Trying to Walk Back Fiducia supplicans (FS)

You know you can trust this man to tell you the truth, right?

In the face of worldwide condemnation of Fiducia supplicans (FS) (sadly very little from the United States), Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, has issued a five-page press release of gobbledy-gook to "clarify" the document. Reading it put me in mind of a vulgar joke which seems particularly à-propos:

The ringmaster of a circus got tired of the elephant making a mess inside the tent and all over the grounds. So he had the clowns train a little monkey to climb a ladder and insert a cork in the elephant's dung hole. Over the next few weeks the ringmaster congratulated himself on the success of his strategy and the improved appearance (and odor) of his circus. One day the circus vet went to the ringmaster to say that the elephant was not doing well and if he continued his scheme, the poor animal would likely die. Since the elephant was a big attraction, the ringmaster instructed the clowns to retrain the monkey to remove the cork. After several days, the little monkey climbed the ladder and popped the cork. Needless to say there was an explosion. The only thing the ringmaster could recall afterwards was the poor little monkey trying to put the cork back in.

Since 2013 when he came out on the balcony over St. Peter's Square to greet the crowds, Pope Francis has presided over a Vatican that more and more resembles a circus, sometimes literally. He has often had all three rings occupied with jugglers, acrobats and trapeze artists twisting and turning the doctrines of the faith while he distracts the audience with his snake-oil patter. Some of the audience is thrilled, but many recognize his antics for what they are, "The (not the) greatest show on earth." The latest act, FS, has spurred many in the audience to rebel and demand a refund.

Ah...what to do? Re-insert the cork, of course, and keep the dung from flying. 

Easier said than done. 

The latest assault on Catholic doctrine has (finally) made the you-know-what hit the fan. And the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and its prefect are covered with it. Fernandez's lame attempt to walk back the disaster with his five-page press release is like the poor little monkey's attempt to halt the brown rain. It ain't happenin'!

The Fernández clarification, as Peter Kwasniewski points out "is even worse than the original document." It's hard to argue with his conclusions:

Fernández doubles down on the idea of “non-liturgical blessings,” but this frankly makes no sense. A priest is a minister of God who, when he makes the sign of the cross over someone or something, is doing a religious, ministerial, efficacious, and, yes, ritual act. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes (“about 10 or 15 seconds” he says, with a grainy hands-on approach) or how simple it is...Moreover, Fernández doubles down on the idea that Fiducia Supplicans expresses “perennial doctrine” (where’d that come from? perennial as of two weeks ago?), that it is binding and must be implemented eventually everywhere. Although there’s a bit of unintended humor in the sentence “If there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent,” nevertheless there is a condescending attitude toward the entire African continent and indeed toward all Catholics who value marriage and family strongly enough to wish to avoid entirely any and all appearances of support for that which is contrary to marriage and family....

Finally, and most basically, there is a fundamental obliviousness (or is it a studied pretense?) about how actions communicate meaning. Fernández can say till he’s blue in the face that a quickie blessing of a gay couple or a divorced-and-remarried couple is not a “justification” or “endorsement” of their lifestyle, but the action itself shows the Church placing her mantle of blessing over them, which, to any ordinary person, suggests some kind of “may God bless this good couple and make them do better what they are already doing.” If this were not so, why would people approach a priest for such a blessing...?

Francis, like his secular counterparts who consider the "ordinary" person ignorant, rigid, and deplorable,  is using this latest document to advance acceptance of the sexual immorality pushed by radical dissenters since the release of Humanae Vitae in 1968 (and even long before). 

Kwasniewski ends his article with the "obvious solution:"

The priest could say: “Please kneel down, and I will bless each one of you.” Then he could bless the one, and next, the other. Voilà! Blessing imparted, no confusion, no appearance of blessing the couple as a couple. This approach, in fact, is what the nine bishops (and one priest-administrator) of the ecclesiastical province of Rennes have required.

But this obvious solution is not even suggested by the DDF. Why? Because, at the end of the day, Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernández are committed to finding a back door for practicing homosexuals and remarried Catholics to be acknowledged in the Church as (potentially) in good standing and “doing the most God asks of them,” and thus, even in a state of grace, and ready for the sacraments. 

Yup! No doubt about it. Pope Francis appears to believe, like con artists and tricksters before him that "There's a sucker born every minute." But as another saying goes:

You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Let us seek the truth and keep the faith. Ask for your guardian angel's help and stay close to Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. When you do that, you can't be fooled by the con men and tricksters in the Church.

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us!