Pope Francis’s Tacit Approval for Belgian Bishops’ Homo-Heresy
by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo https://www.tfp.org/pope-franciss-tacit-approval-for-belgian-bishops-homo-heresy/?PKG=TFPE22312
On September 20, 2022, the Belgian-Flemish bishops’ released their “liturgy” for celebrating homosexual union ceremonies – a parody of real marriage. In a previous article,1 we wondered rhetorically whether Pope Francis would condemn the bishops’ homo-heresy.
As pointed out in that article, blessing a homosexual “couple” in a marriage parody implicitly denies that the homosexual act is a sin. That contradicts Revelation and perennial Church teaching. In other words, it is a heresy. Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D., professor of Theology at the Pontifical Academy of Theology (Pontifical John Paul II University) in Krakow, called it “homo-heresy.”2
“‘Blessing’ of Homosexual Couples: The Flemish Bishops Had Prepared the Ground in Rome”
As for Pope Francis’s stance on the issue, it seems to emerge in the title of an October 13 article by Loup Besmond de Senneville in La Croix: “‘Blessing’ of homosexual couples: The Flemish Bishops Had Prepared the Ground in Rome.”3
This Catholic French newspaper’s Rome correspondent writes that work on the Flemish bishops’ September 20 liturgy started four years earlier and that “Pope Francis had been warned. After the September 20 publication of the prayer for homosexual couples by the Flemish bishops, the Vatican decided not to react.”
La Croix’s vaticanologist adds: “The Flemish bishops, who are due to travel to Rome at the end of November with the rest of the Belgian episcopate, have been preparing the ground with the Curia for several months.”4
The insinuation is that Pope Francis knew about the Belgian bishops’ sacrilegious parody of the sacrament of marriage and that the ritual was prepared in collaboration with the Vatican.
The Bishop of Antwerp Confirms Pope Francis’s Support
In an interview for the German magazine Katolisch, reproduced by InfoCatólica5 on September 30, Most Rev. Johan Bonny, bishop of Antwerp and a leading proponent of the “liturgical” ceremony to bless homosexual “couples,” made clear that Pope Francis supports or at least tolerates the sacrilegious liturgy.
He was asked, “You have campaigned since 2015 for the blessing of homosexual couples. What has been the reaction to that? After all, you’re still a bishop. . . ”
He answered, “Yes, I’m still a bishop. They called me to Rome, and I told them what my opinion was. I also spoke personally with Pope Francis about it.”6
Thus, knowing Bishop Bonny’s standpoint on the issue, Pope Francis nevertheless retained him in his position as ordinary of the diocese of Antwerp, despite his opposition of Church teaching on homosexual sin. Pope Francis’s support did not stop there.
Continuing the interview, the Flemish prelate makes the pope’s involvement in this whole “same-sex marriage liturgy” affair even more explicit: “Now I know what [Pope Francis] thinks about it. That’s the most important thing for me. And I know that our guidelines for the blessing of homosexual couples, which we recently published, are in line with Pope Francis. That’s important to me because communion with the pope is sacred to me. It’s the personal responsibility the pope has given us bishops and which he also supports.”7
No Vatican denial of this Flemish bishop’s statements has been issued as of this writing.
The Bishop of Liège: “The Pope Has Unreservedly Supported These . . . Initiatives”
In 2021—before the Belgian-Flemish bishops presented their “liturgy” to celebrate homosexual unions—the French-speaking Belgian diocese of Liège had proposed a like ceremony mimicking the sacrament of marriage.8
Jean-Pierre Delville, bishop of Liège, had an audience with Pope Francis on July 4, 2021, to present recent documents from his diocese, including “the documents of the Diocesan Service for Couples and Families on preparation for marriage and on welcoming homosexual couples.” According to the prelate, “The pope has unreservedly supported these documents and initiatives.”9
Pope Francis on Same-Sex “Civil Union” Law: “I Have Defended This”
Readers do not need the statements of the Belgian bishops to know that Pope Francis supports homosexual “marriage.” He made it clear that he does, at least in the form of “civil unions.”
Indeed, in the documentary about him by Russian homosexual filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky in October 2020, the pope stated, “What we need to create is a civil unions law. That way, homosexuals would enjoy legal coverage. I have defended this. . . . Homosexuals have the right to be in a family. They are God’s children and have the right to a family. No one should be thrown out of it or be unhappy about it.”10
We will outline Pope Francis’s thinking to make it clearer:
- Homosexual sin must be legally protected;
- It gives rise to a family when practiced in a stable relationship;
- Because homosexuals are “children of God.”
However, as Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches, the natural law is founded on the principle “bonum est faciendum et prosequendum, et malum vitandum”—“good is to be done and pursued, and evil avoided.”11 What is evil violates the natural law and, therefore, must not be protected by law.
That is why Pope Pius XII teaches that “what does not meet the truth and moral norm objectively has no right to either existence, propaganda, or action.”12
Pope Francis says that the homosexual union should be protected by law because it gives rise to a family: Homosexuals “are God’s children and have the right to a family.” This misconception concerns the notions of “child of God” and “family.”
Learn All AboutThe Encyclical that Condemned the Sexual Revolution
By analogy, as Creator, God can be called the Father of every human being. Nevertheless, only a person in the state of grace is an authentic “adoptive” son of God. 13
Saint John is adamant: “In this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not just is not of God” (1 John 3:10).
Likewise, to call the spurious union between two persons of the same sex a “family” negates the natural law and insults the true family established by God—originating from the union between one man and one woman.
“My People Have Been a Lost Flock; Their Shepherds Have Caused Them to Go Astray”
Of all the crises God has allowed the Church to cross, the present one is undoubtedly the greatest before the final apostasy at the end of the world. Never in Church history have the Prophet Jeremiah’s terrible words been so true: “My people have been a lost flock; their shepherds have caused them to go astray” (Jer. 50:6).
It is a tragedy that the Church’s highest authorities—to whom it behooves to teach, govern, and sanctify the faithful—should lead them astray from the right path, the truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and into error and sin. That is the most severe punishment that could befall the faithful wishing to follow the Word Incarnate, Our Redeemer, Who is the way, the truth, and the life—via, et veritas, et vita (John 14:6).
However, always confiding in Mary, the Mother of Mercy, let us not be overwhelmed by this tragedy. As Saint Peter teaches, “Resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you and confirm you and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:9—10).
Footnotes
- See Luiz Sérgio Solimeo, “Will Pope Francis Condemn the Belgian Bishops’ Homo-Heresy?” TFP.org, Oct. 13, 2022, //www.tfp.org/will-pope-francis-condemn-the-belgian-bishops-homo-heresy/.
- Solimeo, “Will Pope Francis Condemn.”
- Loup Besmond de Senneville, “‘Bénédiction’ des couples homosexuels, les évêques flamands avaient préparé le terrain à Rome,” La Croix, Oct. 13, 2022, //www.la-croix.com/print/article/1201237610. (Our translation.)
- de Senneville, “Bénédiction.”
- “Mons. Bonny pretende que la bendición de parejas homosexuales está en línea con el papa Francisco,” InfoCatolica, Sept. 30, 2022, //www.infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=44530.
- “Mons. Bonny.” (Our emphasis.)
- “Mons. Bonny.” (Our emphasis.)
- Jean-Pierre Delville, preface to Accueillir, accompagner porter dans la prière: Le projet de vie partagé par des personnes homosexuelles, by Diocese of Liège (Liège: Chemins de Foi & Formations Chrétiennes, 2021), accessed Oct. 26, 2022, //chretiensinclusifs.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Brochure-accueillir-accompagnerA4-PIXART.pdf.
- Mgr Jean-Pierre Delville reçu par le pape François, //www.evechedeliege.be/news/mgr-jean-pierre-delville-recu-par-le-pape-francois/ accessed 10/24/22.
- Gian Guido Vecchi, “Il Papa: ‘Favorevole alle unioni civili per le coppie omosessuali,’” Corriere della Sera, Oct. 21, 2020, //www.corriere.it/esteri/20_ottobre_21/papa-favorevole-unioni-civili-le-coppie-omosessuali-5e2a5276-13a4-11eb-8b5f-364ba608c2f1.shtml?. (Our emphasis.)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I—II. q. 94, a. 2. C.
- Pius XII, Speech “Ci riesce” to Italian Catholic Jurists (Dec. 6, 1953), //www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1953/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19531206_giuristi-cattolici.html. (Our translation.)
- See The Catechism of The Council of Trent (Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, Ill.1982), 20—21.
