VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Prominently pro-LGBT Father James Martin, SJ has become the first American cleric to publicly announce that he will offer blessings to same-sex couples, writing just minutes after the publication of Pope Francis’ document approving such blessings.
“Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions,” wrote Fr. Martin in a jubilant post on social media following the newly issued document from Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Bishop Strickland urges bishops to say ‘no’ to Francis’ ‘blessings’ of gay couples
Martin praised the text as a “major step forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ people and recognizes the deep desire in many Catholic same-sex couples for God’s presence in their loving relationships.”
VATICAN: Minutes after #PopeFrancis & Cdl. Fernández’s groundbreaking ruling permitting blessing of same-sex couples, @JamesMartinSJ says text is “marked shift” from 2021 ban on the same.
“Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions” https://t.co/WXMndHvWdg pic.twitter.com/pqizIuJl8A— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) December 18, 2023
Martin noted the document was “a marked shift from the conclusion ‘God does not and cannot bless sin’ from just two years ago” – words which were found in the CDF’s 2021 note banning same-sex blessings, issued under then-prefect Luis Cardinal Ladaria Ferrer, SJ.
Continuing, the notoriously heterodox Jesuit priest declared he would be offering blessings to people in same-sex unions, in what appears to be the first official announcement of such, by a member of the clergy, following the document’s publication:
The declaration opens the door to non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something that had been previously off limits for bishops, priests and deacons. Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions.
Shortly after, Martin doubled down on his intention, decrying attempts to downplay the import of the Vatican’s document: “It’s a significant change. In short, yesterday, as a priest, I was forbidden to bless same-sex couples at all. Today, with some limitations, I can.”
Re: Vatican declaration on same-sex blessings. Be wary of the “Nothing has changed” response to today’s news. It’s a significant change. In short, yesterday, as a priest, I was forbidden to bless same-sex couples at all. Today, with some limitations, I can.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) December 18, 2023
His first post on social media, welcoming the text, came just over 30 minutes after the document was emailed out to journalists accredited to the Holy See Press Office.
Titled “Fiducia Supplicans,” the document takes the form and weight of a “Declaration,” and is additionally entitled “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.”
READ: BREAKING: Pope Francis publishes norms for clergy to ‘bless’ homosexual couples
Drawn up by CDF prefect Cardinal Fernández, then reviewed and signed by Pope Francis, the document officially opens the door for Catholic clergy to provide blessings for same-sex couples.
While it states that marriage is between a man and woman only, and that nothing is allowed to be confused with that, the text nevertheless permits the blessings of those “in irregular situations and same-sex couples.”
According to Fernández, the document does this “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage,” despite the new prefect noting that the text’s “theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church.”
Fiducia Supplicans notes that a blessing “requires that what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, as expressed in the teachings of the Church.” It further notes how the Catholic Church “does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice.”
But in an apparent departure from those paragraphs, the text subsequently argues that “one must also avoid the risk of reducing the meaning of blessings to this point of view alone, for it would lead us to expect the same moral conditions for a simple blessing that are called for in the reception of the sacraments.”
Consequently, in paragraph 31 of the Fiducia Supplicans, Fernández writes that:
Within the horizon outlined here is the possibility of blessings of couples in irregular situations and of same-sex couples, the form of which should not find any ritual fixation on the part of ecclesial authorities, in order not to produce confusion with the blessing proper to the sacrament of marriage.
Indeed, while the question of same-sex blessings has been repeatedly raised in recent months – ever since Fernández was announced as the incoming prefect of the CDF – the cardinal stipulated in the text that the matter was to be deemed as closed.
“What has been said in this Declaration regarding the blessings of same-sex couples is sufficient to guide the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers in this regard,” he wrote. “Thus, beyond the guidance provided above, no further responses should be expected about possible ways to regulate details or practicalities regarding blessings of this type.”
The cardinal’s text, in its argument to ensure that any such blessings are not confused with sacramental marriage, outlines that:
- They are not “liturgical or semi-liturgical”
- That there should not be a “ritual” for such blessings, denoting a formulation
- They are not “performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding”
- They might, for example, take place during “a visit to a shrine, a meeting with a priest, a prayer recited in a group, or during a pilgrimage.”
Despite the new text, Catholic teaching is clear on the topic of same-sex blessings. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul states that homosexual actions are sinful, explaining that “neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers” will “inherit the kingdom of God.” According to his letter to the Romans, those who practice homosexuality will receive “in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”
Under the leadership of the late Cardinal Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) in 1986, the CDF issued a document instructing bishops on the pastoral care of homosexual persons. The CDF admonished bishops to ensure they, and any “pastoral programme” in the diocese, are “clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral.”
Such an authentic pastoral approach would “assist homosexual persons at all levels of the spiritual life: through the sacraments, and in particular through the frequent and sincere use of the sacrament of Reconciliation, through prayer, witness, counsel and individual care,” stated the CDF.