In an extraordinary pushback against Pope Francis, some Catholic bishops in Africa, Poland and elsewhere say they will not implement the new Vatican policy allowing blessings for same-sex couples.
Others downplayed the policy approved this week by Francis as merely reaffirming the Vatican’s long-standing teaching about marriage being only a union between a man and a woman.
The reactions show how polarizing the issue remains and how Francis’ decade-long effort to make the church a more welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community continues to spark resistance among traditionalist and conservative Catholic leaders.
Some of the strongest responses came from bishops in Africa, home to 265 million Catholics, or nearly a quarter of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics. Many of those Catholics live and their churches operate in societies where homosexuality is condemned and outlawed.
Isn’t, according to Catholics beliefs, the pope infallible? Is that not a core part of the religion that separates it from Protestants?
Are we about to witness a splitting of the Catholic church?
Only via ex cathedra i.e “from the chair.” The catholic church has had an… interesting history when it comes to papal authority.
So papal infallibility only applies when they’re speaking ex cathedra (from the throne). The only time that’s happened was in 1950. It’s more that daughter churches need to maintain a “catholic” (universal) church within established rites.
“Rules for thee and rules for me.” They hate gays more now than they love gods representative they decided. This is the steadfast “truth” we should all rally around and tell women what they can do with their bodies, when they can’t even follow their own rules.
Isn’t there like twenty different sects of Catholicism already?
Catholicism is itself a sect of the larger religion of Christianity. But yes, apparently there is a new Christian derived sect every second bigger town.