They are catholic after all

I’m saying that technically speaking, the Pope hasn’t invoked any change in Catholic faith with his preaching, and is instead arguing to a change of understanding of the Catholic doctrine. Its both a big deal and a not-big-deal. It’s only a big deal if people make it into a big deal kinda thing. And… yes… people are making it into a bigger deal than it should be.

Not gay people mind you. This is good for LGBT+ communities. The people who are mistaken are the ultra-conservatives who think that things have changed dramatically with this announcement.

Jesus always called upon us to preach and try to understand outsiders. The Good Samaritan for example, was literally a non-religious outsider who Jesus specifically called out as a blessed person. None of this is necessarily “new preaching” from the current Pope, but instead a focus upon other elements of scripture.

Priests can bless sinners, heathens, pagans, etc. etc. Jesus chose literally corrupt Tax Collectors to become his Apostles for example. As such: Priests are supposed to bless even the most sinful among us… and are called to do so. A blessing is not supposed to be condoning a person’s behavior or a statement of morality. So even if you are a priest who believes that homosexuality is sinful, there’s nothing stopping you from blessing homosexuals (or if you are in that position, its arguably more important for you to bless them. A priest’s damn job is to reach out to sinners after all).

The reason such a statement is so annoying to the ultra-conservatives, is because they want to use Catholicism / Religion as a cudgel against gay people, when that never was the purpose of religion to begin with. This is literally a faith that was supposed to spread universally across the world after all. That’s literally what it means to be Catholic (IE: universal)

Ultimately, I’m saying yall should work with what the Pope is trying to say here. He’s thought deeply about this preaching and its a good argument. Both for Catholics and those outside of it (at least, if you want to understand how Catholics think/preach/etc. etc.)

Would it be Christianity without the contradictions?

Ehhh. Two Truths from St. Thomas Aquinas says otherwise. If science is true and if God doesn’t lie to us, then whatever God teaches must be compatible with science. So yes, discoveries of the scientific type force us to change our understanding of faith.

But its not like say… Gravity didn’t exist 2000 years ago or something. Earth always was a floating orb circling the sun, even if earlier Catholics didn’t believe that (just as an example). And therefore, St. Thomas Aquinas would argue the Good Catholic would change their mind and understanding of faith.

If we have two truths that contradict, then the only alternative is that our understanding of those truths is faulty.

The Church has immobile “Mysteries” that have been documented by the Council of Nicea as per our Nicene Creed. These are (in practice), the only immobile elements of our faith that remain unchanging. Most other elements and arguments of morality are (and have) changed as society has changed. None of this is new to a Catholic who has studied our history. A large element of change and improvement is built into the Church.

IE: The concept of Limbo has been removed from our faith within the lifetimes of the elders. If you want a more recent example. The indulgence thing back from Martin Luther’s days (the 1500s guy, not the 1950s guy) is also a change.

But in any case, this particular doctrine with regards to blessings of homosexuals isn’t a change on the scale of Limbo or whatever. Pope Francis is just saying that Priests are 100% absolutely allowed (and probably preferred) to bless homosexuals together, as long as the ritual isn’t confused for marriage (which is one of our deeply sacred sacraments, of which we believe has a large element of procreation / making babies).

Priests are called upon to do all kinds of blessings: house blessings, throat blessings, etc. etc. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Priests can make other blessings on the spot or invent new ones. This sort of thing (IE: Blessing of two Homosexuals) that is going on has always been part of a Priest’s power, so to speak.

Its only “confusing” to ultra-conservatives because they wanted an excuse from on-high saying that blessings of homosexuals was against our faith for some reason.

What? As a Catholic you would know the pope is a representative of Jesus Christ.

Ummm… you mean Peter, right? The Pope as an institution is derived of Jesus’s promise to Peter, and not from Jesus himself per se. Jesus is God. If God wants to do something, He needs no representative. It just happens.

It isn’t up for discussion if he decrees something

Did the Pope speak ex cathedra here?

Note: there are only a few times in the past millennia that a Pope has ever invoked ex cathedra.

What kind of bad Hollywood movie or anime did you learn Catholic values from?

EDIT: I’m just noticing now that your post is 10 days old. It looks like lemm.ee had some sync issues with lemmy.world. The server finally notified me of your response. Apologies if this is digging up an old, week old subject. But I promise it was at the top of my inbox yesterday when I responded.