(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, has welcomed Pope Francis’ declaration opening up blessings for homosexual “couples.”
In a statement to the winter session of the conference’s Permanent Episcopal Council on Monday, Zuppi stated that he has “accepted the Declaration of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, Fiducia Supplicans,” penned by the dicastery’s Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández and authorized by Pope Francis on December 16, 2023, which permits priests to bless individuals in “irregular” or homosexual “unions.”
Describing the document as never “derogating from the teachings of the Magisterium,” the cardinal remarked that Fiducia Supplicans is “placed within the horizon of mercy, of the loving gaze of the Church on all the children of God.” Zuppi quoted Florentine Cardinal Giuseppe Betori in characterizing the blessings as “a concrete application of the conviction of faith that the love of God has no boundaries and precisely his work is the basis of overcoming the difficult situations in which man finds himself.”
The full text of Zuppi’s statement can be found HERE.