Criticism of ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ Continues

Two African cardinals have renewed their criticism of Pope Francis’ permission to bless people in same-gender relationships, and they hope that Pope Leo may revoke the document, Fiducia Supplicans, which established this accommodation. The Vatican, however, continues to affirm blessings and the pastoral welcome of LGBTQ+ Catholics. 

Cardinal Robert Sarah

Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu have both recently reaffirmed their condemnation of Fiducia supplicans, with Sarah calling the declaration “theologically weak and therefore unjustified,”, while Ambongo Besungu regards the declaration as “a mistake”  reports Katholisch.de.

In an interview, Cardinal Sarah, who is originally from the African nation of Guinea, but who has held positions at th Vatican, spoke of the fierce criticism that the document has garnered– especially among African Catholic bishops– and argued that a document that sparks such criticism is ultimately dangerous. “It endangers the unity of the Church,” he remarked. “It is a document that should be forgotten.”

In speaking of his expectations of Pope Leo, Sarah called for an overcoming of “ideological” thinking in the Church and condemned attempts to “deny the Church’s tradition in the name of unconditional openness and adaptation to the world and its criteria.”

In a similar way,

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu

, from the Congo, has argued that Fiducia supplicans has “caused great harm to the Catholic faithful and even beyond,” suggesting that the document has caused intense anger, division, and polarization. For Ambongo Besungu, the document was problematic for both its content and that it was released without ample discussion, making it what he called “a bad chapter” in Francis’s papacy. 

The Congolese cardinal previously published the African bishops’ 2024 statement declaring that they would reject  blessing people who are same-gender couples. Because Pope Francis did not object to their statement, the cardinal believes Pope Francis came to see the publication of Fiducia as a mistake. 

Pope Francis, however, never publicly changed his own stance on allowing blessings and  maintained his openness towards LGBTQ+ Catholics, encapsulated in his commitment to welcome “todos, todos, todos.” And although Sarah and Ambongo Besungu are not the only ones expressing hope that Pope Leo will have a different approach, it seems that so far, Leo is committed to following in Francis’s footsteps. 

In July, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith which issued Fiducia, declared that there under Pope Leo would be no changes to the document or the blessing practice. As reported in a previous Bondings 2.0 post, Leo’s only comments on the document thus far have been to voice disapproval of practices which “ritualize” blessings, which are not aligned with the parameters contained in the declaration. In an interview, Leo stated:

“In Northern Europe they are already publishing rituals of blessing ‘people who love one another’, is the way they express it, which goes specifically against the document that Pope Francis approved, Fiducia Supplicans, which basically says, of course we can bless all people, but it doesn’t look for a way of ritualizing some kind of blessing because that’s not what the Church teaches.”

The Church now waits in hopeful anticipation to see how this pastoral attitude will take shape in concrete action. 

—Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, September 27, 2025