Farewell, Fiducia Supplicans

When the late Pope Francis dropped Fiducia Supplicans in 2024, he did so knowing the confusion it would cause. As Pope, he had a moral obligation to clearly defend and articulate the Catholic faith while drawing in more converts and bringing so-called "cradle Catholics" back into the fold. Instead, Francis waged war on the Latin Mass in Traditionis Custodes (which, it turns out, was based on a lie). He called traditional Catholics "rigid" and "out of touch" while attacking traditional priests as mentally ill. And then he furthered the divide by issuing a document that gave progressive priests carte blanche to interpret it as a blessing on same-sex unions.

When Fiducia Supplicans dropped, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, who was prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said it was "proper for each local bishop to make that discernment." Such discernment was not given to bishops in Traditionis Custodes, of course.

In Fiducia Suppliacans, Francis argued for blessings for those in irregular or same-sex relationships and priests like James Martin, SJ, ran with it. Martin was handing out "Vatican-sanctioned" blessings to a gay married Catholic couple. There was also an influx of requests for papal blessings on parchment sheets for same-sex couples.

Gee, who could have seen that coming?

There was also pushback from conservative clergy in America as well as African bishops and faithful, who tend to make even traditional American Catholics look squishy and liberal. There's a reason I wanted Cardinal Sarah to be the next pope, and it's my prayer we eventually get a Pope from Africa to set things right.

Fiducia Supplicans said one thing and suggested another. It denied that the union itself should be blessed, yet spoke of blessing the couple. It repeatedly stated that the doctrine remained unchanged, but opened a pastoral door that many, rightly or wrongly, interpreted as a practical shift. It asserted that ritualization was impossible, but provided church activists with the perfect language to push precisely toward ritualization.
And that's what happened.
The abuses were immediate. The most symbolic case was that of the American Jesuit James Martin, who rushed to offer a carefully staged, photogenic public blessing at the altar to a gay couple he knew. It was exactly the kind of image the document claimed to want to avoid. But it was also exactly the image the document made possible.
Then came the resistance. Bishops, priests, theologians, and entire episcopal conferences spoke out against the text. The strongest blow came from Africa, to the point that Pope Francis himself effectively accepted that the document would not be applied on the African continent.

This is the important part: on a flight from Equatorial Guinea to Rome, Pope Leo was asked about Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and his decision to move toward a uniform practice of blessings for same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations. Marx — who is aptly named — has led the German church's resistance to Catholic doctrine and ordered priests in Germany to apply those guidelines.

Pope Leo said the Vatican has made it clear to German bishops that this formalized blessing is not allowed or tolerated, and then pointed out that mercy is provided to everyone, but that "everyone is invited to conversion as well." Simply put, the motto of the Catholic Church is "love the sinner, hate the sin." Same-sex attraction is no different than heterosexuality, but when one acts on those attractions — whether in a same-sex relationship or a heterosexual one — it becomes a sin. In that, we are all equal.

And we are always invited to convert, to renounce our sin, and live a life according to our nature and Catholic teaching.

Without formally repealing Fiducia Supplicans or attacking the last pontificate, Pope Leo has ended the Catholic Left's push to use the document as a basis for same-sex unions in the church.

It needed to be done. Pope Francis sowed seeds of doubt and confusion, and Leftist Catholics, including the German bishops, ran with it in an attempt to overthrow centuries of Catholic doctrine and teaching. Now Pope Leo has uprooted those rotten seeds. In a pontificate where I disagree with the Pope on war and immigration, this is a welcome step in the right direction.