The brief statement from the Permanent Council noted that the declaration reiterated the Catholic Church’s doctrine on marriage as an “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union, between a man and woman, naturally open to the generation of children,” a teaching that, they stressed, “we receive from Jesus himself.”
The text of the French prelates also pointed out that from Jesus Christ we also receive the call “to an unconditional and merciful welcome.”
The bishops said that Fiducia Supplicans states that “those not living in a situation allowing them to make a commitment in the sacrament of marriage are not excluded either from the love of God or from his Church.”
The Church, they said, at the same time, “encourages them in their desire to draw near God to benefit from the comfort of his presence and to implore the grace to conform their lives to the Gospel.”
The statement concluded by stating that “it is in particular through prayers of blessing, given in a spontaneous, ‘not ritualized’ form (No. 36), outside of any sign susceptible of being similar to the celebration of marriage, that the ministers of the Church will be able to demonstrate this broad and unconditional welcome.”
However, prior to this nine bishops from France instructed priests in their dioceses that they may bless homosexual individuals but should refrain from blessing same-sex couples, in wake of the new Vatican guidelines that permit nonliturgical pastoral blessings of homosexual couples.
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