Details from Zenit:
The Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox Church published a document titled “On the Orthodox Attitude towards the New Practice of Blessing ‘Couples in Irregular Situations and Same-Sex Couples’ in the Roman Catholic Church” on March 25 on its official website.
This document, drafted by direction of Patriarch Kirill, by the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission chaired by Hilarion (Alfeev), Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary, offers some considerations in response to the Fiducia Supplicans declaration published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on December 18, 2023.
The text begins with an introduction noting that the ideas expressed in the Fiducia Supplicans declaration represent a significant departure from Christian moral teaching and require theological analysis. Addressing the classification of blessings into “classic” and “extended,” the document emphasizes that God’s love for humanity cannot be the basis for blessing couples in sinful cohabitation. It underscores that pastoral care must combine a clear indication of the inadmissibility of a sinful lifestyle with love that leads to repentance.
In the document’s second part, the discrepancy between the definition of marriage contained in the Fiducia Supplicans declaration and Orthodox teaching is highlighted, arguing that the declaration effectively equates same-sex couples with extramarital cohabitation of heterosexual couples.
The third part of the document addresses reactions within the Catholic world to the Fiducia Supplicans declaration. It concludes that the one-sided and incomplete understanding of God’s love for humanity that emerges from the declaration is theologically dangerous, as it removes the concepts of sin and repentance from the relationship between God and humanity.
OSV News adds:
The report, by the church’s Synodal Biblical Commission, comes three months after the Dec. 18, 2023, publication of “Fiducia Supplicans,” which said Catholic clergy could now give blessings “outside of a liturgical framework” to couples in “irregular” and “unsettled” situations.
It said the Vatican’s declaration had changed the Catholic Church’s previously “unambiguous position” on same-sex couples, gaining a “positive response” from sexual minorities and the “liberal wing of the Catholic Church,” but causing “deep disappointment” among “traditional Catholics.”
It added that the document had sought to move away from “merely denying, rejecting and excluding,” but had failed to clarify its terminology, while remaining “completely silent about the sacrament of repentance” and “indirectly legitimizing what, in essence, is illegitimate.”
“God’s love for man cannot serve as a basis for blessing couples in sinful cohabitation,” the Russian report said.
“This declaration says nothing about … renouncing a sinful lifestyle or pastoral assistance to the believer in overcoming sin. … One can conclude from it that a sinful lifestyle does not pose an obstacle to communion with God,” Russian Orthodox leaders said.
