Some thoughts on Fiducia supplicans
Plus: Number 12, your Confession is ready.
Good morning, happy Saturday, and Merry Christmas. Today is Saturday within the Octave of Christmas.
Is it still Christmas? Yes of course. The Pillar, fortunately, as an execellent explainer discussing why:
Here is a calendar for this week:
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Family, celebrated on the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas (unless Christmas is on a Sunday, then it is moved to December 30th). Our readings at Mass are Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 (or Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3); Psalm 128:1-5 (or Psalm 105:1-9); Colossians 3:12-21 (or the short version or Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19); and Luke 2:22-40 (or the short version).
Monday, January 1st - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God*
Tuesday, January 2nd - Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors
Thursday, January 4th - Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton**
Friday, January 5th - Memorial of St. John Henry Neumann, Bishop**
*Not a Holy Day of Obligation this year per the complementary norm to canon 1246 §2 confirmed for the dioceses of the United States of America
**Only for Dioceses in the United State of America
Epiphany will be celebrated on Sunday, January 7th this year and the Baptism of the Lord will be on Monday, January 8th, however there is no Evening Prayer 1 in the Liturgy of the Hours.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2
In the news:
The United States
Research shows a fractured and distrusful priesthood in America - Crux
Fr. Matthew Schneider: Infertility Is a Cross, Not a Sexual Identity - FrMatthewLC.com
The Vatican
Pope Francis to young adults at Taizé: “Dare to build a different world” - Catholic News Agency
The World
For those who need some red: What the Israel-Hamas war looks like to Christians in Israel - Catholic World Report
For those who need some blue: Cardinal Oswald Gracias (Mumbai, India) says Fiducia supplicans a “natural” fit for India - Crux
Persecution: Nigerian Catholics slain on Christmas - Crux
The Church is inching closer to its first Samurai saint - CBCP News
“More difficult than El Camino:” A bishop’s guide to St. Cuthbert’s Way
Some thoughts on Fiducia supplicans
I’d be lying if I said I was looking forward to saying something about the recent declaration from Pope Francis. Unfortunately the world we live in ensures that everything that has ever been printed is protrated in the light of controversy.
Above, I linked an article from Crux about the Cardinal Archbishop of Mumbai, India who said that the declaration fits naturally in India. Here are his full comments:
There is no change at all in the Church doctrine of a marriage between a man and a woman. The tradition of the Church, the magisterium is very clear and there is no contradiction at all.
The blessing is like when a person is going on a journey, when they have come on a pilgrimage, they want a blessing asking God to be with them.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith which published the declaration with the approval of Pope Francis on December 18th, said this in an interview with the Pillar:
Couples are blessed. The union is not blessed, for the reasons that the declaration repeatedly explains about the true meaning of Christian marriage and sexual relations.
For those who read the text serenely and without ideological prejudices, it is clear that there is no change in the doctrine on marriage and on the objective valuation of sexual acts outside the only [kind of] marriage which exists — male-female, exclusive, indissoluble, naturally open to the generation of new life.
With these explinations from high ranking prelates in mind, I want to urge caution to people who don’t think this is a big deal. Declarations do not happen often in the Catholic Church; the last one was in the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II. They are given to address a need or a lack of understanding that the pope sees.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t open to criticism. Because so many people are saying it says different things, it necessarily has ambigous language that can be apperently be opened to interpretation.
This has been an increasing cause of consternation among Catholics like myself who stand in the middle of the road, those of us who are purple: we support, are generally favorable, and pray for Pope Francis but are frustrated and disappointed when there is another communications screwup.
One question I have asked myself several times as I’ve thought about Fiducia supplicans is “who is this document for?” We know that Pope Francis has repeatedly told the bishops in Germany that they cannot bless same-sex unions; we know that the pope has reaffirmed the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. So who was asking for this document?
As far as I am aware, there is not some majority group of gay Catholics who simply wanted to come forward for a blessing. Everything I’ve read from DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry has pushed for a complete redefinition of marriage within the Church. Members and followers of those organizations want affirmations of their lifestyles, not blessings to help them along the way.
Based on my reading of Cardinal Fernández and others, LGBTQ+ Catholics could have come forward for blessings anyway since they are simply on spiritual journies like the rest of us, as Cardinal Gracias put it.
I still cannot answer the question about the adressee of the document and I’m not sure that we will find out. It is more than typical of Pope Francis’ communications office to fail to follow states of Pope Francis that are in need of clarification. Its why I scoff at statements by the likes of John Cornwell who wrote in the introduction to his Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis that Pope Francis is a “communications guru.”
Though X is not representative of the pulse of Americans nor Catholics in the pews, there were several comments that I came accross that boiled down to this: If this Pope keeps it up, all the faithful Catholics will leave the Church.
If you’re thinking this or you have let it cross your mind, let me ask you this: If a Catholic leaves the Church, is he or she faithful to the Church?
Whenever a controversial issue comes up, this attitude that somehow more and more people are going to leave the Church rears its ugly head. When it is an issue the left doesn’t like, you typically hear that the Church is being exclusionary or intollerant. When it is an issue that the right doesn’t like, some say that the Church is collapsing or that Satan has taken over.
To my friends on the left, there are times when our Church can make us feel uncomfortable in the world. Why is it that our Church must conform to us rather than we conform to our Church? If we are seeking greater truth and seeking to be a conscious follower of Jesus, should we not conform our lives to him? You might say that the Church isn’t promoting the message of Jesus. Well, as Joe Heschmeyer says in the title to his book, the early Church was the Catholic Church. Where else are we going to find the Church?
To my friends on the right, why must everything that is published be a sign of the end times? It is true that Fiducia supplicans is frustratingly vague. It is true that the usual suspects in the Catholic press (on both the left and the right) and the mainstream media have poorly (and in some cases dishonestly) reported on it. It is true that there may never be good clarification on who the document is for or its intended purpose. But does it affect you and your personal relationship with Jesus? Does it immediately affect your parish community? Ask yourself these questions in your prayer life and think about the words of our Lord in Matthew 16:18: the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
To both of my friends, before you jump ship for one of the hundreds of protestant denominations or to one of the growing sedevacantist groups, pray about the words of St. Peter, our first pope when people didn’t like what Jesus had to say about the Eucharist:
Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” … As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you alwo want to leave?” Simpon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
(John 6:60, 66-68)
I have big news coming in the next few weeks that will be of particular interest to those who live in Detroit, Saginaw, Toledo, and the surrounding communities. Stay tuned here and I will share more soon.
Have a good weekend and Merry Christmas.
Matthew