With mild bronchitis that prevented him from reading a speech, the Pope once again defended the blessing of homosexual couples

Concern for the Pope’s health returned to the fore this weekend after Francis was unable to read the speech he was due to give at Friday’s final audience in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

The pontiff apologized to the participants in the symposium at the Unversité des comunicants of Eglise, promoted by the French Episcopal Conference, and explained to them: “I have a little bronchitis.” It is the same disease that has created health problems in the past. On December 17, Pope Bergoglio turned 87.

However, this Saturday it has already resumed its activities. He brought together more than 800 priests, deacons and religious in the Roman basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano to discuss some important topics and answer their questions.

In 2023 the Pope He was hospitalized due to several illnesses. The most persistent one hit the bronchi and lungs again.

Due to pneumonia, he was hospitalized for a few days in March at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, where there is a section dedicated exclusively to the pontiff.

In June he underwent abdominal surgery to remove internal scars. The Pope recovered very well.

In November, acute bronchitis forced him to cancel a trip to Dubai to attend the United Nations’ global climate symposium. In his place he sent one of his closest collaborators, the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin.

This Friday, as has already happened other times in recent months, the Pope had a very busy hearing schedule and upon arriving at the last meeting, Jorge Bergoglio, who seemed very tired, said to the French university students present: “I would like to read you the whole speech, but I have a problem, I can’t speak well.”

Participants received a written copy. The Pope further explained that it is difficult for him to speak and added: “Thank you for your understanding.” At the end he greeted the communicators one by one and blessed them “because to say goodbye I don’t have to speak”.

Francis defends the document on homosexual couples

Pope Francis said this Saturday that the blessing for same-sex couples, approved by a recent Vatican document, is addressed “to the people”, in a closed-door meeting with the Roman clergy, who expressed their doubts on the issue.

“The Pope has clarified the situation a little. The intention is to bless the people”, summarized the vicar bishop of Rome, Angelo De Donatis, on the Italian public television Rai, at the end of the meeting.

This was reported by the official media “Vatican News”. Francis made clear that these blessings do not change the doctrine of the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman and that in short “people are blessed, they do not sin”, according to said portal.

Similarly, when questioned by an African priest, the Pope admitted that African culture does not accept these blessings – in many of its countries homosexuality is a crime – and that this debate has already been clarified to Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, he reported the EFE agency. .

The meeting with the clergy took place in the midst of the storm unleashed by the possibility of imparting blessings to couples of the same sex or in “irregular” situations from a canonical point of view, without justifying them or equating them to marriage.

On December 18, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the declaration “Fiducia Supplians” which opened up the possibility of imparting a spontaneous blessing without rituals to this type of couple.

This historic opening by Pope Francis It has raised doubts and divisions as some of the world’s clergy, its more conservative faction and bishops such as those in Africa have called it “blasphemy” and refused to give the blessing.

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Argentine cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, author of the document, defended in the text that “one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status “. alter in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

Faced with controversy, Cardinal Fernández had to clarify on January 4 that the blessing of homosexual couples will not be “liturgical or ritualized” and that it will not imply their “justification”.