A heterodox Swiss Catholic lay organization has published a list of parishes that offer “blessings” for same-sex couples and others in objectively sinful relationships.
Alliance Equally Catholic, which is based in Lucerne, includes individuals, organizations, parishes, and “other associations that share the vision of an equal Catholic Church.” The group published its list of parishes yesterday.
“The principle of #EqualDignityEqualRights must apply to all people, regardless of their lifestyle. For the Alliance Equally Catholic (AGK), it is therefore self-evident that all consensual relationships must be regarded and treated as equal,” AGK writes.
“The AGK already said this at the end of 2023 in response to the Vatican’s declaration on blessings,” it states on its website, referring to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez’ heterodox Fiducia Supplicans which allows the “blessings” of couples in “irregular situations” under certain conditions.
“In the same communication, the AGK called on Swiss parishes to offer new or continued blessings for unmarried, remarried and queer couples and to organize them creatively and in a way that is appropriate for the situation of the couple concerned: respectfully, carefully, personally.”
The group notes that in “many places in Switzerland, it is already established practice for pastors to bless unmarried, remarried and queer couples.”
AGK laments that “unmarried, remarried, and queer couples are still not considered equal by the Vatican.”
“This often makes it difficult for interested couples to make contact, as it is not always clear at first glance whether a parish and its staff are open to all couples and ‘queer-friendly,’” the AGK said. “To make it easier for them to find and make contact, the AGK maintains a list of pastors and parishes that offer the blessing for everyone.”
The list, which will be “continuously updated” currently contains more than 20 Swiss parishes and almost 40 “pastors” who offer “blessings” for same-sex couples and others living in objectively sinful relationships. However, the “pastors” listed by the heterodox group are almost exclusively laymen and women working in parishes, and the “blessings” would, therefore, not be proper liturgical blessings that can only be conferred by a priest.
The AGK provides parishes that offer these “blessings” with a “Blessing for All” badge that can be displayed on their websites or physically as a sticker.
As Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), has noted while commenting on Fiducia Supplicans, “blessing” a homosexual “couple” necessarily approves their relationship in contradiction to Catholic teaching. “Indeed, if one blesses the couple qua couple, that is, as united by a sexual relationship other than marriage, then one is approving that union, since it is the union that constitutes them as such a couple,” he wrote in an essay.
Other prominent prelates, theologians, and canon lawyers, such as Cardinal Robert Sarah and Father Gerald Murray, have made similar statements,
Accordingly, Fiducia Supplicans, which was approved and signed by Pope Francis, has sparked opposition from orthodox Catholic prelates, priests, and lay people worldwide.
Regarding homosexuality, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.