ROME — Bishop William F. Medley of Owensboro, Kentucky, has reported growing “frustration” with Pope Francis among the faithful of his diocese over the ambiguity of the pope’s teaching.
“At each of the five listening sessions, frustration was expressed about the lack of clarity from church leadership, citing especially Pope Francis,” Bishop Medley said in his synthesis report this month following synodal meetings held during the month of March.
“Pope Francis was described as being ambiguous in his teaching and in his casual remarks,” the bishop wrote. “A plea was made for the Holy Father to ‘be direct and tell us what you actually mean.’”
According to the report, much of the “confusion and consternation” related to the Vatican’s December 18 declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which lifted the Church’s ban on offering blessings to same-sex couples, since it was “perceived to be an approval for the blessing of same sex unions.”
“A lack of clear statements from those in positions of authority in the church leaves people feeling confused and afraid,” one priest reportedly said during the listening sessions, which were attended by 153 active members of the diocese.
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In his summary, Bishop Medley wrote that there is a “universal hunger” among the faithful for “greater clarity from church leaders on Church teachings.”
A recent essay by the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Right, Dr. Bill Donohue, described Pope Francis’ favorability rating as “tanking” among U.S. Catholics and similarly tied the trend to the pontiff’s ambiguous teaching as well as his harshness in dealing with conservative Catholics.
From 2015 to 2021, the pope’s favorability rating dropped by 7 percentage points, from 90 percent to 83 percent, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center. In the last 3 years his favorability rating has declined by another 8 percentage points, to a record low of 75 percent.
Fiducia Supplicans in particular has caused unprecedented pushback among active Catholics and was rebuffed by a leading African Cardinal as an attempt to impose Western practices on Africa, a form of “cultural colonization” and “Western imperialism.”
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), said that African Catholics still believe in the biblical prohibition of homosexual practice as an “abomination.”
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“The West brought us Jesus Christ, the gospel, but today we get the sense that the West is beginning to distance itself from the gospel,” the cardinal declared.
Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the former head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, also blasted the text, noting that Fiducia Supplicans made “an affirmation that has no precedent in the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The fundamental problem with the Vatican text, Cardinal Müller said, is that “God cannot send his grace upon a relationship that is directly opposed to him and cannot be ordered toward him.”
Blessing a reality that is contrary to creation “is not only impossible, it is blasphemy,” he said.
