Papabile Cardinal Whitewashes Gay Blessing

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BOLOGNA, Italy (ChurchMilitant.com) - A leading cardinal candidate for the throne of St. Peter is peddling falsehoods in a desperate attempt to cover up a "nuptial" service for a homosexual couple. 

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, issued a statement on Sunday claiming "there was no blessing of the couple." 

The service, celebrated at the parish of St. Lorenzo of Budrio in the diocese of Bologna "with a same-sex couple present," was a thanksgiving Mass of the group In Cammino ("On the Way"), Zuppi maintained.

In Cammino aims to accompany and support even people with homosexual tendencies in their Christian lives, because "God loves every person and so does the Church, seeking to renew its commitment against all discrimination and sexual violence," the statement clarified.

The cardinal insisted that he was acting "in full harmony with the Magisterium and doctrine of the Church" while it continues along "the path of discernment, pastoral accompaniment and closeness, in the prudence necessary for people's lives and their journey."

Church Militant reported last week that Fr. Gabriele Davalli had presided at the Mass for a homosexual couple, Pietro Morotti and Giacomo Spagnoli, just after the two homosexuals registered their civil union in the municipality of Budrio. 

Slamming the cardinal's obfuscation, Italian media La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana reported yesterday that it had new evidence confirming the ecclesiastical ceremony, including a WhatsApp invitation from Morotti. 

"Saturday 11 June 2022, barring unforeseen events, Giacomo and I will join civilly at the Budrio town hall. Immediately after, in the opposite church, we will celebrate a thanksgiving/ entrusting Mass for our life together," Morotti's invitation said. 

In his statement, Zuppi also misquoted the letter to bishops "On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, published by Cdl. Ratzinger in 1986. 

The letter cautions against "excessively benevolent interpretations of the homosexual condition" and reiterates that "the particular inclination of the homosexual person, although not in itself a sin, nevertheless constitutes a more or less strong tendency towards behavior that is intrinsically bad from the moral point of view." 

"For this reason the inclination itself must be considered as objectively disordered," Ratzinger's letter states, emphasizing: 

Therefore, those who find themselves in this condition should be the object of a particular pastoral concern so that they are not led to believe that the implementation of this tendency in homosexual relationships is a morally acceptable option. 

Church ministers must ensure that homosexuals in their care are not misled by these views, which are so profoundly opposed to Church teaching. However, the risk is great and there are many who seek to create confusion regarding the position of the Church and to exploit this confusion for their own purposes.

In defense of the thanksgiving Mass, Zuppi also quotes from the "Final Document of the Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment," which commends diocesan initiatives of "journeys of accompaniment in faith for homosexual persons." 

The ambiguously worded text, which uses the jargon of postmodernism and is cited by Zuppi, states: 

In these journeys, people are helped to read their own history; to adhere with freedom and responsibility to their baptismal calling; to recognize the desire to belong and contribute to the life of the community; to discern the best ways of realizing this.  

Thus, all young people, without exception, are helped to integrate the sexual dimension of their personality more and more fully, as they grow in the quality of their relationships and move towards the gift of self.

According to La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, the Zuppi-sponsored group In Cammino is an LGBTQ+ activist organization that "does not take the Church's doctrine on gender and homosexuality seriously, but simply wants to change it or, better said, subvert it."

"Let us not be deceived by the words used by the new Pharisees to circumvent the 'law,'" the Italian media observed, explaining how the thanksgiving Mass "is equivalent to a blessing for the couple, but avoids formally transgressing the responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith that prohibits the blessing of same-sex unions."

Last year, Morotti and Spagnoli featured in a short propaganda film on living as active homosexuals within the Catholic Church. 

In the film titled The Greatest Blessing, Morotti rejects the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, even though he agrees it is an "an important reference guide" for his parents, "as it is for every Catholic." The couple unapologetically push for a same-sex church blessing in the video. 

While the Catechism states that "homosexual acts" are "acts of grave depravity" that are "intrinsically disordered," Morotti dismisses Catholic teaching on sexuality as "not sufficient" and "not exhaustive for my life." 

Spagnoli, his same-sex partner, even justifies his homosexual relationship based on a twisted interpretation of St. Peter's baptism of the Roman centurion Cornelius (Acts 10) and insists that such activity may be blessed just as pagans in the New Testament were blessed by being baptized by the Apostles.

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