Blessing or non-blessing?

The Apostolic See, imploring trust and the blessing of persons in irregular situations

Abstract

The declaration Fiducia supplicans of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of 18 December 2023 is a further development of how the Church deals with couples in "irregular" situations. Even if the Pope excludes a legal regulation of the blessing itself, a canonical categorisation is required in order to be able to assess the concrete legal and, in particular, liturgical consequences of the innovations. The article undertakes this categorisation in two steps, firstly by clarifying the concept of blessing in the narrow and broad sense, and by distancing the new blessing from the sacrament of marriage.