Pope Francis Approves Blessings for Same-sex Couples — If the Rituals Don’t Resemble Marriage

NEW YORK POST: ROME — Pope Francis has formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, with a new document explaining a radical change in Vatican policy by insisting that people seeking God’s love and mercy shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.

The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, released Monday, elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October.

In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.

The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman.

And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding. » | Associated Press | December 18, 2023

Vatican gives conditional approval to blessings for same-sex couples: Landmark ruling approved by Pope Francis would be a sign that God welcomes all, says Vatican »

Amid Scandals and Politics, Poland’s Youths Lose Faith in Catholic Church

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Polish church is in a deep crisis, as its authority is sapped by cascading sexual abuse scandals and as more people grow wary of its perceived alliance with the country’s right-wing government.

Parishioners in Piaski, Poland, celebrating the visit of a copy of a revered Polish icon, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, in September. | Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times
BYDGOSZCZ, Poland — A committed Catholic who served from childhood as an altar boy, Karol dreamed as a teenager of entering the seminary in his hometown in northern Poland and becoming a priest.

“I had a deep faith and wanted to serve the church,” said Karol, now 26, recalling how he had discussed his hopes of one day becoming a bishop with his spiritual mentor, a priest at the Church of Divine Providence in the city of Bydgoszcz.

But that was before the priest raped him.

“The whole church has been poisoned,” Karol said in an interview, asking that his full name not be used by The New York Times.

His story, one of many that has stirred outrage over the years in the Polish news media, is part of a cascade of sexual abuse scandals that has plunged the Roman Catholic church in Poland into a deep crisis and eroded trust among young people. Polish youth are also wary of what many of them see as the church’s symbiotic relationship with the country’s deeply conservative governing party, Law and Justice.

A report issued last November by C.B.O.S., a government-funded polling agency, found that only 23 percent of Poles under 25 regularly go to church, a third the level of three decades ago. The Catholic Information Agency reported that only 20 percent of young people now disapprove of sex before marriage. The primate of the Polish church, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, deplored what he called a “devastating” decline in religious practice among younger Poles.

This summer, the seminary in Bydgoszcz that Karol had planned to attend shut down, bereft of new students. » | Andrew Higgins | Monday, November 28, 2022

Gay Priest: Roman Catholic Church 'Violently Homophobic' - BBC News | 2015

Oct 29, 2015 | A senior Vatican priest, Krzysztof Charamsa, stripped of his post after admitting being in a gay relationship, tells BBC News why he wrote to the Pope criticising the Church over its hypocrisy in banning gay priests.

German Cardinal Calls for Change in Church Teaching on Homosexuality

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising speaks in front of a rainbow flag during a service marking the 20th anniversary of the LGBTQ community at St. Paul's Church in Munich March 13, 2022. (CNS photo/Lukas Barth, Reuters)
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER: HAMBURG, GERMANY — Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for a change in Catholic teaching on homosexuality, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

"The catechism is not set in stone. One may also question what it says," Marx told the weekly magazine Stern in an interview published March 31.

"Homosexuality is not a sin. It corresponds to a Christian attitude when two people, regardless of gender, stand up for each other, in joy and sorrow," he said. The value of love was also shown in "not making the other person an object, not using him or her or humiliating him or her."

Marx added: "LGBTQ+ people are part of creation and loved by God, and we are called upon to stand against discrimination." He also said, "Those who threaten homosexuals and anyone else with hell have understood nothing."

Earlier in March, at a Mass celebrating the 20th anniversary of "queer services" in Munich, Marx apologized for the church's discrimination against homosexuals. In his sermon, the cardinal promoted an "inclusive church."

The cardinal told Stern that only 10 years ago he could not have imagined holding such a service. » | Catholic News Service | Thursday, March 31, 2022

Der Münchner Kardinal Marx will die katholische Kirche für queere Menschen öffnen: "Homosexualität ist keine Sünde": Er gilt als Vertrauter des Papstes und doch fordert er das Ende des Pflichtzölibats und der Ausgrenzung von Homosexuellen aus der Kirche. Ein Gespräch mit Kardinal Reinhard Marx. »

Top Vatican Official Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Quebec

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A woman accused Cardinal Marc Ouellet, a member of Pope Francis’ inner circle, of inappropriately touching and kissing her.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the former archbishop of Quebec, was named in a lawsuit made public this week. | Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
OTTAWA — A woman in Quebec has accused a prominent Canadian cardinal — who is also a top Vatican official and member of Pope Francis’ inner circle — of engaging in sexual misconduct against her when she served as a diocesan intern.

The accusations against the cardinal, Marc Ouellet, are part of a sweeping class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec, in which 101 people say they were victims of sexual abuse by several dozen clerics and lay staff members of the archdiocese. The allegations date to 1940, and the lawsuit says that some of the plaintiffs were minors at the time of the events.

The case is the latest in a string of class-action lawsuits in Quebec that accuse Catholic clerics of sexual abuse, many of which have already been settled, including accusations covered under an 18-million-dollar agreement reached in 2013. » | Ian Austen and Gaia Pianigiani | Wednesday, August 16, 2022

Catholics Made Unwelcome in Orthodox Russia | 2002

Jan 30, 2019 • Russia's Holy War (2002) - The policy of religious discrimination pursued by Putin's government is more akin with the Tsarist regime of old than a new, modern Russian state.

In Pskov, on Russia’s far Western border, demonstrators protest outside the site of a new Catholic church. “Catholics get lost, Russia for Russians, Pskov for Pskovitans!” they chant. They are members of the Russian Orthodox Church, disgusted by the “intrusion” of the Catholic religion into their country.

Gay Priest Comes Out at Vatican, Is Immediately Fired

Oct 3, 2015 • Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa is calling on the Vatican to publicly change its stance on homosexuality

Related.

Gay Priest Fired by Vatican because of Homophobia

A Polish priest, who came out as gay and was fired by the Vatican just before a meeting of bishops about outreach to gays, said a "very special kind of homophobia" exists among priests, because those who are homosexual are forced to hate themselves.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Krzysztof Charamsa said that everybody at the Vatican knows who is gay and who is not, but nobody talks about it freely

. Charamsa was a mid-level official in the Vatican's doctrine office. He openly admitted his homosexuality in interviews in Italy and Poland last month, saying he was happy and proud to be a gay priest and was in love with his boyfriend.

The declarations, a day before the bishops met, prompted the Vatican to fire him. Despite his dismissal, Charamsa remains a priest, although the director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, hinted that his superiors could take further action.

Charamsa, 43, now lives with his boyfriend in Barcelona.


Related links.

Polish Priest Dismissed from Vatican Post after Coming Out as Gay

Oct 3, 2015 • A Polish priest has been removed from a Vatican post after telling a newspaper he is gay.

Krzystof Charamsa says it is time for the Catholic Church to "open its eyes" and change its stance on homosexuality.

It comes as bishops arrive in Rome for a synod, with homosexuality expected to be on the agenda.

"My decision to 'come out' is a very personal decision in the homophobic world of the Catholic Church. It has been very difficult and very hard," said Charamsa.


Related.

Gay Priest: Roman Catholic Church 'Violently Homophobic' - BBC News

Oct 29, 2015 • A senior Vatican priest, Krzysztof Charamsa, stripped of his post after admitting being in a gay relationship, tells BBC News why he wrote to the Pope criticising the Church over its hypocrisy in banning gay priests.

He Blew the Whistle on the Catholic Church in 1985. Why Didn’t We Listen?

THE NEW YORK TIMES: As an investigative reporter, Jason Berry exposed the church’s systematic cover-up of sexual abuse. Somehow, it wasn’t enough

Nearly 20 years ago, an investigation by The Boston Globe into sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests ignited a firestorm of scandal that has traveled around the world. For many Americans, these shocking revelations — especially of the related cover-ups by the church — came out of nowhere, almost like a bolt of lightning. But the sobering reality is that this bolt of lightning had been striking for at least 15 years. Read the short article and watch the disturbing video here » | Ben Proudfoot | Mr. Proudfoot is an Emmy-winning filmmaker. | Tuesday, August 14, 2021

So much for organised religion! This is disgusting! Truly disgusting! It begs many questions: Why is there so much perversion in the Roman Catholic Church? Why does the RCC attract so many perverts? Who wants or needs to be preached to by these perverts on issues of morality anyway? And where do they get the audacity from to lecture people on being gay when they engage in truly disgusting sexual abuse like this?

We’ve all known about the goings on in the Roman Catholic Church (and other churches, too), but when you watch a video such as this one, it is a sad reminder that much of religion is a sick joke! This is far removed from the teachings of Jesus Christ. – @ Mark

Commentary: That a Catholic Priest May Be Gay Isn't Cause for Sadness

ADVOCATE: What's sad about the case of Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill, who resigned his post after allegations of using a gay dating app, is that clergy can't come out as gay and stay in the church.

“It is with sadness that I inform you that Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill has resigned as General Secretary of the Conference. … I ask for your prayers for Monsignor … during this difficult time” are the words of Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Gomez is referring to the resignation of Monsignor Burrill following an exposé about the priest’s use of the gay dating app Grindr. While I can’t read the heart or know the mind of Archbishop Gomez, I do want to reflect on his choice of words, noting a grievance with the word “sadness” and the phrase “difficult time.”

Notwithstanding the media rush to condemn the journalistic methods of the staff at The Pillar, who first reported about Monsignor Burrill’s alleged improper behaviors, journalists have once again boxed themselves in to the same old trope: shock and awe that a closeted gay priest might be investigated by conservative journalists hoping to make even more narrow the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Who can fault the team at The Pillar for seeking to remove from office those who do not adhere to the written catechism? Of course, their level of orthodoxy is repugnant, after all while closeted and safe hiding his sexuality, Monsignor Burrill sought to weaponize Communion and deny President Joe Biden the Eucharist at Mass. Even gay and conservative has no place in the Roman Catholic Church. » | Benjamin Brenkert | Saturday, July 24, 2021

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi: Celibacy Does Not Mean Living without Affection

Jul 16, 2021 • The Cardinal shares his vocation story, from initially rejecting the priesthood to eventually being named Cardinal by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis Restricts Use of Old Latin Mass, in a Blow to Conservatives

Celebrating a traditional Latin Mass in Clifton, Va., in 2007.Credit...Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The pope placed new restrictions on where the old Latin Mass can be celebrated and who can celebrate it, and will require new permissions from local bishops.

Pope Francis took a significant step toward putting the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgy solidly on the side of modernization on Friday by cracking down on the use of the old Latin Mass, essentially reversing a decision by his conservative predecessor.

The move to restrict the use of an old Latin rite in celebrating Mass dealt a blow to conservatives, who have long complained that the pope is diluting the traditions of the church.

Francis placed new restrictions on where and by whom the traditional Latin Mass can be celebrated and required new permissions from local bishops for its use. » | Jason Horowitz | Friday, July 16, 2021

Targeting Biden, Catholic Bishops Advance Controversial Communion Plan

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The decision was aimed at the nation’s second Catholic president and exposed bitter divisions in American Catholicism.

The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States, flouting a warning from the Vatican, have overwhelmingly voted to draft a statement on the sacrament of the Eucharist, advancing a political push by conservative bishops to deny President Biden communion because of his support of abortion rights.

The decision, made public on Friday afternoon, is aimed at the nation’s second Catholic president, the most religiously observant commander in chief since Jimmy Carter, and exposes bitter divisions in American Catholicism. It capped three days of contentious debate at a virtual June meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The measure was approved by a vote of 73 percent in favor and 24 percent opposed.

The Eucharist, also called holy communion, is one of the most sacred rituals in Christianity, and bishops have grown worried in recent years about declining Mass attendance and misunderstanding of the importance of the sacrament to Catholic life.

But the move to target a president, who has regularly attended Mass throughout his life, is striking coming from leaders of the president’s own faith, particularly after many conservative Catholics turned a blind eye to the sexual improprieties of former President Donald J. Trump because they supported his political agenda. It reveals a uniquely American Catholicism increasingly at odds with Rome. » | Elizabeth Dias | Friday, June 18, 2021

German Cardinal’s Resignation Offer Sends Shockwaves through the Catholic Church | DW News

Germany's most senior cleric has offered his resignation to Pope Francis. Munich's Cardinal Reinhard Marx said that he wanted to share responsibility for what he called the "catastrophe of sexual abuse" by members of the Catholic church.

Marx has long been a leading voice in the call for church reforms. Those calls have been growing louder as sex abuse investigations revealed a decades-long cover-up by the clergy. Marx said investigations and reports of the past 10 years showed him there had not only been "a lot of personal failure and administrative errors," but "also institutional and systemic failure" within the Catholic Church.

Recent discussions had shown "that some in the church do not want to acknowledge this element of co-responsibility and thus also complicity of the institution and are therefore opposed to any reform and renewal dialogue in connection with the abuse crisis," he wrote in a letter to the pope dated May 21 and published on Friday by his archdiocese in Munich.

The archdiocese said in its press release on the issue that Pope Francis had since responded to Cardinal Marx, telling him that he could make the letter public, and to remain in his role until he received an answer.

German Catholic Priests Defy Rome to Offer Blessings to Gay Couples

THE NEW YORK TIMES: More than 100 Roman Catholic parishes in Germany held services to bless gay couples, in defiance of the Vatican’s refusal to recognize same-sex unions.

BERLIN — More than 100 Roman Catholic parishes in Germany offered blessings to gay couples on Monday in defiance of church teaching and their own bishops.

The call for nationwide blessings came in response to a decree issued by the Vatican on March 15, reinforcing the church’s prohibition of priests asking for God’s benevolence for gay couples, stating that God “does not and cannot bless sin.”

A group of 16 German priests and volunteers organized a petition that within days collected more than 2,000 signatures. Encouraged by the response, they decided to take their action one step further and declare May 10 — chosen because of its association with Noah, who in the Bible is recognized by God with a rainbow, a symbol that has more recently been adopted by the L.G.B.T.Q. community — as a day to hold blessing ceremonies for any and all couples, but especially those in same-sex unions.

“In view of the refusal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to bless homosexual partnerships, we raise our voices and say: We will continue to accompany people who enter into a binding partnership in the future and bless their relationship,” the group said in a statement. “We will not refuse a blessing ceremony.” » | Melissa Eddy | Monday, May 10, 2021

Koch Brothers Backed Conservative Archbishop Attacks Pope and "Homosexuals in the Church"

On the heels of the sexual abuse disclosures conservative Archbishop accuses Pope of hiding sexual abuse and attacks "homosexual underground" in the Church. He is backed by the Koch brothers and other right wing Catholics

Understanding Islam: Pontifical institute Fosters Study, Dialogue

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE: VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Between their morning cappuccino and their evening plate of pasta, a group of Catholic students from around the world are studying Arabic and Islam in the heart of Rome's Trastevere neighborhood.

Since 1926, the Missionaries of Africa have sponsored the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, preparing students to live and minister in the Muslim world, promoting dialogue and mutual respect.

"Catholic engagement with Islam, in the spirit and light of Vatican II, must be based on goodwill and an objective knowledge of the other tradition, and not on misconceptions and false ideas inherited from centuries of conflict and hostility," said Father Diego Sarrio Cucarella, a Missionary of Africa and director of studies at the institute, which is known by its Italian acronym, PISAI. » | Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service | Thursday, March 2, 2017

'Muslims Want to Eradicate Christianity' and Conquer Europe Claims Potential Next Pope

EXPRESS: MUSLIMS want to eradicate Christianity and conquer Europe - the Catholic cardinal tipped to be the next POPE has incredibly claimed.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn gave the unexpected warning on Sunday during a special celebration for the Church festival "Holy Name of Mary".

According to the Archdiocese of Vienna, the Cardinal said: "Will there be an Islamic conquest of Europe? Many Muslims want that and say: Europe is at its end."

He asked God to have mercy on Europe and to show mercy to its people, which he said "are in danger of forfeiting our Christian heritage."

Cardinal Schoenborn, who is also the Archbishop of Vienna, explained that people could already feel this loss, "not only economically, but above all, in human and religious matters." » | Zoie O’Brien | Tuesday, September 13, 2016