Pope Francis Approves Homosexual Marriages? (Can A Catholic Disagree With Pope Francis?)

             Recently, Pope Francis called for a civil union law that legally protects same-sex marriages. Pope Francis claimed that gay couples have an inherent right to this protection because they are God’s children, ““Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it...””¹

            In this context, two antecedent events are remarkable.

            First, in the past, Pope Francis did not approve of a civil union law for gay couples. He characterized the civil union law for gay couples, if implemented, as an anthropological regression, “In the 2013 book “On Heaven and Earth,” Pope Francis did not reject the possibility of civil unions outright, but did say that laws “assimilating” homosexual relationships to marriage are “an anthropological regression,” and he expressed concern that if same-sex couples “are given adoption rights, there could be affected children. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity.”²

            Second, the official Catholic teaching opposes the practice of homosexuality and the implementation of a civil law for gay couples, “In 2003, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and at the direction of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith taught that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions…” “Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity…” “Not even in a remote analogous sense do homosexual unions fulfil the purpose for which marriage and family deserve specific categorical recognition. On the contrary, there are good reasons for holding that such unions are harmful to the proper development of human society, especially if their impact on society were to increase,” the document said.”³ [Emphasis Mine].

            This then is the problem.

            Advocating for a civil union law to protect gay marriages is synonymous with endorsing the homosexual practice. Furthermore, this may sway young Catholics towards accepting and practicing homosexuality.

            The theological stumbling block is this: God, through the Bible, deemed homosexuality as a sin. But Pope Francis seems to have declassified homosexuality as an acceptable practice before God.

            Only God has the authority to classify a practice as a sin. So if a practice ought to be declassified from sin to an acceptable practice, then it is God who should exercise HIS authority to execute the declassification. 

            Essentially, Pope Francis has played God again.

            The temptation to play God could be a consequence of ‘Papal Infallibility.’

            Anything that the Pope says or does would have consequences to the Catholic community. In this context, would the radical shift in Pope Francis’ perception of gay marriages influence the Catholic Church to change its stance on gay marriages? Alternatively, should the Pope’s opinion change or detrimentally influence the doctrinal stand of a catholic?

            In order to arrive at an answer to these questions, we need to understand the concept of ‘Papal Infallibility.’ In other words, did the pope assume infallibility while making such comments?

            To understand Papal Infallibility, we need to understand a few technical terms:

            1. The Magisterium is the authority to teach, in the name of Christ, the truths of Christian faith and life…⁴

            2. The Extraordinary Magisterium “is exercised when a doctrine pertaining to Faith and morals is proclaimed as definitive and infallible:

                      1. by the pope alone or

                      2. by the pope and an Ecumenical Council with him.

            The pope makes infallible pronouncements when he speaks “ex cáthedra” (Latin:    from the throne), i.e. with the full weight of his office.”⁵

            3. The Ordinary Magisterium “is exercised when the pope or the bishops in communion with him propose, without pronouncing in a definitive manner, a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of Faith and morals.” ⁶

            Ed Feser, one of the best contemporary writers in Philosophy, explains Papal Infallibility well. This, interestingly, is in response to a question if the pope, in theory, could reverse the Church’s teaching about homosexuality.

            Feser puts forth the following points in his blog entitled “Papal fallibility (Updated)” [Emphasis Mine]:⁷

A. “Some people think that Catholic teaching is that a pope is infallible not only when making ex cathedra declarations, but in everything he does and says.  That is also simply not the case.  Catholic doctrine allows that popes can make grave mistakes, even mistakes that touch on doctrinal matters in certain ways.”

B. “Some think that a Catholic is obliged to accept the teaching of a pope only when that teaching is put forward by him as infallible.  That too is not the case… Others think that a Catholic is obliged to agree more or less with every view or decision of a pope regarding matters of theology, philosophy, politics, etc. even when it is not put forward as infallible.  And that too is not the case.” 

C. There are “several conditions for the exercise of this extraordinary Magisterium.  First, the pope must appeal to his supreme teaching authority as the successor of Peter, as opposed to speaking merely as a private theologian, or making off-the-cuff remarks, or the like.  An exercise of the extraordinary Magisterium would, accordingly, typically involve some formal and solemn declaration.  Second, he must be addressing some matter of doctrine concerning faith or morals…Third, he must be “defining” some doctrine in the sense of putting it forward as official teaching that is binding on the entire Church.  The extraordinary Magisterium doesn’t pertain to teaching that concerns merely local or contingent circumstances.”

D. The pope cannot contradict the Scripture.

E. Papal infallibility, then, is not some magical power by which a pope can transform any old thing he wishes into a truth that all are bound to accept.  It is an extension of the infallibility of the preexisting body of doctrine that it is his job to safeguard, and thus must always be exercised in continuity with that body of doctrine.  Naturally, then, the pope would not be speaking infallibly if he taught something that either had no basis in Scripture, Tradition, or previous magisterial teaching, or contradicted those sources of doctrine.  If it had no such basis, it could be mistaken, and if it contradicted those sources of doctrine, it would be mistaken.

F. Popes could err. In his blog, Feser mentions instances of errant popes, some in an extremely serious way. Feser writes, “if popes can err gravely even on matters touching on doctrine and the governance of the Church, it goes without saying that they can err gravely with respect to matters of politics, science, economics, and the like.”

G. Why do popes err? Feser predicates papal error upon free will, “The sober truth is that Christ sometimes lets his Vicar err, only within definite limits but sometimes gravely.  Why?  In part because popes, like all of us, have free will.  But in part, precisely to show that (as Cardinal Ratzinger put it) “the thing cannot be totally ruined” -- not even by a pope.”

            Thanks to Ed Feser, it’s quite obvious that Pope Francis did not exercise extraordinary magisterium when he spoke about the civil law for gay marriages. Moreover, since the Bible is extremely explicit about homosexuality being a sin, Pope Francis cannot, and is not authorized to, contradict the Bible to declassify homosexuality from being a sin to an acceptable practice. Furthermore, it is abundantly clear that popes have erred and can err. So Pope Francis has indeed erred.

            So we infer that Pope Francis’ opinion about civil laws for gay couples cannot influence or change the Catholic doctrine on homosexuality.

            Therefore, a Catholic need not consider Pope Francis’ statement to be infallible. But can legitimately disagree with the pope and continue to do what the Bible says i.e. do not practice or endorse homosexuality because it is a sin (Genesis 19:5; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; I Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:10; Jude 1:7).

Endnotes:

¹https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-calls-for-civil-union-law-for-same-sex-couples-in-shift-from-vatican-stance-12462

²Ibid.

³Ibid.

⁴https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2014/05/29/the-magisterium-defined/

⁵CCC 891;  http://www.catholic-catechism.com/?searchtext=magisterium

⁶CCC 892; http://www.catholic-catechism.com/?searchtext=magisterium

⁷http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2015/11/papal-fallibility.html

Websites last accessed on 1^st November 2020.