“Cold shower” in the Vatican: for now there will be no celibacy for women or major progressive reforms

The morning The messengerwith many accesses to the upper echelons of the Vatican, this Thursday publishes what he defines as “a cold shower” for those awaiting new concrete facts after the free passage to the blessing of homosexual couples.

The Roman newspaper claims that the head of the dicastery of the Faith, very close to the Pope, the Argentine cardinal Víctor Fernández, has sent a new message to contain expectations of further newsexcluding the possibility that female priesthood and the revision of homosexual acts in the catechism are at the center of the talks that the bishops are planning in the Vatican in the coming months.

He Messenger publishes that Cardinal Fernández, author of the document on ecclesiastical blessings for gay couples approved by the Pope last December, made these announcements to the German newspaper which have enormous repercussions in the Catholic world Die Tagespot.

In today’s information this is not clear because it is stated that “the text of the interview will be published in full by Die Tagespot”.

In his statements, Fernández is clear the need to contain reforms. What is considered the beginning of the last phase of Pope Francis’ pontificate is the so-called Synod of synods, to be carried out in two phases. The first has already taken place in the Vatican in October and the Pope has demonstrated that he holds the helm firmly in his hand so that the leadership of the assembly can address all the open issues in the Church, which are the cause of growing conflicts between progressives and traditionalists.

This is why Cardinal Fernández, certainly with the Pope’s yes, launched this strike before outbreak of controversy in the episcopates of the whole Church from the document Fiducia Suplicans which approves pastoral blessings for gay couples but excludes their nothing to do with the approval of sacramental marriage between homosexuals.

Especially in Africa, the bishops have practically rejected the reform.

Limits to reforms

In his dialogue with Die Tagespotthe Argentine cardinal head of the dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith recalls the letter of the secretary of state, cardinal Pietro Parolin, of 25 October last and addressed to the German Episcopal Conference.

In it Parolin underlines that the question of the female diaconate and the priesthood, foreseen as topics to be discussed in the Synod of Synods “have been permanently closed for all pontiffs.”

There is no shortage of those who believe that, after having delivered the first blow of only pastoral and non-sacramental blessings to couples, from the heights of the Vatican where the Pope has the last word even in tactical and strategic movements, it was decided to also show the limits to reforms.

Cardinal Fernández explains in the interview that the blessing of gay couples is “a pastoral response that everyone should accept.”

But it highlights how the container of reforms that will be discussed, approved or rejected in the final phase of the Synod of Synods works.

“Some German bishops do not seem to fully understand that a liberal or enlightened Pope could not guarantee communion between Germans, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Russians and others, safeguarding the teachings that the Church has matured and enriched over the centuries by listening to the eternal Gospel “, points out.

These objectives, however, can be achieved by “a pastoral Pope, capable of putting everything into dialogue with the concrete and often wounded life of believers”.

And he concludes: «Not with the life of an abstract ‘human’, but with the real life of many men and women in the most diverse environments».