BLESSING SAME-SEX COUPLES

LINGAYEN-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the Fiducia Supplicans approved by Pope Francis on Dec. 18 is clearly an indication that the Catholic Church is open to “blessing couples in irregular situations and same sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage”.

Villegas, who issued on December 19 an episcopal guidance for the implementation of the Vatican declaration ‘Fiducia Supplicans’, said the Vatican allows Catholic priests to bless Catholic couples in irregular situations including cohabitating relationships, non-sacramental civil marriages, divorced and remarried unions, polygamous bonds, and same-sex unions.

Villegas said Fiducia Supplicans distinguishes two kinds of blessings, liturgical or ritual blessings, which are the official blessings of the Catholic Church, and spontaneous blessings, which are the informal words of blessing chosen by a priest at the request of the faithful. “It then affirms that the former can never be used to bless couples in irregular situations, while the latter may be used if the couple humbly approaches the priest seeking God’s mercy,” his guidance said.

Villegas asked, “But what exactly does it mean to say that a Catholic priest blesses a couple in a cohabitating relationship or a polygamous bond or a same-sex union? And for the priest, what words should he use if he is asked to bless a couple in these irregular situations, especially since Fiducia Supplicans leaves the words of the blessing itself to the discretion of the priest?”

He explained that a blessing is an invocation to God, a request to God — to exercise His power on a person or a thing. “Human beings cannot bless. Only God can. Catholics ask God for blessings to do one or two things.: first, to dispel the evil that may be in a person or a thing… this is a blessing of exorcism,” he said.

Or, to ask God to make a person or a thing holy… “a blessing of sanctification.” This happens when a a priest blesses a newly-married couple during their wedding rite,” he added.

He said Fiducia supplicans adds a third category of blessing, a “blessing of mercy” and clarified: ”When a Catholic priest prays a blessing of mercy on a couple in an irregular situation, who “desire to entrust themselves to the Lord and his mercy, to invoke his help, and to be guided to a greater understanding of his plan of love and of truth” (no. 30), he is asking God to have pity on both of them and to give them the grace of conversion so that they can regularize their relationships.”

He said that priests who are invited to bless couples in irregular situations should choose the appropriate words to reveal this intent of the Church. (Eva Visperas)

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