The controversy generated following Pope Francis’s recent announcement on same-sex marriage blessing in the Roman Catholic Church is far from over, as more criticism and opposition continues to pour in.
Few days ago, Archbishop Tomasz Peta of Astana, Kazakhstan, together with Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider strongly condemned such proposal and firmly contend that the new declaration, Fiducia supplican, is a “great deception”, and that its proposed blessings of same-sex couples “directly and seriously contradict Divine Revelation and the uninterrupted, bimillenial doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church”.
They have therefore prohibited priests and faithful from accepting or performing any form of blessing of couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples.
Archbishop Tomasz Bernard Peta is the current Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Mary in the city of Astana, and the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Kazakhstan from May 19, 2023.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C. is a Catholic prelate serving as the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra.
It will be recalled that Pope Francis recently made an announcement that priests are now allowed to bless the relationships of same-sex couples and others in what the church refers to as “irregular situations.” The proposal has continued to generate widespread mixed reactions from among the Roman Catholic faithful.
It is now left to be seen how this potentially divisive pronouncement will stand among many other controversial reform policies by the present Pontiff, Pope Francis, the 266th Pope and leader of the nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.
