By Diane Montagna at Catholic Herald | December 19, 2023 at 6:55 pm
Rome — Archbishop Tomash Peta of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, has issued guidance to his followers prohibiting priests from performing any form of blessing for same-sex couples. His statement, co-authored with Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, criticizes the Vatican’s recent declaration, Fiducia supplicans, allowing for blessings of same-sex “couples”.
They argue that such blessings contradict the longstanding doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church. The declaration, issued by Pope Francis, permits priests to offer non-liturgical blessings to same-sex “couples” and couples in irregular situations, but does not validate their status or change the Church’s teaching on marriage. Archbishop Peta warns that this effort to legitimize such blessings will have damaging consequences and accuses the Church of promoting “gender ideology”.
Here below is the official English translation, from Russian, of the statement signed by Archbishop Tomash Peta and Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
Statement of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana regarding the Declaration Fiducia supplicans, published by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of Faith and approved by Pope Francis on December 18, 2023
The manifest purpose of the Declaration of the Holy See, Fiducia supplicans, is to allow “the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples”. At the same time, the document insists that such blessings are performed “without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage”.
The fact that the document does not give permission for the “marriage” of same-sex couples should not blind pastors and faithful to the great deception and the evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples. Such a blessing directly and seriously contradicts Divine Revelation and the uninterrupted, bimillennial doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church. To bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples is a serious abuse of the most Holy Name of God, since this name is invoked upon an objectively sinful union of adultery or of homosexual activity.
Therefore, none, not even the most beautiful, of the statements contained in this Declaration of the Holy See, can minimize the far-reaching and destructive consequences resulting from this effort to legitimize such blessings. With such blessings, the Catholic Church becomes, if not in theory, then in practice, a propagandist of the globalist and ungodly “gender ideology”.
As successors of the Apostles, and faithful to our solemn oath on the occasion of our episcopal consecration “to preserve the deposit of faith in purity and integrity, according to the tradition always and everywhere observed in the Church since the time of the Apostles”, we exhort and prohibit priests and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana from accepting or performing any form of blessing whatsoever of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples. It goes without saying that every sincerely repentant sinner with the firm intention to no longer sin and to put an end to his public sinful situation (such as, e.g., cohabitation outside of a canonically valid marriage, union between people of the same sex) can receive a blessing.
With sincere brotherly love, and with due respect, we address Pope Francis, who – by allowing the blessing of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples – “does not walk uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel” (see Gal. 2:14), to borrow the words with which Saint Paul the Apostle publicly admonished the first Pope in Antioch. Therefore, in the spirit of episcopal collegiality, we ask Pope Francis to revoke the permission to bless couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples, so that the Catholic Church may shine clearly as the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15) for all those who sincerely seek to know the will of God and, by fulfilling it, to attain eternal life.
Astana, 19 December 2023
+ Tomash Peta, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
For the original article click here.
STAY INFORMED ON WHAT’S HAPPENING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CHURCH.
Receive The Good News newsletter, a free daily resource provided by Catholics for Catholics (CforC.com). It aims to inform Catholics of the top stories happening inside and outside the Catholic Church. Covering a range of topics from religion, politics, culture, and more, the newsletter delivers news and insights from a Catholic perspective.
Click here to sign-up and stay in the loop.
Catholics for Catholics is moving hearts and minds for Jesus Christ and His Church—and inspiring a new wave of Catholicism and love of America. Use the form below to STAY CONNECTED with the fastest-growing Catholic movement across the United States.
