(ZENIT News / Rome, 01.28.2024).- Pope Francis spoke for the second time about Fiducia Supplicans, the statement from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that distinguishes between “liturgical blessings” and “pastoral blessings,” allowing the latter for irregular couples, including those of the same sex.
Following the initial public statement on the Italian program “Che tempo fa” on January 14, Pope Francis returned to the topic in his address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during its plenary assembly. At the hearing on January 26 he explained the intention of the statement, almost at the end of the speech:
In this context of evangelization, I also mention the recent Declaration Fiducia supplicans. The intention of “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” is to tangibly demonstrate the closeness of the Lord and of the Church to all those who, finding themselves in various situations, ask for help to continue – sometimes to begin – a journey of faith. I would like briefly to underline two things: the first is that these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, do not demand moral perfection in order to be received; the second, that when a couple approaches spontaneously to ask for them, one does not bless the union, but simply the people who have required it together. Not the union, but the people, naturally taking into account the context, the sensibilities, and the places where one lives and the most appropriate ways to do it.
In this simple paragraph, the Pope emphasizes that pastoral blessings are spontaneous, that moral perfection is not required to receive them, and that it is not the union that is blessed but rather the individuals. This paragraph proved to be of particular relevance for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the extent that they have extracted and placed it independently of the entire speech on their website (see here). The value seems to lie in it being a statement of intent and a summary of the meaning. In this sense, it is something better achieved than the more extensive clarification attempted by the Congregation a few weeks after the publication of the Declaration.
