Heresiarch Bishop Bonny seeks to bless sodomite "unions"

In a book-length interview published next week  Johan Bonny, the Archbishop of Antwerp, proposes a rite for blessing homosexual persons in so-called same-sex "marriages", divorced and remarried couples, and cohabiting couples formally referred to as couples 'living in sin'. Archbishop Bonny   makes his proposals in a conversation with Roger Burggraeve and Ilse Van Halst published in the book, "May I? Thank you. Sorry: Frank dialogue about relationships, marriage and the family."

Archbishop Bonny proposes that the Church offers non-sacramental recognition, acceptance and blessing of individuals in illicit relationships. He outlines one possibility by asking can he as a bishop provide a ritual to believers who live together and wish each other the best, in the light of God's presence, similar to parents giving a cross to their children? He argues that a cross is not a sacrament, but belongs to the order of sacred signs and gestures. He wonders if the Church can establish shades  between the "nothing" for unmarried couples and the "all" of the sacramental marriage recognising what is "already" is, and simultaneously see what it is "not"?

Archbishop Bonny acknowledges that homosexual persons cannot enter into a true sacramental union because they cannot express the deep symbolic link between gender differences and fertility. However, he wants the Church to recognise that homosexual persons who pursue exclusive and lasting relationships. He questions whether the Church should squeeze everything into one model but instead asks whether the Church should evolve a variety of rituals to recognise the "love between homosexuals".

Regarding the divorced and civilly re-married, Archbishop Bonny proposes that the issue of communion for remarried divorced should be carefully considered. He recognises that this is not about a global 'yes' or 'no', but a balance. He proposes pastors make judgments based on the individual situation of the people in question. Or rather, they can and must decide with them on the basis of a number of criteria.

The Archbishop of Antwerp admits that he believes that the Church could bless  second marriages in some cases, even if the first marriage remains valid, following the example of the Orthodox Church. He sees such a blessing as an act of mercy that does not repeat or replace the first sacramental marriage, which remains unique.

Comment*

By proposing that the Church bless so-called same-sex "unions" Archbishop Bonny ignores the warning given by Cardinal Ratzinger in 2003. What he wrote about legal recognition applies even more so to ecclesial recognition:

"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. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself."

Furthermore, it's hard to reconcile Archbishop Bonny's proposals for ecclesial recognition of divorced and civilly re-married couples with the explicit teaching of Our Lord on the indissolubility of marriage:

"They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her;  and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10: 4-12.)