Untangling Knotty Blessings

‘We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. Rather, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2 Cor. 4:2).

’23 ended with Fiducia Supplicans (FS), a papal ‘bang’ that at once wounded and awakened me. Fallout from the doc nearly canceled Christmas. But wise men reflected holy light and still lead us (Archbishop Chaput said it best in his piece for First Things).

I feel peaceful, the peace of reality. I am not crazy. Pope Francis began his papacy by dropping stones aimed at ’gay’ adulterers (2013: “Who am I to judge?’); I’ve been waiting ever since for him to show his hand of ‘blessing’ for those whose sin he stopped ‘judging.’ Hands freed, 2024, he now extends them freely upon ‘gay‘ couples.

I have watched at every turn as Francis befriended and bonded deeply with ‘gay’ activists Father James Martin and Juan Carlos Cruz, listened to their stories, and in his care began to wonder if ‘gay’ reality may be ‘differently’ ordered, not ‘disordered’ at all.

One of Pope Francis’ gifts is attuning to others’ needs and desires. In his relationship to LGBTQers, that gift became a weakness; he folded into others’ subjectivity and lost the truth of Reality, who Juan and James are as men designed in His image, made for women. The boundary lines shifted for Francis due in part to his porous ‘synodality.’

Please hear me. I am not against this man. I love his pastoral heart. But I have spent the last 44 years helping others come out of profound immorality involving same-sex desire fanned by confusing cultural signposts. Along the way, I have witnessed leaders like Francis (more than I can count) who abdicated truth to advocate for winsome witnesses who gave up the fight and just wanted to be ‘gay.’

Please. FS is not about marriage. Or just about ‘blessing’. ‘The point of FS is the moral nature of same-sex unions’ (Chaput). Francis delivered for his besties. Those who oppose him, he supplants. In prep for the rollout of FS, he counseled his staff: ‘Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions [same-sex unions? indissolubility of marriage?] that …separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward.’   

Where from here? Please know that I am not suggesting that Francis shouldn’t be Pope. I like Francis, love the papacy, and am sold-out for Catholic moral teaching. So I tremble at this shocking expression of papal leadership and am provoked to fight that much harder for the Church. She never misleads; yet deceived leaders do, and that makes me responsible as a Church member to do my part.

That begins with clear seeing. The Pope is deceived here. FS ‘is a double-minded exercise in simultaneously affirming and undercutting Catholic teaching’ (Chaput); it’s a way of approving of ‘gay relationships' artfully, without saying so clearly.

If I care for the Church and Francis, then I will show my loyalty by respectfully disagreeing with him. I will urge everyone to shirk every set of hands that would seek to ‘bless’ familiar immorality. I will extend my influence to urge vulnerable men and women for generations to come to hold fast to their true selves—males and females destined to become integrated men and women, binary and creative, bearing the fruit of increasing chastity.

That we bless; we summon; we prophesy; we confirm; we urge onward when one wants to slack off and go sideways! That is the posture of true accompaniment. That is the Church of Jesus Christ.

‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will’ (Romans 12:1- 2).