KENYA: Vatican’s Declaration on Same-sex Blessing, “Should be Rejected in Totality” Bishop’s Stand

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

As the debate concerning blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples continues in the Church following the Vatican’s document that was released on Monday, December 18, by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith titled, “Fiducia Supplicans” (The supplicating trust) on the pastoral meaning of blessings, a Kenyan Bishop has firmly stated that the declaration, “Should be rejected in totality.”

“The Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Fiducia Supplicans” should be rejected in totality and we faithfully uphold the Gospel teachings and Catholic traditional teachings on Marriage and sexuality,” Bishop Paul Kariuki Njiru of Kenya’s Wote Diocese stated in a statement dated Wednesday, December 27.

The Prelate faults a one Cardinal Victor who should have gone through the document very keenly and discussed with the concerned parties before its publication and release to the public.

“I am of the opinion that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez of the Dicastery of Doctrine of Faith should have widely done enough consultation before releasing such a controversial declaration,” Bishop Kariuki who is at the helm of the newly erected Diocese shared his opinion and stressed, “His idea and thought that Cardinals and Bishops cannot prohibit what Pope Francis has permitted with Fiducia Supplicans is mistaken. We Bishops, like Saints Peter and John, we will say “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight for us to obey you rather than God” (Acts 4,19-20).

According to the Bishop who was addressing the clerics and all Religious men and women in his Diocese of Wote, the priests are not allowed to carry out such blessings as indicated in the declaration.

“Since this declaration totally contradicts what Pope Francis himself approved in 2021 concerning same-sex unions that may in no manner be blessed because the Church cannot ask God to bless sin, I hereby prohibit all priests in the Catholic Diocese of Wote from blessing couples in irregular situation or same-sex couples: For “It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage… as is the case of the unions between persons of the same-sex,” the Bishop declared.

He added referencing the declaration of 2021, “The presence of such relationships of positive elements… cannot justify those relationships and render them legitimate objects of ecclesial blessings.”

In his response to the document, Bishop Kariuki echoed the words of Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk a Ukrainian Catholic Prelate saying, “Blessing of a priest always has an evangelical catechetical dimension and therefore can in no way contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church about family as a faithful, indissoluble, and fruitful union of love between a man and a woman, which our Lord Jesus Christ raised to the dignity of the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony.”

He continued, “Cardinal Shevchuk affirms that pastoral prudence urges us to avoid ambiguous gestures, expressions, and concepts that would distort or misrepresent God’s word and the teaching of the Church.”

Bishop Kariuki underscored further that the main course of conflict in the Vatican’s declaration is that, “On one hand, it directs the priests to bless these couples without specifying what exactly is being blessed, while on the other hand, it expressly forbids any ritual text that might specify it.”

For pastoral reasons, Bishop Kariuki urges the priests of his Diocese to invite couples who are in irregular situations and same-sex “to a life of conversion by the words of the Gospel “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1,14).”

“When a sinner repents the person changes his or her mind about sin, the Saviour, and salvation. This is exactly what these couples, like any other Christian, should look for in the blessings,” the Bishop said and expounded further, “Only a repentant sinner who has a firm intention to no longer sin again can receive blessings. Therefore, to bless couples in an irregular situation or same-sex couples who are not ready for conversion directly and seriously contradicts the Scripture Teachings and Sound Magisterium.”

If such an act is allowed in the 21st Century the Bishop said, “it will only support the propagandist of the globalist and ungodly gender ideology.”

He, therefore, called upon all the priests and religious men and women to study the Declaration keenly stating that, “while is true that the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans does not change the Catholic Doctrine on marriage and sexuality it however, opens a new dangerous door that is totally unacceptable for it gives the possibility of approval of quasi-ritual blessing formulae that will lead the Catholic Church to bless these couples in an irregular situation and same-sex couples in a liturgical set up in the future.”