{"id":2128387,"date":"2023-12-18T17:56:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-media-are-lying-pope-francis-did-not-approve-priests-blessing-same-sex-relationships\/"},"modified":"2023-12-18T17:56:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T22:56:01","slug":"the-media-are-lying-pope-francis-did-not-approve-priests-blessing-same-sex-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-media-are-lying-pope-francis-did-not-approve-priests-blessing-same-sex-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"The Media Are Lying, Pope Francis Did Not Approve Priests Blessing \u2018Same-Sex Relationships\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-media-are-lying-pope-francis-did-not-approve-priests-blessing-same-sex-relationships%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2128387&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>FDRLST \/ Canva       <\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Corporate media outlets are running salacious headlines that Pope Francis is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-gb\/news\/us\/pope-approves-blessings-for-same-sex-couples-if-they-dont-resemble-marriage\/ar-AA1lG8vi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/us\/pope-francis-approves-allowing-catholic-priests-to-bless-same-sex-couples\/ar-AA1lGj0K\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allowing<\/a>\u00a0\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/18\/world\/europe\/pope-gay-lesbian-same-sex-blessing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">priests to bless same-sex relationships<\/a>.\u201d The implication from the media is that the Catholic Church has made a \u201cradical\u201d reversal on its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is factually untrue.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/press.vatican.va\/content\/salastampa\/it\/bollettino\/pubblico\/2023\/12\/18\/0901\/01963.html#en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Declaration \u2018Fiducia Supplicans\u2019 On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings<\/a>.\u201d In the declaration, the Vatican first reaffirms that marriage is the \u201cexclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The document also establishes that contrary to media reports, liturgical blessings related to formal Church sacraments can never endorse same-sex unions, which the Catholic Church does not recognize. \u201c[T]he Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice,\u201d reads the declaration.<\/p>\n<p>The document does say that individuals, including \u201csame-sex couples,\u201d may receive \u201cspontaneous,\u201d \u201cinformal\u201d blessings related to overcoming human sin. \u201c[O]ne should not prevent or prohibit the Church\u2019s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God\u2019s help through a simple blessing,\u201d states the document.<\/p>\n<p>This, of course, is not new information. Anyone \u2014 irrespective of the types of sin they happen to struggle with \u2014 has always been able to receive an informal blessing from a Catholic priest.\u00a0In other words, the document is a pointless reiteration of already established Church teachings. Indeed, the declaration is being grotesquely misrepresented by the corporate media and leftist Catholics who\u00a0<em>wish<\/em>\u00a0the document had been a reversal of Church doctrine, which, again, it was not.<\/p>\n<p>While the document is theologically sound, many Catholics are calling it a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClassicalTheis\/status\/1736768041000571216?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pastoral nightmare<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theology.nd.edu\/people\/ulrich-l-lehner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ulrich L. Lehner<\/a>, a Catholic historian who teaches in the University of Notre Dame theology department, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ulrichlehner\/status\/1736781564237766994?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warns<\/a> that the document\u2019s \u201cimprecise language invites misunderstanding and will sow confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lehner explains that \u201csome bishops will use it as a pretext to do what the document explicitly forbids, especially since the Vatican has not stopped them before.\u201d Here, Lehner is referring to a cohort of German priests who have been formally\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/05\/14\/by-blessing-homosexual-unions-german-catholics-are-fomenting-schism-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blessing<\/a>\u00a0same-sex\u00a0<em>unions<\/em>, not simply same-sex attracted individuals, since 2021, without condemnation from the Vatican. \u201c[The document] is, and I hate to say it, an invitation to schism,\u201d wrote Lehner.<\/p>\n<p>The misleading \u201cDeclaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings\u201d is on-brand for Francis. As The Federalist\u2019s John Davidson <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/05\/14\/by-blessing-homosexual-unions-german-catholics-are-fomenting-schism-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explains<\/a>, Francis has a history of being \u201cintentionally vague about matters that should be clear-cut, and this vagueness sows confusion. Why would he want to sow confusion? To open up room for change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the case of the \u201cDeclaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,\u201d one must ask what its purpose is in the first place if not to sow chaos and confusion. If Francis cared about upholding Church doctrine and providing necessary clarity on the issue of priests blessing same-sex unions, the Vatican would have given an immediate and direct repudiation of the German priests blessing same-sex unions two years ago, with only a secondary note that, as we already know,\u00a0<em>individuals<\/em>\u00a0who seek God\u2019s grace to avoid sin may be blessed by priests.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican\u2019s response Monday was wildly delayed, failed to directly address German priests, and focused far more on the already-established fact that same-sex <em>individuals<\/em> can receive blessings rather than the fact that same-sex <em>unions<\/em> are contradictory to Church teaching and cannot be blessed by priests.\u00a0All these things combined have prompted the media to egregiously misrepresent the \u201cDeclaration On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,\u201d but perhaps that was Francis\u2019 intention.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image CreditFDRLST \/ Canva Corporate media outlets are running salacious headlines that Pope Francis is\u00a0now\u00a0allowing\u00a0\u201cpriests to bless same-sex relationships.\u201d The implication from the media is that the Catholic Church has made a \u201cradical\u201d reversal on its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is factually untrue. On Monday, the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1623,"featured_media":2128389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2128387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2128389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}