Fiducia Supplicans, released last Dec. 18, allows for “spontaneous” pastoral blessings for “same-sex couples” and other couples in “irregular situations.” It does not allow liturgical blessings for homosexual couples and establishes that pastoral blessings should not be imparted “in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union, and not even in connection with them. Nor can it be performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.”
The declaration quickly elicited reactions of both welcome and rejection from bishops around the world. According to Escudero, the text has led to “unprecedented confusion” among the “clergy and many of the faithful” in his jurisdiction.
After several days of prayer and reflection, the prelate concluded that the blessing of these types of couples “is a grave abuse of the most holy name of God, which is invoked upon an objectively sinful union of fornication, adultery, or even worse, homosexual activity.”
“Furthermore, in the final instance it must be emphasized that ‘homosexual acts are disordered and, above all, contrary to natural law’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2357). God never blesses sin. God does not contradict himself. God does not lie to us. God, who always loves the sinner unconditionally, therefore seeks that he repent, be converted, and live,” the bishop declared.
According to Escudero, “blessing a couple” is the same as “blessing the union that exists between them,” since “there is no logical, real way to separate the one thing from the other. Why else would they ask for a blessing together and not two separate blessings?”
For the bishop of Moyobamba, the problem is even more serious, inasmuch as some bishops and priests, “contravening the objective morality of sacred Scripture and sacred tradition, have been confusing the people of God for a long time with the indiscriminate blessing of these objectively disordered and therefore sinful unions, committing horrendous sacrilege.”