Catholic philosophers critique Fiducia Supplicans
January 17, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: Catholic natural-law philosophers John Finnis (Oxford) and Robert George (Princeton)—joined by Father Peter Ryan, SJ, the US bishops’ former executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs—have written a critique of Fiducia Supplicans and the subsequent Vatican clarification.
“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,” Finnis, George, and Ryan wrote.
“The truth at stake, which it is a serious responsibility of pastors to communicate, is that sexual acts are gravely immoral unless they express and actualize a committed and exclusive marital union, the kind of union within which new human beings are entitled to be born and raised,” they added. “By commending a practice that, without all the needed conditions, will obscure that truth of faith and reason, the DDF’s pair of documents creates a large new obstacle to fulfilling a pastoral responsibility that is also an imperative of evangelization.”
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Posted by: feedback -
Jan. 17, 2024 9:58 AM ET USA
The Catholic Authors pinpointed what's actually 'novel' about Fiducia and its 'clarification': There is "no crucial moral or pastoral difference between (a) blessing people who happen to be sinners, and (b) blessing people as parties to a relationship expressed in sinful acts. Never has the Church authorized a blessing under a description that identifies the recipients by reference to their sin (e.g., a blessing for pornographers as such)."
