Chaldean Patriarch Announces Rejection of “Fiducia Supplicans”; And Related News

Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako

Nearly eight months after the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans was released, the leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church has issued his rejection of the declaration which allows individuals in same-gender relationships to be blessed. Today’s post includes this news and some recent commentaries on the declaration.

Chaldean Patriarch Announces Opposition to Fiducia Supplicans

Blessing people in same-gender couples was a topic of discussion at the Chaldean Church’s governing Synod met in late July where .  Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, the patriarch of the church, which is an Eastern Catholic church in union with the Roman Pontiff, issued a brief statement on behalf of the church whose members are located mostly in the Middle East, and specifically in Iraq. Sako rejected the legitimacy of same-gender marriages and reaffirmed church teachings. He then said later, per Zenit:

“For us Chaldean Catholics, the blessing of a marriage is a sacrament, not merely a blessing. We cannot confer this sacrament on LGBT individuals. However, if an individual requests a prayer, we are willing to offer it, as we do for any person.”

The Chaldean Church is one of 23 Eastern Catholic rites which are in communion with Rome, but operate somewhat independently in terms of governance and law. Previously, leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey, have also rejected Fiducia Supplicans by arguing it is not applicable to Eastern churches because their understanding of what blessings mean differs from the Latin Rite.

Will Blessings for Queer Couples Lead to Assimilation?

In U.S. Catholic, artist and writer Dani Jiménez expressed concern that, while blessings for LGBTQ+ couples were good, they also could be pathways to queer assimilation. Jiménez, who lives in Costa Rica, tells of her childhood dreams about marrying in a beautiful church nearby, dreams which included everything except a husband. This telling omission helped her realize she was lesbian “and a hopeless romantic at heart who, admittedly, still dreams of a wedding.”

Yet, even while understanding her own possible marriage as a moment of commitment before God, Jiménez questions marriage more broadly as “an institution of exclusion” which through history functions to “decide which relationships are clean and respectable.” She is “beyond happy for my queer Catholic siblings who find comfort and solace in getting blessed as a couple,” yet likewise worries about “dangerous” assimilation.

Jiménez draws from church history to explain her concerns because, in her reading, “the idol of the ‘respectable heterosexual marriage’ is antithetical to the early church,” which saw praise for virgin martyrs, monasticism, and chastity that defied Greco-Roman ideals. From this, she comments on the post-Fiducia Supplicans path for blessings and marriage:

“Queer people should not be expected to forsake their queerness to assimilate into society. If we are, then we are not given the same grace as cis and heterosexual people; instead we are forced into the expectation that we must be perfect to be palatable. We must exist within the confines of what they believe a ‘good queer’ is.

“I may dream of a monogamous marriage, and because of that I am knowingly assimilating. Assimilation as a universal fate for queer people worries me, though. Because to be accepted into respectable society is a double-edged sword. Once you start assimilating, you start losing solidarity. You begin to accept a system that might be violent against people. The way toward heaven is not through worldly or arbitrary institutions we build as mortals. Blessings are for everyone.”

What the Declaration Means to U.S. Catholic Writers

Finally, also in U.S. Catholic, John Kyler reported on the results he gathered after asking some 200 of the publication’s contributors to weigh in on Fiducia Supplicans.

Asked what her thoughts were, Bondings 2.0 contributor Allison Connelly-Vetter told Kyler:

“While I am grateful for an acknowledgment that LGBTQ couples have a relationship worthy of blessing and deserving of the grace of God a blessing contains, I am disappointed at the explicitness with which this declaration reifies the definition of sacramental marriage as between one man and one woman. To me, this declaration is one step forward and two steps back in the journey toward a safe and affirming home for LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church.”

Survey respondents were also asked what blessing they might offer an LGBTQ+ couple. Fr. Kenneth McIntosh, an author on Celtic spirituality which strongly emphasizes blessings, suggested these words:

“May the delight and presence of God your Maker, Redeemer, and Guide be upon each moment and each element of your life together. May you love one another as Christ has loved you. May you forgive one another as needed, uphold one another in hardship, and may you bless together any children you may have, and all within your circle of influence. Your love for one another is holy, and pleasing to God, and honorable for all. May the Living One smile upon you both and grant you peace.”

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 26, 2024