
CV NEWS FEED // The two Bishops of South Dakota in a recent letter shared the concern of a growing number of faithful Catholics who fear the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans may normalize “serious sin.”
In the unified December 22 statement, Bishops Peter M. Muhich of Rapid City and Donald E. DeGrood of Sioux Falls reminded Catholics that “the ministers of the Church have no power to bless sin.”
“[We] have received a number of inquiries from the faithful concerning Fiducia Supplicans, a Vatican document published Monday on the topic of blessings,” the bishops’ letter stated.
They wrote that “controversy has followed publication of this document, as some have hailed a supposed novel change in the Church’s perennial teaching on sexuality, or praised it as a ‘step’ towards such a change.”
“These pronouncements, even celebrations of a particular interpretation, have been heard both within and outside the Church,” they wrote. “It is important to understand that the document itself makes explicit that the Church’s teaching on marriage and human sexuality is unchanged. Nor can it change.”
Reminding the faithful of South Dakota that “the moral law is the pathway to freedom and happiness,” the bishops noted “some have further expressed concern that, as a practical matter, Fiducia Supplicans will have the impact of normalizing serious sin. Indeed it is troubling that some, even in the Church, may seek to use it for this purpose.”
They continued,
Any misappropriation of the teaching office of the Church in a way that normalizes sin contributes to leading people further from Jesus’ loving heart rather than closer to it, and must be repudiated. Thus we must have a clear understanding of what the Church teaches, even while the virtue of prudence helps us to know when and how to admonish sin in practice.
“There should be no ambiguity as regards this truth: the ministers of the Church have no power to bless sin. To do so would be a perversion of the very purpose of a blessing,” the bishops continued, insisting that “any sort of blessing that would give the semblance of condoning sin is not to be granted.”
“Repentance opens the person to the possibility of forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, new life, and flourishing, which God desires for every person,” the letter explained. “In this way, persons desiring prayers of blessing are met with the generosity of the Church as a loving mother, who seeks to draw all souls to the nearness of the Father.”
“Let us turn to the Lord and seek his peace in these days by living in the fullness of his revealed truths in the Deposit of Faith,” the bishops concluded.
