Fernández: DDF ‘did not approve anything’ on German same-sex blessings handbook
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Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has denied that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith approved recent guidelines for blessings of same-sex couples issued by the German bishops’ conference.
The conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing has claimed the controversial text, issued during the papal interregnum, had been created “transparently in consultation with this dicastery.”
Responding to questions from The Pillar on Oct. 8, Cardinal Fernández said that “the DDF didn’t approve anything [of the irregular unions’ guidelines], and wrote a letter some time ago reminding [the German bishops] that [Fiducia supplicans] excluded any form of ritualization, just as the pope has said.”
Fernández’ statement to The Pillar follows other media reports this week calling into question recent claims by German bishops’ conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing, who said last month that the Vatican had been consulted on the development of controversial guidelines issued in April, days after the death of Pope Francis.
“We have developed this paper transparently with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with this dicastery,” Bätzing said on Sept. 22. “So for anyone who might now ask, there is no reason to withdraw it.”
Bätzing claimed in a press conference to open the German bishops’ plenary meeting last month that the handbook, titled “Blessings Give Love Strength” and published in April, “is a pastoral concretization of Fiducia supplicans created in consultation with the Roman Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith about the situation in Germany”
The bishop insisted that the German bishops had “prepared these guidelines transparently with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Dicastery.”
But according to Fernandez, there was little in the text’s development which could be described as consultation, and the dicastery’s intervention was critical of the German bishops’ efforts.
“The DDF sent a letter to the liturgical commission of the German bishops’ [conference] indicating that the DDF cannot approve any form of ritualization of these blessings, because any form of ritualization is expressly excluded in FS,” the cardinal told The Pillar.
Bätzing has insisted that the German bishops “have not published any rituals for any blessings, but place responsibility for the form of such a blessing in the hands of pastoral workers.”
Bätzing’s defense of the handbook followed the publication by Crux last month of an interview with Pope Leo XIV, in which the pope appeared to criticize the German text.
“In Northern Europe they are already publishing rituals of blessing ‘people who love one another’... which goes specifically against the document that Pope Francis approved, Fiducia supplicans, which… doesn’t look for a way of ritualizing some kind of blessing because that’s not what the Church teaches,” he said in the interview.
Bätzing said that “the criticism that the Pope hints at in the interview is directed against the publication of liturgical formularies for formal blessing rituals. This is precisely what the German bishops have consciously not done.”
A recent report published by Communio quoted sources at the dicastery saying the DDF had received the German bishops’ text, together with a note explaining that the German bishops were not seeking approval from the DDF.
Nonetheless, Fernández sent critical feedback on the document to the German bishops’ conference which reportedly led to a revised draft which was also not approved by the DDF.
The German bishops’ spokesman told Communio that the bishops “do not publicly disclose any information about [their] communication with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
The Synodal Committee of the German Bishops’ Conference previously said during a May meeting that it had incorporated feedback from Fernández into the text of the guidelines’ draft.The Pillar contacted a spokesperson of the German bishops’ conference for comment, who replied that he would “have to read everything” before making a statement.
Fiducia supplicans is a December 2023 DDF declaration allowing for informal, non-liturgical blessings of persons in irregular unions, including those in same-sex relationships.
In the first interview after the publication of Fiducia supplicans, Fernández told The Pillar in 2023 that while “some episcopates had advanced in ritualized forms of blessing irregular couples,” that practice was “inadmissible. They should reformulate their proposals.”
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