Leo XIV’s answer on Cardinal Reinhard Marx and homosexual blessings was a containment strategy.
Asked about Marx’s decision in Munich to press forward with blessings for homosexual couples, Leo did not say that such couples cannot be blessed as couples. He did not say that Fiducia Supplicans created confusion. He did not say that Rome would discipline Marx. He did not even place Catholic sexual morality at the center of the answer. Instead, he began by saying that “the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters,” then shifted to “justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion,” which he said “would all take priority before that particular issue.” Only after that did he say the Holy See does not agree with the “formalized blessing of couples,” whether homosexual couples or other irregular couples, “beyond what was specifically” allowed by Francis.
That is the whole game.
The word doing the work is formalized. Leo did not close the Francis door. He merely objected to Germany installing a neon sign above it. The problem, apparently, is not that two men present themselves publicly as a couple and receive a blessing from a Catholic priest. The problem is that Cardinal Marx is too German about it. Too organized. Too printed. Too tidy. Too likely to make explicit what Rome prefers to leave in the warm fog of pastoral accompaniment.
And yet the usual conservative applause machine heard this answer and immediately began polishing the silverware for a victory dinner. See? Leo stopped gay blessings. See? Rome has spoken. See? Marx was rebuked.
No. Leo defended the Francis line while pretending to restrain its German application. That is not a correction. That is a velvet rope.
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