Statement on Fiducia Supplicans: God's unconditional love

December 24, 2023

Blessings offer the faithful opportunities to become more aware of God’s unconditional love

In a declaration issued on Dec. 18, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith answered pastoral questions that have been recently raised by holding that a simple, spontaneous request for a blessing may be granted to individual persons whose life situations might involve irregular relationships, such as same-sex unions.

The document, entitled Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, distinguishes between blessings that are appropriately sacramental or may be ritually administered in a liturgical setting, in contrast to simple, spontaneous blessings that people request as they desire God’s help or grace when they have a particular pastoral need.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the principal signer of the declaration, maintains that the Catholic Church is open to those who come to God “to ask for his help to live better, and also to involve the Holy Spirit so that the values of the Gospel may be lived with greater faithfulness.”

The document further observes that a prayer prior to the blessing “could ask that individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual assistance – but also God’s light and strength to be able to fulfill his will completely.”

Blessings “lead us to grasp God’s presence in all the events of life and remind us that, even in the use of created things, human beings are invited to seek God, to love him, and to serve him faithfully.”

The declaration does not alter the definition of marriage nor does it legitimate same-sex unions in the eyes of the Church.  When it comes to persons in same-sex civil unions, the declaration does not permit pastoral blessings as part of a liturgical act or a ritual that seems to resemble a sacrament, including and especially a wedding ceremony. Rather, it focuses on the simple blessings people sometimes request when they visit a shrine, spontaneously speak with a priest, or in other informal moments.

The declaration stipulates that persons should not be subject to an “exhaustive moral analysis” as a precondition for a simple blessing.  At the same time, it notes that individual persons in civil unions or same-sex households should not construe any simple blessing as a “legitimation of their own status.”  As in any broader sense of blessing, persons are to “beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

A blessing may be given at the discretion of an ordained minister. Clergy are bound to ensure that any blessing they perform avoid any possibility of scandal or confusion in terms of the attire, gestures, or words they employ.

The declaration concludes by invoking the authoritative teaching of Pope Francis, who conveyed his approval of the document in an audience with Cardinal Fernández.  The Pope exhorts the faithful to believe that “The [heavenly] Father loves us, and the only thing that remains for us is the joy of blessing him, and the joy of thanking him, and of learning from him to bless.”