One Year Later: The Fiducia Supplicans “Flop”

It was December 18, 2023, a day that will unfortunately remain attached to a debacle in the history of the Church: the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published a Declaration on the blessing of “irregular couples and same-sex couples,” a document that the Sovereign Pontiff had expressly approved.

It was a text received with hostility in a Catholic universe that was unanimous enough to denounce all its ambiguities and to speak out against its application. The reaction in Africa is sufficiently well known on this subject, but the resistance – or even the refusals – were, in a sense, universal.

A year later, the hoped-for success in progressive circles has not been forthcoming, as a sociologist of religions Jean-Louis Schlegel laments in La Croix: “Does Fiducia supplicans constitute an advance in Catholic mentalities, or a step backwards, given the extent of this revolt that has demonstrated the growing cultural gap and the persistent violence against homosexuality in the world?"

But one gap can hide another more worrying one, which is quickly overlooked: the one that exists between a sterile progressivism stemming from the post-conciliar period and the 2000-year old Tradition of the Church.

In France, there is little talk about the concrete impact of Fiducia Supplicans: "Requests for blessings are managed at the diocesan level, without feedback at the national level," explains Véronique Lonchamp, national delegate for "Families" within the "Announcement and Support of Christian Life" division of the Conference of Bishops of France.

In the dioceses contacted by the French religious daily La Croix, requests for blessings from homosexual couples, when they exist, "can be counted on the fingers of one hand: ‘It does not seem to have created a mass effect,’" specifies Cyrille de Compiègne, co-president and spokesperson for an association campaigning for the full recognition of same-sex couples in the Church.

However, many bishops have spared no effort to ensure "after-sales service." “Nearly half of the dioceses now have a contact person for pastoral 'faith and homosexuality' care," adds Véronique Longchamp. But common sense seems to have prevailed, at least so far, and the DDF's declaration has rather fallen flat.

"There is a lack of clear reference points in the document, which requires an effort of reconstruction to be understood. This could have discredited its content," as Pascal Wintzer, Archbishop of Sens-Auxerre bitterly deplores.

For these defenders – increasingly rare – of Fiducia Supplicans who want to remain faithful to the foundation of post-conciliar values, the problem is more with Catholic laypersons and priests who are still too “right wing.”