Untangling Knotty Blessings
Author: Andrew Comiskey
January 08, 2024
‘We
have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we
distort the word of God. Rather, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend
ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God’ (2 Cor. 4:2).
’23 ended
with Fiducia Supplicans (FS), a papal ‘bang’ that at once wounded and awakened
me. Fallout from the doc nearly canceled Christmas. But wise men reflected holy
light and still lead us (
Archbishop Chaput said it best in his piece for First Things).
I feel
peaceful, the peace of reality. I am not crazy. Pope Francis began his papacy by
dropping stones aimed at ’gay’ adulterers (2013: “Who am I to judge?’); I’ve
been waiting ever since for him to show his hand of ‘blessing’ for those whose
sin he stopped ‘judging.’ Hands freed, 2023, he now extends them freely upon
‘gay‘ couples.
I
have watched at every turn as
Francis befriended and bonded deeply with ‘gay’ activists Father James Martin and Juan Carlos Cruz, listened to their stories,
and in his care began to wonder if ‘gay’ reality may be ‘differently’ ordered,
not ‘disordered’ at all.
One
of Pope Francis’ gifts is attuning to others’ needs and desires. In his
relationship to LGBTQers, that gift became a weakness; he folded into others’
subjectivity and lost the truth of Reality, who Juan and James are as men designed
in His image, made for women. The boundary lines shifted for Francis due in
part to his porous ‘synodality.’
Please
hear me. I am not against this man. I love his pastoral heart. But I have spent
the last 44 years helping others come out of profound immorality involving same-sex
desire fanned by confusing cultural signposts. Along the way, I have witnessed leaders
like Francis (more than I can count) who abdicated truth to advocate for winsome
witnesses who gave up the fight and just wanted to be ‘gay.’
Please. FS is not about marriage. Or just about ‘blessing’. ‘The point of FS is the moral nature of same-sex unions’ (Chaput). Francis delivered for his
besties. Those who oppose him, he supplants. In prep for the rollout of FS,
he counseled his staff: ‘Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological
positions [same-sex unions? indissolubility of marriage?] that …separate us
from reality and prevent us from moving forward.’
Where
from here? Please know that I am not suggesting that Francis shouldn’t be Pope.
I like Francis, love the papacy, and am sold-out for Catholic moral teaching.
So I tremble at this shocking expression of papal leadership and am provoked to
fight that much harder for the Church. She never misleads; yet deceived leaders
do, and that makes me responsible as a Church member to do my part.
That begins
with clear seeing. The Pope is deceived here. FS ‘is a double-minded
exercise in simultaneously affirming and undercutting Catholic teaching’
(Chaput); it’s a way of approving of ‘gay relationships' artfully, without
saying so clearly.
If I
care for the Church and Francis, then I will show my loyalty by respectfully
disagreeing with him. I will urge everyone to shirk every set of hands that
would seek to ‘bless’ familiar immorality. I will extend my influence to urge
vulnerable men and women for generations to come to hold fast to their true
selves—males and females destined to become integrated men and women, binary
and creative, bearing the fruit of increasing chastity.
That
we bless; we summon; we prophesy; we confirm; we urge onward when one wants to
slack off and go sideways! That is the posture of true accompaniment. That is
the Church of Jesus Christ.
‘Therefore,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of
worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will’ (Romans 12:1-
2).
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