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Same-Sex Blessings and the Case Against the Pope

Same-Sex Blessings and the Case Against the Pope

Last updated on: December 26, 2023 at 3:05 pm by John Gravino

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Same-Sex Blessings and the Case Against the Pope 2023-12-26T15:05:48-05:00 John Gravino

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Fiducia Supplicans

“In major doctrinal shift, Vatican officially OKs Catholic blessings for gay couples.” That was the headline last Monday at the leading progressive Catholic paper the National Catholic Reporter (NCR). Every media outlet in the world ran with that headline, and it has been a leading story all week. What is keeping the story on front pages is the reaction from Catholic leaders around the world.

Many national bishops’ conferences have issued formal public statements declaring their refusal to cooperate with the papally approved document. And lay Catholics have taken to social media to express their confusion. Their complaint is valid given that the very same Vatican issued a statement denying same-sex blessings only a couple of years ago which declared that “we cannot bless sin.” My purpose in publishing this statement is to clear up this terrible confusion.

A Research Project

“Who does this guy think he is?” you might be asking yourself. That’s a fair question. It’s true that I’m not a bishop. I’m not a priest. And I’m not a theologian either. So why should anyone pay attention to what I have to say on the matter when so many actual experts are already addressing this controversy? The reason is because, five years ago, prompted by the ex-Cardinal Ted McCarrick revelations, I started doing research on the sexual abuse scandal.

That research led me to the discovery of a heretical theology that promoted gay equality in the Church. This movement, and its chief architect, Charles Curran, were condemned by Pope John Paul II. To my shock and horror, I discovered that all the same heretical ideas were expressed in Amoris Laetitia. So in May of 2019, I published my findings in a short book in which I predicted that the promotion of Amoris Laetitia would lead to the spread of gay equality in the Church. Seven months later, my theory was entirely vindicated by three events in December of 2019:

- - - The German Bishops’ Conference issued a press release announcing the opening of their national synod. The purpose of their “synodal way” was to change Church teaching on homosexuality to reflect new “scientific” research, which, they claimed, demonstrated homosexuality to be normal. They cited Amoris Laetitia to justify this heresy.

- - - The Vatican’s Pontifical Biblical Commission issued a press release announcing the publication of a new book which declared that the Bible was not qualified to answer contemporary moral issues like homosexuality. Instead, the book argued that we need science to answer these questions.

- - - In his Christmas address to the Curia, Pope Francis declared that the Church was 200 years behind the times and that we need science to catch up.

The Science Heresy

As I have observed many times, there is an unmistakable theme in these three closely timed statements. All three of them declare that the Church suffers from a deficiency that can only be remedied by the help of scientific authority. The Church’s authority from Scripture and Tradition is simply inadequate and unreliable.

The strongest statement came from the Germans who claimed that the Pope Francis document Amoris Laetitia justifies their clear doctrinal heresy. This incriminating allegation has been roundly ignored by the media but needs to be examined closely. As I showed in my book, the German position on Amoris Laetitia is not unfounded: Pope Francis declares in chapter 7 of Amoris that sexual education—and thus sexual *teaching—*needs to based on science. And what about the Church’s traditional teaching on the subject of sexual morality? This is what Pope Francis wrote in paragraph 3:

“3. Since ‘time is greater than space,’ I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium.”

Veritatis Splendor

Questions on Church teaching do NOT need to be settled by Church teaching—got that? It is a bald-faced heresy on the plain meaning of the words. Contrast the Amoris gibberish with Veritatis Splendor 64:

“Christians have a great help for the formation of conscience in the Church and her Magisterium. As the Council affirms: ‘In forming their consciences the Christian faithful must give careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth. Her charge is to announce and teach authentically that truth which is Christ, and at the same time with her authority to declare and confirm the principles of the moral order which derive from human nature itself.’”

Whereas in Veritatis Splendor, Church teaching is essential to conscience formation, in Amoris, the magisterium is not essential, but science is. And let’s be clear that Francis made these statements in a document on sexual ethics.

As I demonstrated in my book, the heretical promotion of gay equality in the Church was always justified by an appeal to “science.” And this is still true today as the German bishops show us. We have an heretical movement in the Church hierarchy today that is attempting to change Church teaching on homosexuality. This is exactly what the Germans are doing. And what we can see from an analysis of the theological history of this movement is that the attempt to normalize homosexuality has always rested on a heretical foundation of pseudoscience masquerading as the genuine article.

The Synod on Synodality

Thus, there is only one way to read Pope Francis’ repeated promotion of science as a foundation for morality and sexual ethics. He is promoting the gay equality agenda, a heretical change of doctrine. I’ve already mentioned Amoris Laetitia and his 2019 Christmas address to the Curia. But we also have the recent additions at the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality. There is the new motu proprio and the Synod’s final document.

In the motu proprio, Francis called for a “paradigm shift” and a “cultural revolution” in theology that is based on an “inductive method”—meaning science. And the synod’s final document suggests that science will require the Church to change its teachings on sexual ethics. Such an assertion is incompatible with the dogma of infallibility on faith and morals. How can the Church be infallible if the Divine Revelation upon which that infallibility depends is itself in error?

Charles Curran

One final point which I will not elaborate here. Read my essay at Patheos. At the conclusion of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis called for a rejection of “a priori natural law.” That is the language of Charles Curran who was fired by Pope John Paul II. In place of a priori theology, Curran called for an inductive, or science-based, theology that would change church teaching on homosexuality.

Whether Fiducia Supplicans says it or not, Pope Francis has already promoted doctrinal change for homosexuality in his other writings. There is no other way to read his statements. Thus, the claim that same-sex blessings are an act of mercy is a lie. It is the implementation of a “paradigm shift” and a doctrinal “cultural revolution” that Francis has been calling for all along.

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About John Gravino

John Gravino is the author of The Immoral Landscape of the New Atheism, which was the topic of a health and spirituality seminar at Duke Medical School. He continues to explore the intersection of health and religion and the other big questions of life right here at Patheos. You can read more about the author here.

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