Denver Newsroom, Sep 30, 2022 / 02:00 am
The archbishop of Utrecht has urged that the Flemish bishops be asked to withdraw their statement introducing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, saying the practice undermines Church teaching.
“If gay couples in monogamous, lasting sexual relationships can receive a blessing, should not the same be possible in the monogamous, lasting sexual relationships of a man and a woman living together without being married? Allowing the blessing of gay couples carries the great risk of devaluing blessings and undermining the Church’s teaching on the morality of marriage and sexual ethics,” Cardinal Willem Eijk of Utrecht wrote Sept. 27 in The New Daily Compass.
“The statement of the Flemish bishops, in which they allow the blessing of same-sex couples and even provide a liturgical model for it, meets with inherent ethical objections, radically contradicts a recent ruling by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and carries the risk that it may lead Catholics to views on the morality of same-sex relationships that are contrary to Church teaching,” the cardinal stated.
“Catholics who accept the Church’s teaching, including on sexual morality, therefore fervently hope that the Flemish bishops will soon be asked by ecclesiastically competent circles to withdraw their statement and that the latter will comply.”