By John Finnis, Peter Ryan, Robert P. George, First Things, Jan. 15, 2024
John Finnis is Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Oxford and served on the Dicastery (then Congregation) for the Doctrine of the Faith’s International Theological Commission from 1986 to 1991… Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University… Peter Ryan, S.J. is the Blessed Michael J. McGivney Chair in Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and served as executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2013 to 2016.
On December 18, the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) released Fiducia Supplicans. That Declaration stated that priests may spontaneously bless couples in “irregular” situations—e.g., “remarried” or same-sex couples—within certain limits. Those limits were supposed to protect the Church’s witness to her teachings on sexual ethics and marriage, truths knowable by reason and divine revelation. Yet many bishops and episcopal conferences have expressed concern that providing such blessings would impede that witness, undermining the Church’s teachings that (1) marriage is the indissoluble union of husband and wife and that (2) all non-marital sexual acts are gravely sinful.
In response, the DDF has issued a press release attempting to clarify Fiducia Supplicans. But the press release is grossly inadequate. Heeding it will not begin to prevent the grave harm that the DDF says it had hoped to head off. The twelve paragraphs below explain why we urge that bishops and priests should not authorize or provide the blessings at issue: the circumstances in which they will avoid doing grave harm are rare, if not practically non-existent—at least without the set of conditions we will mention. …
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