‘Non-Liturgical’ Blessings Do Not Exist

[Michie]

A recent Vatican News article used a 2000 instruction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to justify the blessing of irregular couples.

On Feb. 27, Vatican News published an articleheadlined: ‘Fiducia Supplicans,’ Non-liturgical Blessings and Pope Benedict’s Distinction.

The aim of the article was to assert that distinguishing between rituals inserted into liturgical books and pastoral or spontaneous prayers is the same criterion now being used to admit the possibility of blessing irregular couples.

The article juxtaposes the recent Declaration with some passages from the Vatican instruction Ardens Felicitatis, promulgated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Sept. 14, 2000.

That document concerned prayers and how they can obtain healing from God, and it arose from the need to bring order to the confusion of those years about prayer gatherings and the charism of healing.

However, the comparison that the Vatican News article makes between these two documents is completely wrong.

Firstly, it’s important to point out that prayer is an insistent request, as the word itself indicates, while a blessing is a formula of approval (bene dicere) from above, that is, from God.

Continued below.

‘Non-Liturgical’ Blessings Do Not Exist

A recent Vatican News article used a 2000 instruction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to justify the blessing of irregular couples.

www.ncregister.com

 

[chevyontheriver]

A recent Vatican News article used a 2000 instruction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to justify the blessing of irregular couples.

On Feb. 27, Vatican News published an articleheadlined: ‘Fiducia Supplicans,’ Non-liturgical Blessings and Pope Benedict’s Distinction.

The aim of the article was to assert that distinguishing between rituals inserted into liturgical books and pastoral or spontaneous prayers is the same criterion now being used to admit the possibility of blessing irregular couples.

The article juxtaposes the recent Declaration with some passages from the Vatican instruction Ardens Felicitatis, promulgated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Sept. 14, 2000.

That document concerned prayers and how they can obtain healing from God, and it arose from the need to bring order to the confusion of those years about prayer gatherings and the charism of healing.

However, the comparison that the Vatican News article makes between these two documents is completely wrong.

Firstly, it’s important to point out that prayer is an insistent request, as the word itself indicates, while a blessing is a formula of approval (bene dicere) from above, that is, from God.

Continued below.

‘Non-Liturgical’ Blessings Do Not Exist

A recent Vatican News article used a 2000 instruction by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to justify the blessing of irregular couples.

www.ncregister.com

What I have been saying since December, non-liturgical blessings do not exist. All blessings, even the blessing of food at the family table, are liturgical in a real way. They may be more or less formal, but they are all liturgical. A priest doing the blessing and there is no way not to call it liturgical.

Glad someone ably took apart this supposed endorsement in advance of Fiducia supplicans by pope Benedict. He was too smart and well versed to fall for such malarkey.

 

[Emerald1000]

My inclination is that FS is a powerful reinforcement of the magnitude of Gods blessings. Especially in the light of St Faustina's dictations from Jesus about His Divine Mercy.

 

[chevyontheriver]

My inclination is that FS is a powerful reinforcement of the magnitude of Gods blessings. Especially in the light of St Faustina's dictations from Jesus about His Divine Mercy.

Are the blessings an affirmation of why a 'couple' is a 'couple'? Or an asking that God work to assist that 'couple' to 'decouple' and live in chastity?

 

[Emerald1000]

I'm going by what FS itself explains i.e. a mercy God gives us without pre conditions.

27. In the catechesis cited at the beginning of this Declaration, Pope Francis proposed a description of this kind of blessing that is offered to all without requiring anything. It is worth reading these words with an open heart, for they help us grasp the pastoral meaning of blessings offered without preconditions: “It is God who blesses. In the first pages of the Bible, there is a continual repetition of blessings. God blesses, but humans also give blessings, and soon it turns out that the blessing possesses a special power, which accompanies those who receive it throughout their lives, and disposes man’s heart to be changed by God. [...] So we are more important to God than all the sins we can commit because he is father, he is mother, he is pure love, he has blessed us forever. And he will never stop blessing us. It is a powerful experience to read these biblical texts of blessing in a prison or in a rehabilitation group. To make those people feel that they are still blessed, notwithstanding their serious mistakes, that their heavenly Father continues to will their good and to hope that they will ultimately open themselves to the good. Even if their closest relatives have abandoned them, because they now judge them to be irredeemable, God always sees them as his children.”[19]

Declaration Fiducia Supplicans On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings (18 December 2023)

Declaration Fiducia Supplicans On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings (18 December 2023)

www.vatican.va

 

[chevyontheriver]

I'm going by what FS itself explains i.e. a mercy God gives us without pre conditions.

27. In the catechesis cited at the beginning of this Declaration, Pope Francis proposed a description of this kind of blessing that is offered to all without requiring anything. It is worth reading these words with an open heart, for they help us grasp the pastoral meaning of blessings offered without preconditions: “It is God who blesses. In the first pages of the Bible, there is a continual repetition of blessings. God blesses, but humans also give blessings, and soon it turns out that the blessing possesses a special power, which accompanies those who receive it throughout their lives, and disposes man’s heart to be changed by God. [...] So we are more important to God than all the sins we can commit because he is father, he is mother, he is pure love, he has blessed us forever. And he will never stop blessing us. It is a powerful experience to read these biblical texts of blessing in a prison or in a rehabilitation group. To make those people feel that they are still blessed, notwithstanding their serious mistakes, that their heavenly Father continues to will their good and to hope that they will ultimately open themselves to the good. Even if their closest relatives have abandoned them, because they now judge them to be irredeemable, God always sees them as his children.”[19]

Pope Francis' good friend James Martin had a blessing immediately after FS was issued, with a photographer from the NYT in tow. Was that in conformity with this? I think so. Was James Martin advised that he misunderstood his friend the pope? Crickets.

Can I get a blessing with my business partner in our chosen profession as hitmen? Nobody seems willing. Can my concubine and I get a blessing? My wife doesn't want the priest to issue a blessing to my concubine and I. Nobody seems willing. It seems very unfair.

 

[Chrystal-J]

I wonder if the Pope is playing games with everyone or just has no clue.

 

[RileyG]

My inclination is that FS is a powerful reinforcement of the magnitude of Gods blessings. Especially in the light of St Faustina's dictations from Jesus about His Divine Mercy.

If it helps those in same-sex relationships to abandon the relationship, find an opposite sex partner to marry, or live in holy Chasity, then yes, it can be a helpful thing. Otherwise, no.