- Catholic leaders are holding a Synod of Synodality in Rome to discuss church doctrine concerning female ordination and LGBTQ issues, and Catholic advocates who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation said these topics are being pushed by a “progressive” minority.
- Several cardinals recently reached out to Pope Francis and asked him to weigh in on these issues, but his answer left many Catholics “puzzled,” according to Mary FioRito, a Cardinal Francis George fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
- “Anyone who thinks that Catholic teaching on doctrinal matters, such as the male priesthood or sexual ethics (including the immorality of same-sex sexual relationships) will somehow change because the culture has changed is simply wrong,” Mary Hasson, co-founder of the Person and Identity Project, told the DCNF.
A small “progressive” minority is spearheading an effort to change the Catholic church’s teachings on issues including female ordination and the LGBTQ community as faith leaders gather this week in Rome, advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Synod on Synodality is a three-year process that began in October 2021 and is a time for “listening and dialogue” on certain doctrinal issues, which can later be presented to Pope Francis for consideration, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Vatican released a document in June on the various topics that would be discussed, but Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told the DCNF that though Pope Francis had warned against allowing “ideology” to permeate the gathering, he suspected some would use it to “advance their goals and agendas.” (RELATED: ‘Sinful Situations’: Cardinals Ask Pope Francis To Clarify Position On Same-Sex Marriage)
“Progressive voices in the Church in particular have been very open about using the Synod to advance their priorities on so-called ‘LGBT rights,’ the ordination of women, and other Church teachings for which neither this Synod nor the Pope have the power to change,” Burch said. “The Pope has explicitly warned against the influence of ‘ideology’ during the gathering. It remains to be seen whether participants will honor this request and whether the Holy Father and Synod organizers will enforce this demand against those with an unmistakable left-wing ideological agenda.”
The Catholic Church has traditionally withheld ordination from females, citing the fact that Jesus appointed men to the positions of the 12 apostles, according to Catholic Answers. Similarly, the church has maintained that marriage is between a man and a woman and condemns sexual immorality, which includes adultery, homosexuality and others, and calls those who struggle with same-sex attraction to practice chastity, according to the United State’s Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Pope Francis arrives for the weekly general audience on March 22, 2023, at St. Peter’s Square in The Vatican. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)
Some members of the Catholic faith want the church to become more inclusive of the LGBTQ community and do away with the doctrine barring women from becoming ordained, according to The New York Times. One of the assembly attendees, Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, a program officer for the Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, said that she sees a chance to start off with allowing women to become deacons before moving on to bishops and priests.
“That’s what I’m carrying here to this assembly, to the worldwide church,” she said, claiming that research on the subject indicated strong Catholic support, according to the Times. “I really see a chance.”
Mary FioRito, a Cardinal Francis George fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the DCNF that these issues do not represent the kinds of conversations the majority of Catholics want to have. She said that the extreme focus on changing the church’s doctrine comes from a small minority of American Catholics who do not represent the needs and concerns of most of the church.
“We as Americans tend to think of everything through American lenses, and we need to remember that the vast majority of the Catholics in the world are not in the United States, they are in Africa, they are in South America,” FioRito said. “The majority [of Catholics] are in other continents and places in the world, where these kinds of issues are pretty low, especially since many of them are without basic needs like clean water.”
Ahead of the Synod, a coalition of Catholic cardinals posed several questions for Pope Francis, asking him to further explain the Vatican’s position on blessing same-sex marriages and female ordination. To the cardinals’ question on homosexuality, Francis replied that while marriage is only between a man and a woman, there could be certain situations that a pastor must discern whether a different blessing is allowed.
FioRito told the DCNF that the pope’s response had left many Catholics “puzzled.”
“Most Catholics I talk to have been genuinely puzzled,” FioRito said about Francis’ letter. “What he said might have implied the blessing of same-sex romantic partnerships is a possibility, or it might not, and that is puzzling to people because we have always been taught that that is not possible under our moral teachings.”
Francis’ position on same-sex marriage has been debated by Catholics for years, and in a 2020 documentary, the pope appeared to endorse the idea of “civil union law” for gay couples. In January, Francis explained that homosexuality is a “sin” but should not be criminalized.
Mary Hasson, co-founder of the Person and Identity Project and a Kate O’Beirne senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the DCNF that “Catholic doctrine will not – cannot – change” since the Church receives its doctrine from Christ, but that there will still be high profile individuals who will push “dissenting views towards Church teaching.”
“Anyone who thinks that Catholic teaching on doctrinal matters, such as the male priesthood or sexual ethics (including the immorality of same-sex sexual relationships) will somehow change because the culture has changed is simply wrong,” Hasson said.
The Synod did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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