
Bishop Stowe Nods ‘Blessings’ of Same-Sex Couples At Catholic Dissenters’ Pride Month Event
In defiance of a recent Vatican statement, Dignity USA and co-sponsors host ‘Catholic Pride Blessing’
In defiance of a recent Vatican statement, Dignity USA and co-sponsors host ‘Catholic Pride Blessing’
Talking to reporters after his private audience with the pope, Maas said that he and Pope Francis discussed the coronavirus pandemic, the future of Europe, violence in Jerusalem, Latin America, and the clerical abuse crisis.
Fr. Valdemar explained that “persons can always be blessed, even if they are sinners, but that which is in itself a serious sin and offensive to God, such as homosexual acts, cannot be blessed.”
Organizers held a day of protest on May 10 in response to the Vatican’s recent declaration that the Church cannot bless same-sex unions.
Bishop Bätzing, who has previously supported blessings of homosexual unions, said last month that the event was not a “helpful sign.”
Maria 1.0 is inviting “all Catholics and people of goodwill” to say a decade of the rosary on May 10, thus expressing their bond with the Virgin Mary and the whole Church.
One participating professor suggested that blessings of homosexual unions should take the form of comprehensive and festive liturgies, including the proclamation of the word, a prayer of blessing, intercessions, and the exchange of rings.
Cardinal Ruini, who was Rome’s vicar general from 1991 to 2008, and president of the Italian bishops’ conference for 16 years, said that “people certainly can be blessed, but because they are converted, not because they are confirmed in their sin.”
As chairman of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Bätzing is a central figure in the “Synodal Way,” a process bringing together German lay people and bishops to discuss four major topics: the way power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women.
According to analysts, the continuing push to remove this phrasing from the Catechism of the Catholic Church is rooted in a broader campaign to legitimize homosexual acts.
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