- Feb 5, 2002
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Remember Humpty-Dumpty? He turns up in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy “Through the Looking Glass” and makes this famous assertion: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
I thought of that while reading attempts to give a benign interpretation to the new Vatican document on blessings for people in “irregular” relationships, including same-sex couples and Catholics in second marriages whose first marriages haven’t been annulled. The Humpty-Dumpty spin was that to bless same-sex unions does not mean approving them.
This naturally was the line adopted by the people in Rome regarding their new document. But not just them. I found it also in reactions by bishops that included such locutions as these: the blessings “do not imply any approbation of the relationships,” they “do not imply that the church is officially validating the status of the couple,” and the blessings must take place “without creating an impression of approval or legitimation of status.”
I hate to say it, but even if you accept the distinction between liturgical blessings and pastoral blessings proposed by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the fact is that a blessing is a blessing, and it is of the nature of blessings that, along with doing other things, they convey a message of approval and support simply by being blessings.
The bishops who say or imply otherwise have my sympathy. Pope Francis is on record as believing the American hierarchy collectively is opposed to him and his program — a misperception fed by people close to the Pope since early in the pontificate. Given that disturbing state of affairs, the bishops don’t wish to make things worse by criticizing a document approved by Francis on a touchy issue.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
I thought of that while reading attempts to give a benign interpretation to the new Vatican document on blessings for people in “irregular” relationships, including same-sex couples and Catholics in second marriages whose first marriages haven’t been annulled. The Humpty-Dumpty spin was that to bless same-sex unions does not mean approving them.
This naturally was the line adopted by the people in Rome regarding their new document. But not just them. I found it also in reactions by bishops that included such locutions as these: the blessings “do not imply any approbation of the relationships,” they “do not imply that the church is officially validating the status of the couple,” and the blessings must take place “without creating an impression of approval or legitimation of status.”
I hate to say it, but even if you accept the distinction between liturgical blessings and pastoral blessings proposed by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the fact is that a blessing is a blessing, and it is of the nature of blessings that, along with doing other things, they convey a message of approval and support simply by being blessings.
The bishops who say or imply otherwise have my sympathy. Pope Francis is on record as believing the American hierarchy collectively is opposed to him and his program — a misperception fed by people close to the Pope since early in the pontificate. Given that disturbing state of affairs, the bishops don’t wish to make things worse by criticizing a document approved by Francis on a touchy issue.
Does blessing same-sex unions approve of them?
Continued below.
Humpty Dumpty, blessings and the masters of meaning
Remember Humpty-Dumpty? He turns up in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy “Through the Looking Glass” and makes this famous assertion: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." Thoughts of this come up in reference to the attempts to give a benign interpretation...
www.oursundayvisitor.com
