(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider stated that “[s]ecular powers, ‘LGBTQ’ lobbies, and anti-Church agendas” are behind the publication of the Vatican’s heterodox document on homosexual “blessings,” Fiducia Supplicans.
In an extensive critique published in Crisis magazine, Schneider gave a detailed response to the document published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) that was approved by Pope Francis and drew condemnations from faithful bishops around the world, including Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and the majority of the African bishops.
READ: Cardinal Sarah: African Church gave heroic witness against ‘grave error’ of homosexual ‘blessings’
Schneider wrote that Fiducia Supplicans (FS) “serves as a significant support for ‘LGBTQ’ groups and lobbies and their ‘gay pride,’ and elevates practicing homosexuals to the level of an acceptable ‘community’ within the Church.”
“This ‘blessing’ also reinforces ‘LGBTQ communities’ in the false conviction that their sinful lifestyle is good, thus discouraging them from repenting,” the bishop from Kazakhstan continued. “Above all, it helps them to justify their militant efforts to obtain the ‘right’ to marry, adopt children, and normalize homosexual activity.”
He said that FS is “also a weapon that the Church’s enemies and ‘LGBTQ’ groups can readily use to corrupt societies and make them lenient towards sinful lifestyles” because it could be used to demand legal recognition of homosexual unions.
Schneider stated, “Secular powers, ‘LGBTQ’ lobbies, and anti-Church agendas are ultimately the driving force behind the issuance of this Declaration, whose aim is to sow the seed of deep doubt in the heart of the Church.”
“And they will surely exert significant pressure to compel Catholics to accept and promote it,” he added. “They will falsely invoke the obligation to obey Church teaching, and those priests and faithful who criticize Fiducia Supplicans, and refuse to implement it, will be accused of being unfaithful to the Pope.”
The bishop stressed that “blessing” a couple in an “irregular situation,” e.g. a same-sex “couple” or a divorced and “civilly remarried” couple, would necessarily also mean approving the sinful “lifestyle.”
“Therefore, turning a blind eye to the sin of homosexuality, i.e. engaging in homosexual acts, and going so far as blessing a person who identifies with the homosexual lifestyle, is tantamount to blessing abomination,” he wrote.
READ: Cardinal Müller: Fiducia Supplicans ‘leads to heresy,’ Catholics cannot accept it
While individuals can receive a blessing even if they are in a state of sin, the Church could not bless any “couple” in the context of a sinful relationship, Bishop Schneider explained.
“’Blessing’ a same-sex couple logically and implicitly means blessing their sinful lifestyle, and, above all, their conviction that it is inherently good and therefore morally and socially acceptable,” he stated.
“And if such unions are licit, why can ‘polyamorous’ relationships not receive a ‘simple’ and ‘spontaneous’ blessing? According to the logic of Fiducia Supplicans, a priest could also licitly bless a married man and his mistress, a priest who lives in open concubinage, a murderous and unrepentant gang member, or a dictator who starves millions of innocent people.”
The bishop also gave a warning to those clerics who authorize and support these kinds of “blessings” of “couples” living in sinful relationships.
“Those who support such blessings de facto encourage same-sex couples to pursue their sinful lifestyle, for which God will condemn them,” he stressed. “Those who authorize the ‘blessing’ of same-sex couples bear the burden and responsibility for the grave spiritual harm caused to these persons.”
“Therefore, such ‘blessings’ fit the traditional definition of scandal, for they lead others into sin.”
The bishop from Kazakhstan said that FS “is neither authentically pastoral nor authentically magisterial, as it undermines the unchanging Divine truth and the constant teaching of the Church’s Magisterium regarding the intrinsic evil of sexual acts outside a valid marriage, specifically homosexual acts.”
“This impedes the Church’s ability to convincingly reflect the true face of the Risen Christ and to radiate the beauty of His truth before the whole world,” he warned.
Schneider concluded that the heterodox Vatican document “seriously undermines the Catholic faith and morals, turning the Catholic Church, at least in practice, into a welcoming and nurturing environment for unrepentant homosexuals and adulterers who lead sinful lifestyles, instead of calling such sinners to repentance.”
In a final warning to the “shepherds of the Church who lead people astray,” the bishop quoted the prophet Isaiah: “’Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness… for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts’” (Is 5:20, 24).
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