The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sent the following letter to the then-President of the German Conference of Bishops, Bishop Bätzing,* making clear the Vatican's position on the German proposal on blessings for same-sex "couples."
The letter, from November 2024, was made public today. It makes Cardinal Marx's move last month even more egregious. Our translation of the Italian original is below:
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DICASTERIUM PRO DOCTRINA FIDEI
00120 Città del Vaticano Palazzo del S. Uffizio
November 18, 2024
Prot. N. 731/2023 – 102543
Your Excellency,
By your letter of October 24, 2024, you, "also on behalf of the President of the Bishops' Conference, Msgr. Georg Bätzing," kindly forwarded to this Dicastery a copy of a Vademecum, in German and Italian, intended to serve as a supplement to "Benedictions for Couples Who Love Each Other." At the same time, you indicated that this Vademecum would be presented to the German diocesan bishops at an upcoming occasion, with the aim of offering the bishops "an application of the Declaration Fiducia supplicans to the social and pastoral situation of the dioceses in Germany."
In this regard, having taken note of what you forwarded, I take the liberty of respectfully offering the following observations:
a) The Declaration Fiducia supplicans states that: "The Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when this, in some way, could offer a form of moral legitimization to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice" (n. 11), nor to those who claim "the legitimization of their own status" (cf. n. 31).
Indeed, according to Fiducia supplicans, with such blessings "one does not intend to legitimize anything, but simply to open one's life to God" (n. 40), nor to "sanction… anything" (n. 34), but only to ask for God's help "to live better" and to invoke the Holy Spirit "so that the values of the Gospel may be lived with greater fidelity" (n. 40).
In the text of the Vademecum, however, there is mention of a union and an "official regulation," on the part of pastors, of couples who are outside of marriage — with those pastors also becoming the object of a genuine "acclamation," a gesture that is normally part of the marriage ritual. In this sense, the Vademecum effectively legitimizes the status of such couples, in a manner contrary to what is affirmed in Fiducia supplicans.
b) The Declaration Fiducia supplicans, insofar as it concerns the possibility of blessing extra-marital couples, does not allow for any type of liturgical rite or forms of blessings similar to sacramentals that could create confusion (cf. Presentation), affirming that "the form must not find any ritual fixation on the part of ecclesial authorities" (n. 31), and avoiding that such rites "become a liturgical or semi-liturgical act, similar to a sacrament" (n. 36). "For this reason, a ritual for the blessing of couples in an irregular situation should neither be promoted nor provided" (n. 38).
Instead, in the text of the Vademecum, even though there is initially mention of "spontaneity and freedom" regarding blessings conferred on same-sex couples — suggesting that these should not be institutionalized through ritual forms — a pre-set form is then offered for their implementation, contradicting what was stated earlier.
In particular, in the final section ("Form"), after affirming that "the manner in which the blessing is carried out, the location, the aesthetics of the whole, including the music and the singing, must bear witness to the appreciation of the persons requesting the blessing," a kind of liturgy or para-liturgy is prescribed for the blessing of same-sex couples.
All of this is communicated for every good purpose.
In conveying the above to Your Excellency, I take the opportunity to confirm myself with sentiments of distinguished esteem,
Victor Manuel Card. FERNÁNDEZ
Prefect
To His Most Reverend Excellency Msgr. Stephen ACKERMANN Bishop of Trier Postfach 3444 D-54229 Trier GERMANY
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* Bishop Wilmer, of Münster, was elected to replace him at the end of his term, in February 2026.
The Italian original of the letter is in images below (source: Fr. Jorge Enrique Mújica, head of news page Zenit, in Spanish, on X); PDF file also made available by El Confidencial Digital here.
