The new Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans “in no way calls for a change in the Church’s teaching regarding marriage and sexuality,” Bishop Robert Barron, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, said in a December 21 statement. “In fact, it goes to great lengths to insist that, in accord with unchanging doctrine, marriage is a union of one man and one woman in lifelong fidelity and openness to children.”
“The blessings that it allows for those in irregular relationships are not liturgical in nature and hence do not imply any approbation of such relationships,” he continued. “Rather, these benedictions are informal and spontaneous, designed to call upon God’s mercy to heal, guide, and strengthen.”
“Despite some misleading coverage in the press, the declaration does not constitute a ‘step’ toward ratification of same-sex marriage nor a compromising of the Church’s teaching regarding those in irregular relationships,” he added.