Urban V’s icy decree, and a big news week…

Well. There’s a lot to talk about today, isn’t there? Let’s start with Blessed Pope Urban V, whose memorial we celebrate, and who led the Church as pope just a decade before the great “Western Schism” of the 13th and 14th century. Born Guillaume de Grimoard, he was a Benedictine monk who became a brilliant […]

The Pope and the Black Hole

In a by now familiar sequence of events, the Vatican released a document on Monday which caused instant confusion. “Pope says Roman Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples,” the headlines announced. Optimistic Catholic apologists said the media had misunderstood the document, which permitted no such thing. Pessimistic Catholic apologists said the headlines were, alas, correct, […]

U.S. dioceses respond to Vatican declaration on same-sex couple blessings

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, and Cardinal Blase Cupich. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA and Diocese of Crookston Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2023 / 15:30 pm (CNA). Several American Catholic dioceses have already issued statements on how they intend to implement new Vatican guidelines that permit nonliturgical pastoral blessings of homosexual couples, but it’s […]

Pope Francis Did Not Just Authorize Priests to Bless Same-Sex Unions

Riccardo Luca Pope Francis blesses a married couple at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, November 15, 2023. COMMENTARY: Anyone who claims that the Fiducia Supplicans authorizes blessings of same-sex unions has not read the declaration or is intentionally misinterpreting it.

U.S. Dioceses Respond to Vatican Declaration on Same-Sex Couple Blessings

Credit: Daniel Ibañez Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, and Cardinal Blase Cupich. “The document still prohibits any sort of liturgical blessing of homosexual couples because such a blessing would ‘offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice’.”