The Pope’s Declaration May Feel Late…But It’s Still Important

Ho, ho, ho, Meteor readers,

Only a few more days ‘til Christmas, and I, for one, am very much looking forward to cooking my family’s ancestral holiday dinner, passed down to me by generations of Puerto Rican women: lasagna.

In today’s newsletter, Phill Picardi helps us make sense of Pope Francis’s latest announcement—plus, a new bill to save books and a touch of, yes, good news.

No-boil noodles for the win,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S IT REALLY MEAN?

Yesterday, Pope Francis issued a declaration stating that priests are now allowed to bless same-sex couples. There is, of course, a caveat: The blessings must be in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church. This means that while those couples can be blessed, they still cannot receive the sacrament of holy matrimony, and their marriages cannot be formally recognized by the Church. Still, this is a bold step forward for Francis, who has been fending off conservative attacks from within the Vatican walls and, in the U.S.,  the overall influence of the political right.

How happy should or shouldn’t we be about this? We knew exactly who to ask: Meteor collective member Phillip Picardi, who is both the CMO of the LA LGBT Center and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School.

What does this new document from the Vatican mean for the LGBTQ+ Catholic community?

Phillip Picardi: This is the rare headline about Christianity and LGBTQ+ people that doesn’t involve violent protests, book bans, or the rollback of basic civil rights.

Instead, this is the Pope—who’s believed by Catholics to be the divinely ordained Head of the Church—telling his global clergy that they can bless LGBTQ+ couples. This is a massive turnaround, considering the Church’s hard-nosed stances on gay adoption, same-sex marriage, trans rights, and even safe sex practices around HIV/AIDS.

Now, while a blessing isn’t going to solve the issues facing our community, it can’t hurt. Religious-based discrimination is a huge issue for the LGBTQ+ community—in fact, many of the youth who end up seeking housing with the LGBT Center [have been] kicked out of their homes for reasons related to religion. If this starts to change some of that harmful rhetoric, it can be significant.

The declaration makes a point to distinguish between allowing same-sex couples a blessing rather than allowing them to receive the sacrament of matrimony. What’s the difference between these two things?

Sacraments are the ways a Catholic moves through their journey within the church throughout their life. They’re liturgical sacraments, which means that they hold a certain rigor within the structure of the Church.

Catholicism is very big on making sure Catholics have been educated and prepared before receiving these sacraments because, in a sense, they’re also a reception of God. A blessing is a much more casual acknowledgment by a clergy member; it doesn’t hold the same liturgical rigor.

Pope Francis, with this order, is trying to make it so that Catholic priests feel comfortable giving blessings to folks, even though they may not know about their moral litmus test. Before, getting a blessing from the Church was something that the Vatican said you needed to be somewhat morally pure or prepared for. So, he’s removing this idea that there needs to be a moral exam for someone to receive a blessing or acknowledgment from the church.

Is this a big step forward? Or not big enough?

I think that depends on your own relationship to faith. If you are not Catholic, a move like this from the Pope can seem inconsequential or rudimentary—a small spiritual concession to make. And I think that can be a fair assessment considering how far other faith traditions have come on LGBTQ+ issues.

On the other hand, if you are Catholic and know about the history of the Church, this can feel massive. Pope Francis is breaking with centuries of tradition that have seen the Church further marginalize and harm LGBTQ+ people. He’s also issuing this sort of “spiritual executive order” at a time when the Catholic church is, unfortunately, tilting even farther towards the right.

The Pope has the power to change how Catholics look at their neighbors or how a parent looks at their child. Even for LGBTQ+ Catholics—because it’s estimated that at least half of our community is religious!—this is significant. It can feel like an opportunity for healing or reconciliation after a lifetime of religious-based trauma, after feeling abandoned by a church community or even by God.

And if this is the beginning of that change—then this is a positive step in the right direction.

ALSO IN THE NEWS

• Just about every major global humanitarian organization—including CARE USA, Oxfam, and Mercy Corps—is asking the U.S. to change its stance on the siege in Gaza and, more specifically, to support a complete ceasefire. Organization leaders wrote in The New York Times, “Among leaders in Washington, there is constant talk about preparing for the ‘day after.’ But if this relentless bombardment and siege continue, there will be no ‘day after’ for Gaza. It will be too late. Hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance today.”

• A group of Mexican women in Utah were among the over 40 patients who filed complaints of sexual assault against local gynecologist, Dr. David Broadbent. But their local police station didn’t have enough Spanish speakers, so their reports went ignored until a victims’ advocate involved the Mexican consulate. In one case, one of the victims was told her complaint “didn’t exist,” even though she had spoken to an officer just a week before.

• Rep. Ayanna Pressley has introduced a bill targeting the slew of book bans popping up all over the country. Her Books Save Lives bill would make the “disproportionate exclusion of books that include content on certain populations in a library that receives federal funding” a civil rights violation. The bill would also ensure that schools and public libraries maintain a diverse collection of books.

• Ruby Franke, a YouTube momfluencer who was arrested earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse. (This link contains graphic descriptions of abuse, please be mindful.) Franke has been a fixture in the parenting and influencer space for years.

TELL ME SOMETHIN’ GOOD 🎶

• My shrine to the ancient life forces finally worked: Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner broke up.

• LGBTQ+ military veterans who were once dishonorably discharged under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy of the ‘90s are now starting to see the benefits of a Pentagon program that revisited and corrected hundreds of “other than honorable” discharges. Many queer veterans will now have access to military benefits, from VA health coverage to money for college, which the military had initially denied them.

• USWNT stars Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett are in talks to join NJ/NY Gotham FC, and if anyone who has the power to make that dream come true is reading this, I will give you my firstborn to make this trade go through¹.

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