Francis’ latest intervention on Fiducia Supplicans was made in an interview with the Italian magazine Credere. The English edition of Vatican News reported the following on the interview:

“‘I do not bless a “homosexual marriage”; I bless two people who love each other, and I also ask them to pray for me,’ the Pope explained in his conversation with Credere‘s editor Don Vincenzo Vitale.

“‘Always in confessions, when these situations arrive—homosexual people, remarried people—I always pray and bless. The blessing is not to be denied to anyone. Everyone, everyone. Mind you, I am talking about people: those who are capable of receiving Baptism.’

“‘The gravest sins,’ the Pope adds, ‘are those that disguise themselves with a more “angelic” appearance. No one is scandalised if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and this is a very serious sin. Whereas they are scandalised if I give it to a homosexual… This is hypocrisy! We must all respect each other. Everyone! The heart of the document is welcome.'”

This interview is the third time Francis has defended blessing same-gender couples, all in 2024, having remained quiet in the weeks immediately after the Vatican declaration was released this past December. In January, he said that while African Catholics who opposed the decision were a “special case,” most of the world’s faithful would “gradually” accept such blessings. He also objected to some Catholics’ suggestion “moral perfection” is needed before a person or couple is blessed. In each instance, the pope reiterated that blessing same-gender couples is not equivalent to recognizing same-gender marriage.

Southern African Bishops to Permit Blessings

Breaking from the larger network of African episcopal conferences, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) issued a statement after its plenary meeting in January in which the bishops endorsed Fiducia Supplicans. The bishops, who hail from South Africa, Botswana, and Eswatini, focused primarily on the theme of synodality, but they also stated:

“Regarding the Vatican document on blessings of persons in irregular unions Fiducia Supplicans, the bishops agreed that the stipulations of the Declaration be implemented with prudence.”

SACBC’s members join their counterparts in North Africa in rejecting the ban on blessing such couples imposed by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), of which the Southern African bishops are members. Cardinal Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, SACBC’s spokesperson, acknowledged this break in a press conference, saying bishops in Southern African have “taken a slightly different stand from the rest of Africa.” America reported further:

“Cardinal Brislin said, ‘Each bishop has to assess the particular needs of his own diocese and the particular impact this would have. And we in South Africa felt that obviously, it is up to each local bishop but that we would implement the document and its recommendations with blessings, prudently.’

“The cardinal added that the Southern African bishops’ conference position is ‘certainly not a criticism of [other African bishops], as they must just see and assess their own particular situations.’ He said that the other African bishops ‘are fully entitled to do that as they are looking at their own particular situations and their own particular pastoral concerns.'”

Brislin added that it is not exclusively people in “irregular” situations who must be examined, but “it is actually a challenge to all of us that we make sure that we do live chaste lives.”

Examining the Controversy in Africa

The debate over Fiducia Supplicans in Africa has been particularly intense, with some national episcopal conferences rushing to issue stark bans in sometimes dehumanizing language. Fr. Russell Pollitt, SJ, of South Africa explained this debate as reflecting “the vast cultural and religious diversity of Africa, suggesting that for the continent there will be no one ‘African position'” on the declaration. Fr. Peter Knox, another Jesuit in that country, wrote in Outreach:

“One can only wonder why the SECAM statement very clearly omitted the positions of the bishops in northern and southern Africa. . .The anomaly highlights that nobody, no matter how well intentioned, should presume to speak on behalf of the entire continent approaching 1.5 billion people.”

The rejection of the Vatican’s blessings declaration by many African prelates has prompted several other commentaries, often looking towards the larger implications of African Catholics’ growing numbers coupled with the continent’s largely LGBTQ-negative cultures. According to La Croix International, one Vatican official described SECAM’s response as a “clear act of rebellion.” That report continued:

“‘We knew very well what the Africans were thinking,’ explained the same Vatican source. ‘They told the Synod two months beforehand, in no uncertain terms.’

“Indeed the issue of homosexuality was one of the most hotly debated topics last October . . .On several occasions during this closed-door summit, the African representatives stated that it was out of the question for them to bless homosexual couples.

“They also complained about ‘pressure’ from major international organizations in the West that make the decriminalization of homosexuality — still illegal in over 30 countries on the African continent — a condition for receiving aid. The African bishops had also obtained the removal of the acronym ‘LGBT’ from the Synod’s final report.

“‘Speech has clearly been liberated. They dare to express their differences,’ said a Holy See diplomat based in Rome.”

Isabelle de Gaulmyn of the French newspaper La Croix noted that the shifting dynamic in the church is, in part, due to grappling with the legacy of Western colonization in Africa. The Synod on Synodality has, as referenced above, been a moment for Catholics to grapple with this legacy and forms of “neocolonialism” present today. De Gaulmyn argues that finding a synodal path forward will involve dealing with both the legitimate concerns of African Catholics and the failing record of the continent’s prelates to uphold LGBTQ+ human rights. She writes, in part:

“Homosexuality is universal, not cultural. But the recognition of homosexual couples in societies is not. On the other hand, if the dignity of the human person, of every person, is one of the fundamentals of Catholicism, the African bishops should fight against the criminalization of homosexuality and for the rights of homosexuals on their continent. This is far from the case right now.

“We must also note that the Vatican document goes beyond same-sex couples and takes into account a wide variety of couples who are in so-called ‘irregular situations’ (remarried divorces, unmarried people who are cohabitating, and so forth). It offers an attitude of welcome which is meant also for Africa. Finally, there is an urgent need for theologians from the West to address the issue of ‘neocolonialism’ in the Church, by working with African theologians who have already been studying this. It is only by working together that we will succeed, in the Church as elsewhere, in universalizing universalism.”

Other Bishops’ Responses, Alphabetically by Country

Argentina: Responding to Fiducia Supplicans,Archbishop Emeritus Hector Aguer of La Plata criticized fellow Argentine prelates, Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which released Fiducia Supplicans, as well as Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna. In a statement, Aguer suggested that being LGBTQ-inclusive has led to European Catholicism’s alleged demise while spurring African Catholicism’s growth.

Belarus: The Conference of Catholic Bishops in Belarus announced that the nation’s episcopate “does not intend to put into practice the possibility of blessing couples living in an irregular union and same-sex couples proposed by the Declaration,” adding that clergy should bless “all persons who ask for it” but doing so for people in same-gender relationships or civil marriages “may be perceived by other believers as consent to sin.”

United States: A report in UCA News highlighted the ongoing reception of Fiducia Supplicans by the U.S. episcopate. Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, wrote a January letter that was largely negative about LGBTQ+ people, suggesting, “Offering someone a blessing or not does not truly get to the heart of the matter at hand,” which is to ensure people live according to church teaching and not “in irregular/sinful relationships.”

Likewise, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas wrote in mid-January said that he found “the secular media’s description of the document was incorrect,” and that the blessings declaration “proposes has been common Catholic pastoral practice.” Naumann objected to the use of “couples” in the document which “appears to embrace what radical gay activists have been seeking,” and encouraged LGBTQ+ people to participate in two programs which are reputed to promote ex-gay conversion therapy.

Bishop Robert Pipta of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, wrote a letter in January that claimed some people “may seek a blessing not for growth in holiness but to affirm an attempted deviation from the Church in its teaching on same-sex relationships.” While not issuing a ban on blessings, Pipta strongly urged clergy to refrain from any acts that could lead people to doubt church teaching on marriage.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, February 9, 2024