section_path: Theological emphases and teachings/Theological disagreements/Fiducia supplicans
section_name: Fiducia supplicans
paragraph_text: Fiducia supplicans
  
  In December 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration, Fiducia supplicans, approved by Francis. Fiducia supplicans intended to provide clarification and reforms on the Catholic Church's treatment of "irregular relationships", defined as those who establish a monogamous and emotional bond that lasts over time and have not contracted a Catholic marriage. Notably, it allows Catholic priests to perform "spontaneous blessings" of same-sex couples, as well as opposite-sex couples who are not married, and civilly married couples at least one party of which was previously divorced but had not received an annulment.
  
  Fiducia supplicans sparked considerable controversy among Catholics, including from several conservative commentators, clerical congregations, and high-profile cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay people. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller called it "sacrilegious and blasphemous" and "self-contradictory". Cardinal Robert Sarah described the blessing of couples in irregular situations as "a heresy that seriously undermines the Church". On 11 January 2024, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu announced that all episcopal conferences in Africa, represented in SECAM, would reject blessings for same-sex couples, stating that "the extra-liturgical blessings proposed in the declaration...cannot be carried out in Africa without exposing themselves to scandals".