Moscow: The Orthodox Patriarchate Publishes a Critique of Fiducia Supplicans

The analysis was then submitted to Patriarch Kirill. The final text was finally published on March 25 by the Moscow Patriarchate. From the introduction, the commentary notes that “the ideas expressed in the Declaration Fiducia supplicans (FS) represent a significant deviation from Christian moral teaching and necessitate a theological analysis.”

A New Understanding of Blessings

The first criticism focuses on “the ‘classical’ and ‘broader’ understanding of blessings”: the broadening “is based solely” on the possibility that certain “moral attitudes” can “obscure the unconditional power of the love of God.” But, they respond, “God’s love for man cannot serve as a basis for blessing couples who live together in sin.”

Furthermore, in the case of “irregular situations,” the document “does not mention the need to canonically “regularize” a relationship before receiving a blessing. It is therefore a form of indirect legitimization of what is essentially illegitimate,” even if the text claims the contrary.

The Declaration “says nothing of the fight against sin [...] of the pastoral assistance provided to the believer so that he can overcome sin.” So that “the text of the Declaration is written in such a manner that one can conclude that a sinful way of life does not constitute an obstacle to communion with God.” For that matter, no mention at all is made of the sacrament of penance.

The Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

“While affirming the inviolability of the understanding of marriage as the union of one man and one woman blessed by the Church, FS announces the possibility of blessing ‘couples of the same sex’.” Thus, “the whole part of the document dedicated to these blessings is in radical contradiction with Christian moral teaching.”

Moreover, the application “of a ‘broader’ understanding of blessings to ‘couples of the same sex’ is fundamentally contestable.” For if “blessing is intended to heal human relationships by the presence of the Holy Spirit, then this healing can only be, in this case, the cessation of sinful relationships.”

It should be noted that “the authors of the Declaration believe that the danger does not lie in the ‘irregular situation’ or the ‘homosexual cohabitation’ itself, but in the temptation, the confusion, or the disarray which can arise among the faithful following the blessing given by the priest to resemble the sacrament of marriage.”

Finally, all the recommendations against “formalization” or “context” or even “spontaneity” aim “to avoid recognizing ‘homosexual cohabitation’ as a sin, to avoid indicating the need to abandon a sinful way of life, and to create the illusion that a conscious choice to live a sinful way of life does not deprive the couple of God’s blessing.”

Reactions to Fiducia supplicans in the Catholic World

The commentary of the Russian Orthodox Church does not fail to use the many reactions against FS produced throughout the Catholic world: the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, the Nigerian episcopate, the Hungarian then Belarussian bishops, and finally the Catholic bishops of Russia are cited.

The Moscow Patriarchate’s text concludes that FS, “while formally proclaiming fidelity to the Christian understanding of the sacrament of marriage and the practice of blessings, in fact postulates a brutal rupture with this fidelity.”

And it adds that “in the context of the process underway in the Christian community, this document can be perceived as a step toward the full recognition by the Roman Catholic Church of ‘unions of persons of the same sex’ as a norm, which has already happened in a certain number of Protestant communities.”

Commentary

FS has produced this serious and profound humiliation of the Catholic Church, the mistress of truth. To see a document come out of Rome, treated--and justly treated, unfortunately!--in this way by non-Catholics is a shame. Pope Francis and his acolyte, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, are entirely responsible.

It is also a scandal for the faithful and even for the many people outside Catholicism--a scandal which will further prevent conversions to the one and true Church of Jesus Christ.