CV NEWS FEED // In an interview with the Spanish Catholic site “Religión en Libertad” (Religion in Liberty) one of the most popular Catholic Bishops in Spain attributed the world-wide controversy following the publication of Fiducia Supplicans to the lack of a previous consultation to bishops around the world.
The Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, José Inacio Munilla, who has a significant presence on social media said in the interview that although the document “does not affirm anything that is against the faith of the Church,” the ensuing controversy is the consequence of “not consulting the entire episcopate, especially when pastoral reasons are alleged in the document. Today there are plenty of ways to carry out a speedy consultative process.”
“Since [the blessing of same sex couples] is such a particularly debated and sensitive issue, it’s surprising that [the Dicastery did not] proceed in a synodal manner, in line with the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council,” Munilla said. “We would have been spared the dissenting reactions that we are witnessing from bishops’ conferences.”
The Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante strongly rejected the accusation of heresy made by some against the document, but acknowledged that there are “sectors that are in open disagreement with the sexual morality of the Church [and] are applauding this declaration at the same time that they are disobeying it.”
According to Munilla, “a concrete example is the Jesuit James Martin, an open supporter of changing the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, who, while congratulating himself on Fiducia Supplicans, boasts in his social networks how he plans to continue publicly blessing homosexual couples.”
The Spanish Bishop said that the implementation “that will come out from this declaration will be predictably chaotic, as we have already begun to observe. It will be our duty to fight against it.”
“Let us not forget,” said Munilla, “that the Lord does not abandon His Church; He loves Her today as much as He did when addressing those Galileans: ‘Come and follow me.'”
