Argentine archbishop criticizes cardinals who back Fiducia Supplicans

Archbishop Emeritus Héctor Aguer of La Plata, Argentina. / Credit: Argentine Episcopal Conference

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 5, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

Héctor Aguer, the archbishop emeritus of La Plata, Argentina, criticized two cardinals who have expressed their support for the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allows for the blessing of homosexual couples.

In an article titled “The Consequences of F.S,” published Feb. 2 in Infovaticana, Aguer referred to “the division pulsating in the Church” that is evident in the reactions to the declaration made last December by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).

After enumerating various indicators of the secularization of the West, the archbishop points out that “the vital reality of the Church is moving toward the East and is flourishing in Africa and Asia. I say it with sadness: I am the grandson of Europeans, and the culture that I have assumed is European, but the spirit of the revolution has devastated Christian culture; the crisis is expressed in ecclesiastical progressivism, complicit in a revolution that liquidates the natural order of creation.”

The archbishop emeritus went on to criticize the position of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, who spoke on Jan. 22 at the beginning of the winter session of that country’s permanent bishops’ council.

The prelate referred to the arguments that Zuppi used to justify Fiducia Supplicans, when the latter referred to the document as an “outlook of mercy” and the “loving gaze of the Church on all the children of God, without undermining the teachings of the magisterium.”

“Once again the contradiction: Even the example that [DDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel] Fernández offers of ‘blessing’ extends this to the mutual help that the members of the couple provide to each other, in other words, homosexual unions are approved,” the Argentine archbishop continued.

Aguer also pointed out what he characterized as errors in the theology of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the archbishop of Florence, who expressed his support for the declaration when he indicated that “the love of God has no boundaries, and his work tries to overcome the difficult situations in which man finds himself.”

The Argentine prelate responded that indeed, “the love of the Father has no boundaries, and that is why he can bless a homosexual person, calling him to live in chastity, but he cannot be pleased with a homosexual’s permanent union with another of the same type, which is to continue in sin.”

Aguer recalled that every Catholic must live “conversion to God and abandonment of sin,” because “God loves virtue and invites man to live virtuously.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.