A Belgian bishop has attacked the Vatican for his decree that the Catholic Church will not bless same-sex unions
BRUSSELS – A Belgian bishop has attacked the Vatican for its decree that the Catholic Church will not bless same-sex unions, as God “cannot bless sin.”
The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny, wrote on Wednesday in an opinion piece that he feels “shame for my Church” and “intellectual and moral misunderstanding” after Pope Francis approved the “negative” answer to a question. on whether the Catholic clergy have the authority to bless same-sex unions. The official response said that God “does not bless sin nor can he bless it.”
Bonny, who was part of a 2015 Vatican synod on marriage and family, said: “I want to apologize to everyone who is painful and incomprehensible.”
The Belgian bishops’ conference backed Bonny’s concerns, saying LGBT believers and their families saw the Vatican decree as “exceptionally painful.” The conference urged everyone to work in “a climate of respect, recognition and integration.”
The Vatican’s position has pleased conservatives, discouraged advocates for LGBT Catholics, and thrown an English key into a debate within the German Catholic Church, which has been at the forefront of opening discussions on issues of great interest, such as now the Catholic teachings on homosexuality.
Bonny said he was disappointed by the level of argument that went through the note from the Vatican’s Orthodox office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“Intellectually, this does not even reach the secondary level. Such arguments, logic, are seen through it. Currently, no one is convinced in this way, ”said Bonny.
The note from the Congregation distinguished between the blessing of same-sex unions and the welcome and blessing of gay people in the church, which it approved. He maintained that these unions were not part of God’s plan and that any sacramental recognition of them could be confused with marriage.
The Vatican maintains that gays should be treated with dignity and respect, but that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered.” Catholic teaching says that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman that is part of God’s plan and that seeks to create a new life.
The Orthodoxy office document argued that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions because they are not part of that plan.
God “cannot and cannot bless sin: bless the sinful man, that he may acknowledge that it is part of his plan of love and allow himself to be changed by it,” the note said.
In his opinion piece published in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, Bonny rejected that “sin is one of the most difficult theological and moral categories to define and one of the last to fix people and their way of living together.” .
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a similar decree in 2003 stating that the church’s respect for gay people “cannot in any way lead to the approval of homosexual behavior or the legal recognition of homosexual behavior. homosexual unions “.
Belgium has historically been a strong Roman Catholic country with strong ties to the Vatican. But the number of believers and attendance at religious services has declined in recent decades.
The nation is dotted with small and large churches, but its announcements of death almost invariably outweigh those of baptisms.