This is from NYT is probably the most insightful, honest and accurate thing I’ve read about blessings for gay couples…
“I like to think the church under Francis is on an imperfect journey, not unlike the journeys many of us went on with our parents, toward some measure of reconciliation. Respect and acceptance still feel far away, like they did at my old kitchen table, but things feel a little less cold now.”
Thanks, Jim! While this seems both huge, and a baby step, it is surely a step forward, not backward, which is remarkable. A blessing that welcomes folks instead of sending them away is a good thing. I just hope priests will follow the Pope's direction.
It's definitely up to each priest to decide what they're comfortable doing, but I think queer people will find plenty of priests who are happy and excited to do blessings!
Hi, Jim! Good to have caught up with you via this site. Thought you and other readers might be interested in what I just sent to the editors of La Croix in response to the permission to bless queer relationships:
Two thoughts:
1) Despite my boundless joy about the prospect priests/deacons blessing same-sex couples, it still wreaks of stifling clericalism — the focus is on what clergy can now do and places the couple in the position of recipient, if not supplicant.
2) My understanding of sacramental theology holds that the couple “confers” the Sacrament of Matrimony (dare we say “confect”) upon one another. The priest/deacon is present as the Church’s official witness to what the couple attests. It is this life-long commitment the Church is blessing and celebrating. The sacramentality of the Marriage is not just a ritual that occurs on a specific day, in a specific place, in a celebratory atmosphere. The “Sacrament” (yes, the uppercase “S” is deliberate) is “grace shared, conferred and lived” across a lifetime for better, for worse, in sickness and in health until death alone separates them. It is this ongoing commitment to selfless love in good times and in bad that is “Sacramental” within the life of the couple as well as an “outward sign instituted by God that gives grace” (Baltimore catechism) for the building up of the Church and society.
Again, I am grateful and enthusiastic about what the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has promulgated and Pope Francis has signed. It is a long-overdue pastoral correction to the Church’s harsh judgmentalism and abuse of LGBTQ+ persons/couples. Still, it is a very small course correction in the practice of a still very clerical Church.
What’s truly needed is a wholesale renewal in the Church’s recognition and appreciation for the Sacramentality of the love couples — both gay and straight — are living everyday. Or, in the words of Gaudium et Spes: The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men [and women] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.
Thanks so much for your comments, Dick, and your keen insights into the sacrament of marriage (which this blessing is, as you point out, a far cry from). Much appreciated. The Church absolutely has a long way further to go.
This is from NYT is probably the most insightful, honest and accurate thing I’ve read about blessings for gay couples…
“I like to think the church under Francis is on an imperfect journey, not unlike the journeys many of us went on with our parents, toward some measure of reconciliation. Respect and acceptance still feel far away, like they did at my old kitchen table, but things feel a little less cold now.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/opinion/same-sex-blessing-catholic-church.html
This is so well done.
Thanks, Jim! While this seems both huge, and a baby step, it is surely a step forward, not backward, which is remarkable. A blessing that welcomes folks instead of sending them away is a good thing. I just hope priests will follow the Pope's direction.
It's definitely up to each priest to decide what they're comfortable doing, but I think queer people will find plenty of priests who are happy and excited to do blessings!
Hi, Jim! Good to have caught up with you via this site. Thought you and other readers might be interested in what I just sent to the editors of La Croix in response to the permission to bless queer relationships:
Two thoughts:
1) Despite my boundless joy about the prospect priests/deacons blessing same-sex couples, it still wreaks of stifling clericalism — the focus is on what clergy can now do and places the couple in the position of recipient, if not supplicant.
2) My understanding of sacramental theology holds that the couple “confers” the Sacrament of Matrimony (dare we say “confect”) upon one another. The priest/deacon is present as the Church’s official witness to what the couple attests. It is this life-long commitment the Church is blessing and celebrating. The sacramentality of the Marriage is not just a ritual that occurs on a specific day, in a specific place, in a celebratory atmosphere. The “Sacrament” (yes, the uppercase “S” is deliberate) is “grace shared, conferred and lived” across a lifetime for better, for worse, in sickness and in health until death alone separates them. It is this ongoing commitment to selfless love in good times and in bad that is “Sacramental” within the life of the couple as well as an “outward sign instituted by God that gives grace” (Baltimore catechism) for the building up of the Church and society.
Again, I am grateful and enthusiastic about what the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has promulgated and Pope Francis has signed. It is a long-overdue pastoral correction to the Church’s harsh judgmentalism and abuse of LGBTQ+ persons/couples. Still, it is a very small course correction in the practice of a still very clerical Church.
What’s truly needed is a wholesale renewal in the Church’s recognition and appreciation for the Sacramentality of the love couples — both gay and straight — are living everyday. Or, in the words of Gaudium et Spes: The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men [and women] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.
Thanks so much for your comments, Dick, and your keen insights into the sacrament of marriage (which this blessing is, as you point out, a far cry from). Much appreciated. The Church absolutely has a long way further to go.
(Also, great to hear from you!)