Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, has firmly rejected any openness to blessing couples in same-sex or otherwise “irregular unions” following the 2023 Vatican Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, instead instructing his priests “not to bless known co-habiting couples, of the same sex or both sexes.”
Inspired by concerns raised by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo regarding imparting blessings on homosexual “couples” in African dioceses, and from caveats within the text of Fiducia Supplicans against spreading confusion, Cary wrote in an official statement that blessings for such couples cannot “be carried out scandal-free in the Diocese of Baker.”
“Here, as in Africa, if a co-habiting heterosexual couple or a same sex couple were to ask a priest to bless them, they would be seeking an official sign of approval for behavior that the Church teaches is sinful in God’s sight,” Cary warned. “If the priest complies with their request, the subtle distinctions of Fiducia Supplicans will not keep bystanders from concluding that the Church the priest represents no longer believes as she always did before, but is now endorsing the unions of unmarried couples.”
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