Spokesman of the Polish Episcopate: Declaration Fiducia supplicans does not change the teaching of the Church
The Declaration does not change anything in the teaching of the Church about marriage and the family. This is actually not a document about the teaching of the Church about marriage and the family, but rather about the proper understanding of the term “blessing” – reads the statement of the Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference Fr. Leszek Gęsiak SJ.
Rzecznik Episkopatu: Deklaracja Fiducia supplicans w niczym nie... (opoka.org.pl)
The Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference indicates that the Declaration makes it clear that “rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage—which is the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’—and what contradicts it are inadmissible”.
This is also the spirit of the Explanatory Note from 2021, which clarifies that “since blessings on persons are in relationship with the sacraments, the blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit. This is because they would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of Matrimony”.
The Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference highlights that both the Declaration and the Note do “not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching”.
“To prevent, however, any confusion that this might mean approval of same-sex unions, this must take place in private, outside of a liturgy, and with no analogies to sacramental rites” – reads the statement. Fr. Leszek Gęsiak indicates that “A blessing is to support and strengthen a person to reject sin and to live a good life”.
The Statement of the Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference was issued upon consultation with the members of the Permanent Council of the Polish Bishops’ Conference.
Press Office of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
Statement of the Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
Due to numerous doubts of Catholics in Poland concerning the Declaration Fiducia supplicans. On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, published on 18 December 2023 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, upon getting familiar with its detailed provisions and upon consultation with the members of the Permanent Council of the Statement of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, I wish to present a short explanation of the doubts.
The Declaration does not change anything in the teaching of the Church about marriage and the family. This is actually not a document about the teaching of the Church about marriage and the family, but rather about the proper understanding of the term “blessing”. As the Declaration indicates, those who invoke God’s blessing through the Church are invited to “strengthen their dispositions through faith, for which all things are possible” and to trust in “the love that urges the observance of God’s commandments” (no. 10).
Since the practice of sexual acts outside marriage, i.e. outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open to the transmission of life, is always an offence against the will and wisdom of God as expressed in the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, persons who are in such a relationship cannot receive a blessing. This applies in particular to persons in same-sex relationships. In response to the doubt submitted: Does the Church have the authority to confer a blessing on same-sex unions?, the answer is: Negative. The Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of 22 February 2021, approved by Pope Francis: “The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan”.
The Declaration sets out that “rites and prayers that could create confusion between what constitutes marriage—which is the ‘exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children’—and what contradicts it are inadmissible”. An Explanatory Note from 2021 clarifies that “since blessings on persons are in relationship with the sacraments, the blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit. This is because they would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of Matrimony, while in fact there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family”. In other words, in this case avoidance of confusion and scandal is practically impossible.
Both the Declaration and the Note do “not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching”. In other words, this applies individuals who totally abstain from sexual relations. To prevent, however, any confusion that this might mean approval of same-sex unions, this must take place in private, outside of a liturgy, and with no analogies to sacramental rites. As the Pope stresses, it is an expression of folk piety. A blessing makes sense when a person asks for it in good faith, i.e. wants to set to rights their life, in keeping with God’s will as expressed in the Commandments. A blessing is to support and strengthen a person to reject sin and to live a good life.
Fr. Leszek Gęsiak SJ
Spokesman of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
Warsaw, 21 December 2023
Translated by M. Turski / Office for Foreign Communication of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
