Essays in Idleness

Blessings have become empty and meaningless, in recent times. Or one might say they are the very substance of the “Church of Nice” — an imaginary institution to which the Catholic Church bears less and less resemblance.

Blessings in Christ are another matter, for they may be found in the Gospels and throughout the Bible. Christ, and our life itself, are expressed in these blessings. That they continue from the past, into the future, cannot be taken away — even in Hell, I suspect (in contradiction to our present pope, who has given his opinion that the damned are erased, painlessly).

For a person, even a priest, to say “I bless you!” — informally, outside the liturgy and unaccompanied by any sacramental gesture — can mean nothing until, with the invocation of Our Lord, he raises it at least to a religious statement. But then, he is under obligation to make sense. Pope Francis’s blessings on same-sex couples, proposed in the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, create a rational problem. Can a blessing be given for committing, and proudly continuing to commit, a mortal sin?

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Tucho Fernández, another Argentinian, explains that such blessings do not imply approval for “gay marriage,” or any other undoctrinal thing. But he cannot explain how it doesn’t. It is simply an assertion that opposite and contradictory things, such as two plus two equals five, are possible in the Church, as they were long possible in Argentina. From news reports we see that a considerable number of bishops, especially those appointed by Bergoglio, have spoken up in support of the pope’s document. A considerable number, especially of those appointed previously, have spoken against — including, I think, virtually every one for whom I have respect. (My census is incomplete, hence the “virtually.”)

Of course a bishop, like any other employee, has a motive for keeping his job; and the pope recently stripped Bishop Strickland of his employment, and Cardinal Burke of his apartment and salary, because they irritated him. But bishops, cardinals, popes, &c — whether they are good or very, very bad — are not Christ, the true source of blessings. Remember this in prayer.