The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement that highlighted the “distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings and pastoral blessings” and said: “The Church’s teaching on marriage has not changed, and this declaration affirms that, while also making an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings because each of us needs God’s healing love and mercy in our lives.” Diocesan approaches have varied. Some bishops, like Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, are emphasizing the Church’s continued prohibition on homosexual activities: “It is impossible for us to bless a same-sex union … [but] we may bless individuals who are not yet living in full accord with the Gospel,” the bishop said. Other bishops, such as Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, suggested the Vatican document was a positive step for the Church.

Catholic bishops around the world are deeply divided on a Vatican declaration that permits nonliturgical blessings of homosexual couples: some bishops are welcoming the news, some are approaching it with caution, while others are outright refusing to implement it.
In some countries, including Austria, Germany, and France, many Church leaders have warmly embraced the new guidelines on blessings. The heads of the bishops’ conferences in both Germany and Austria have suggested that priests cannot refuse to perform blessings for homosexual couples. 
Church leaders in other countries, namely the United States, the Philippines, Ukraine, Ghana, and Kenya, have mostly accepted the declaration but are also urging caution in its implementation. This, they say, is to avoid any confusion that would lead people to incorrectly believe the Church permits homosexual activity.
Alternatively, Church leaders in at least three countries are refusing to implement the declaration entirely: Kazakhstan, Malawi, and Zambia. Two Kazakh bishops have been more critical than others, going as far as admonishing Pope Francis for approving the declaration.
The declaration, titled Fiducia Supplicans, allows “spontaneous” pastoral blessings for “same-sex couples” and other couples in “irregular situations.” It does not allow liturgical blessings for homosexual couples and states the pastoral blessings “should never be imparted in concurrence with the ceremonies of a civil union and not even in connection with them” and cannot “be performed with any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding.”
Bishops Embrace Blessing of Homosexual Couples
Some of the most enthusiastic support for the Vatican declaration came from high-ranking Church officials in Austria, Germany, and France. 
Archbishop Franz Lackner, who heads the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, expressed “joy” over the Vatican declaration, according to an interview with Österreichischer Rundfunk, an Austrian public media company.
The archbishop said a relationship between a man and a woman is “ideal,” but “a relationship between two of the same sex is not entirely without truth: love, loyalty, and even hardship are shared with one another.”
Lackner said it is difficult to speak of a “must” in terms of religious life but that “basically, [a priest] can no longer say no” to blessing a homosexual couple.
Austria’s neighbors to the north in Germany are similarly embracing the declaration. 
Bishop Georg Bätzing, who heads the German Bishops’ Conference, said he is “grateful for the pastoral perspective [the declaration] takes,” which he claims “points to the pastoral importance of a blessing that cannot be refused upon personal request.”
The bishop explained that blessings for homosexual couples are different from a marriage. He said that “a simple blessing need not and cannot require the same moral conditions that are required for receiving the sacraments.”
In France, Archbishop Hervé Giraud of the Archdiocese of Sens and Auxerre told the French Catholic news outlet La Croix that the declaration provides “another idea of blessing, a blessing of growth and not a blessing of pure recognition” and suggested that he may bless homosexual couples himself. 
“I myself could give a blessing to a same-sex couple, because I believe it’s based on a beautiful idea of blessing, according to the Gospel and the style of Christ,” Giraud said.
Bishops Taking a More Cautious Approach
Numerous bishops around the world have accepted the declaration from the Vatican but have cautioned against misrepresenting the guidelines in a way that would suggest that the Church condones homosexual behavior. 
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Written by Keith A. Mathison |
Monday, October 18, 2021
When we begin to read Revelation in the way the original author intended it to be read, we can begin to understand its intended meaning. We no longer read with the book of Revelation in one hand and a newspaper in the other. The newspaper will not help us understand Revelation. Knowing the Old Testament and the rest of the New Testament will help us understand it.

When Reformed Christians are asked which millennial view they hold, some of the more cynical among them will sometimes answer: “I’m a panmillennialist. I believe it will all pan out in the end.” Much of this cynicism is due to frustration over the seemingly never-ending debates about the last things. It may also be due in some cases to exasperation with the endless train of falsified predictions of the rapture and/or second coming of Christ. For centuries, misguided teachers have repeatedly promised or strongly suggested to their contemporaries that they are the generation that will finally witness the end. I mean, isn’t it as plain as day that Napoleon Bonaparte was the Antichrist and that his exile was a sign that the end of the world was imminent? Some Christians who lived in that generation thought so. Their generation was not the first to fall into the trap of date-setting, and it certainly wasn’t the last. For centuries, numerous Christians have compared the headlines of their day with the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation and have convinced themselves and others that those books point to specific people and events in their time. This led to the mistaken belief that the end of the world was imminent.

Claiming that we know the specific (or even approximate) date for the second coming of Christ is foolish, but it can also be profoundly dangerous when it is accompanied by statements such as “The Bible guarantees it!” That was the slogan that was plastered all over billboards and the sides of buses in connection with Harold Camping’s prediction of a May 21, 2011, judgment day. As we know, that day came and went, and of course, Camping simply bumped God’s day of final judgment back a few months to October 21. But that day came and went as well. So, what happens when you spend millions of dollars advertising that the Bible guarantees a 2011 day of judgment? You make a mockery of Scripture, bring reproach upon the name of Jesus Christ, and provide skeptics with more excuses not to believe the Bible. If you tell the world that the Bible “guarantees” something and it doesn’t happen, then the world concludes that the Bible is wrong and is obviously not the Word of God.

Whenever the nature of male and female are attacked or redefined, as pride month and gender ideology do, every Christian must fully appreciate that it is the very image and likeness of God Himself that is being attacked. Pride month and gender ideology attack the image of God. This is no small thing and something no Christian can pretend does not matter, much less support

We are now constantly reminded that June is so-called “pride month” and everyone is expected to take note, happily get on the bandwagon and celebrate accordingly. But how can pride month be starting when last year’s pride month never really ended? LGBT pride has now gone yearlong, literally 365. The ideology is constantly being forced upon us and our children at regular turns. Who doesn’t feel just like this anymore?
Regardless, it must be declared that there is no pride whatsoever in redefining and denying reality. This is precisely what the gender ideology behind pride month and every presentation of its flag does.
Here is the unavoidable truth: Humanity, across the great diversity of human culture and time, exists as male and female. Those are the only two options. Whenever or wherever you met a person, that person is either male or female, and they were born as such. This is certainly not just a traditional, conservative or Christian ideal. It is a universal truth, an objective biological fact.
It was not long ago that leading progressive French feminist philosopher Sylvaine Agacinski wrote assertively and unapologetically in her book The Parity of the Sexes,
One is born a girl or boy, one becomes woman or man.
The human species is divided in two, and, like most other species, in two only. This division, which includes all human beings without exception, is thus a dichotomy. In other words, every individual who is not man is woman. There is no third possibility. … Humankind does not exist outside this double form, masculine and feminine.
This is so obvious it hardly needs saying. And it certainly was not controversial when she wrote these words to her very progressive audience not that long ago.
But pride month and allyship with LGBT ideology demands we all reject this fundamental human truth, something no reasonable person can do.
In fact, they declare this common-sense, basic biological fact not only wrong, but one of the greatest evils of our times: It is transphobic and threatens the very lives of young people. Of course, neither accusation is true. Both accusations are meant to bully us into submission, and they have been quite effective.
“Non-binary” is not a thing. There is no third, fifth, twelfth, or seventieth gender. A woman cannot become a man or vice versa. No one is born in the wrong body. God does not make mistakes. The family and the future of humanity are founded upon male and female. Pride month and the ideology behind it categorically reject all of this.
Everyone who virtue signals their support for pride and the never-ending evolution into oblivion of the pride flag is indicating their opposition to basic human reality.
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