A Teachable Moment

Friends, peace be with you.

How do you respond to the question “Can the Catholic Church bless civil unions?

I ask this because it was recently reported that Pope Francis said the Catholic Church could “be open” in certain circumstances to some form of blessing for gay men and women who request it. This response originated from a set of questions he answered from five cardinals that are called “dubium”. We get the English word “dubious” from the root of this word, which points toward the nature of these questions the cardinals believe to be dubious; not entirely clear but demanding clarification for people’s salvation.

In his response to these dubium, the Pope was clear that, scripturally, there is a difference between the sacrament of matrimony and same sex marriages or civil unions. The church considers one a sacrament but not the other. However, Pope Francis surprised many people by not completely closing the door, if you will, to blessing same sex unions. You may wonder what is causing Pope Francis’ reluctance to definitively saying we are not going to bless gay civil unions. Let me offer some speculation, admitting that it is based on a careful reading of what the Pope wrote. I suspect that part of his reluctance stems from the fact that these blessings are already taking place in Germany. I also suspect that the pope is hoping to use this divisive issue as an example of dialoguing with people with whom we disagree. If we begin with a very hard and fast set of rules about what we will and will not talk, it limits, not only the possibility of real conversation and agreement, but any reconciliation we may hope to have with them as well.

This dubium questionnaire was all being done in advance of the synod on synodality, a gathering of bishops, priests and theologians to talk about some important issue; in this case why such gatherings are important. In other words, the whole point of this gathering is for people to listen to each other rather than make laws and rules. I would be surprised if any new legislation were to come out of this gathering as that is not really its intent. Instead, it recognizes that people want and need to feel heard in order to be convicted in the gospel. Bishop Robert Barron recently said on his podcast that people aren’t drawn to Christianity because of its laws and rules but because of an encounter with Jesus. That means that, while living the gospel in our daily lives, we also must encounter those who don’t in order to encourage them to do so. Even as much as we may want to live in an ivory tower, far away from issues like same sex marriage, transgenderism, abortion, capital punishment, war, gun violence and other such controversial issues, we do not have that luxury, and cannot rely on simply saying “This is what the church teaches” knowing everyone will obey it. In today’s world, everyone has opinions and a platform to express those opinions globally. The church must reach out to those people where they’re at rather than simply laying out all of our teachings and expecting that to be a convincing way to evangelize.

So I think that’s why, when asked if the church will bless same-sex unions, Pope Francis’ response is “let’s talk about it”; not because he’s intending to change the teaching, but because he sees it as a teachable moment.