Fiducia Supplicans: Cardinal Sarah’s Strong Reaction

The high prelate immediately goes on the attack: “Some in the media claim that the Catholic Church encourages the blessing of same-sex unions. They lie.… They only generate error, scandal, doubt and disappointment.”

He continues: “A recent declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, published with the approval of Pope Francis, failed to correct these errors and make the truth known. Moreover, through its lack of clarity, it has only amplified the confusion in people’s hearts, and some have even seized on it to support their attempts at manipulation.”

Curiously, Cardinal Sarah, who, with four other cardinals, signed the dubia addressed to Pope Francis, seems to want to avoid debate: “Let us not enter into discussion with the Fiducia supplicans Declaration.”  But what follows sets a different tone.

The Seriousness of the Sin of Homosexuality

After recalling the traditional doctrine on homosexuality: “acts of homosexuality are intrinsically disordered”, the Guinean cardinal affirms that “Any pastoral approach which does not recall this objective truth would fail in the first work of mercy which is the gift of the truth.” This truth exhorts us to convert: ‘Go and sin no more’ (Jn. 8:11).”

Then indignation flows from his pen. He notes how FS “writes that the blessing is instead intended for people who ‘ask that all that is true, good and humanly valuable in their lives’ in irregular or same-sex couples ‘be invested, healed and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit” (n. 31). He replies: “But what is good, true and humanly valid in a homosexual relationship defined by Sacred Scripture and Tradition as serious depravity and ‘intrinsically disordered’?”

He concludes this point: “The only thing to ask of people who are in an unnatural relationship is to convert and conform to the Word of God.”

The Bishops’ Responsibility

The former prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship recalls that, “The Word of God transmitted by Holy Scripture and Tradition is therefore the only solid foundation, the only foundation of truth on which each Episcopal Conference must be able to build a pastoral ministry of mercy and truth towards homosexual people.”

And he thanks “the Episcopal Conferences which have already done this work of truth, in particular those of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, etc., whose decisions and firm opposition to the Fiducia supplicans Declaration I share and make my own. We must encourage other national or regional Episcopal Conferences and each bishop to do the same.”

He goes so far as to write: “In doing so, we do not oppose Pope Francis, but we firmly and radically oppose a heresy which seriously undermines the Church, Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and Tradition.”

The porporato adds: “It is therefore not surprising that the bishops of Africa, in their poverty, are today the heralds of this divine truth in the face of the power and wealth of certain episcopates of the West” which believe they are wise, but only possess the wisdom of the world.

The Sophism of the Fiducia supplicans’ Blessing

The cardinal adds: “Allow me not to fall into vain quibbles about the meaning of the word blessing. It is obvious that we can pray for the sinner; it is obvious that we can ask God for his conversion. … The prayer of the Church is not refused to anyone. But it can never be misused to become a legitimization of sin, of the structure of sin, or even of the near occasion of sin. The contrite and penitent heart, even if it is still far from holiness, must be blessed.”

“But let us remember that, in the face of unconverted and hardened hearts, no word of blessing came from the mouth of St. Paul, but rather this warning: ‘With your hardened heart, which does not want to be converted, you are storing up wrath against yourself for that day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed, He who will reward to each according to his deeds (Rom. 2:5-6).”

He concludes with this consideration: “The freedom we have to bring to people living in homosexual unions lies in the truth of the Word of God. How could we dare make them believe that it would be good and desired by God for them to remain in the prison of their sin?”