Bishop Paul Kariuki Njiru of the Catholic Diocese of Wote, in a statement on Wednesday addressed to all priests and religious men and women in Wote, said the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans seriously contradicts scripture and Catholic tradition on marriage and sexuality.

“The Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith ‘FIDUCIA SUPPLICANS’ should be rejected in totality, and we faithfully uphold the Gospel teachings and Catholic tradition teachings on marriage and sexuality,” Rt. Rev. Kariuki said in the letter.

“I hereby prohibit all priests in the Catholic Diocese of Wote from blessing couples in irregular situations or same-sex couples,” Bishop Kariuki declared.

The full text of this firm and clear letter is below:

Date: 27 December, 2023

TO ALL PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS MEN AND WOMEN IN THE CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF WOTE

Dear sons and daughters, I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ at the same time wish you all Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year 2024. Happy Feast of Saint John, The Apostle and Evangelist.

Many of you, in the recent past, have asked me to give a clear way forward concerning Blessings of Couples in Irregular Situation and the Same-Sex couples" as contained in the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith "FIDUCIA SUPPLICANS" on the Pastoral Significance of Blessings released on 18* December, 2023.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez of the Dicastery of Doctrine of Faith should have widely done enough consultation before releasing such a controversial declaration.

First, I exhort all the priests and religious men and women to take adequate time to study keenly the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans - on the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings. Second, while is true that the declaration Fiducia Supplicans does not change the Catholic Doctrine on marriage and sexuality it however, opens a new dangerous door that is totally unacceptable for it gives the possibility of approval of quasi-ritual blessing formulae that will lead the Catholic Church to bless these couples in irregular situation and same-sex couples in a liturgical set up in the future.

Dear sons and daughters allow me to echo the words of Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Ukrainian Catholic Prelate who said that blessing of a priest always has an Evangelical Catechetical dimension and therefore can in no way contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church about family as a faithful, indissoluble, and fruitful union of love between a man and a woman, which our Lord Jesus Christ raised to the dignity of the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony.

Cardinal Shevchuk affirms that pastoral prudence urges us to avoid ambiguous gestures, expressions and concepts that would distort or misrepresent God's word and the teaching of the Church.

I hereby prohibit all priests in the Catholic Diocese of Wote from blessing of couples in irregular situation or same-sex couples: For "It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage... as is the case of the unions between persons of the same-sex.

I am of the opinion that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez of the Dicastery of Doctrine of Faith should have widely done enough consultation before releasing such a controversial declaration.

His idea and thought that Cardinals and Bishops cannot prohibit what Pope Francis has permitted with Fiducia Supplicans is mistaken. We Bishops, like Saints Peter and John, we will say "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight for us to obey you rather than God." (ct. Acts 4,19-20)

Since this declaration totally contradicts what Pope Francis himself approved in 2021 concerning same-sex unions - that may no manner be blessed because the Church cannot ask God to bless sin, I hereby prohibit all priests in the Catholic Diocese of Wote from blessing of couples in irregular situation or same-sex couples: For "It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage... as is the case of the unions between persons of the same-sex. The presence of such relationships of positive elements... cannot justify those relationships and render them legitimate objects of ecclesial blessings" (Cf. 2021 DDF). In fact what is disturbing in this declaration is that, on one hand, it directs the priests to bless these couples without specifying what exactly is being blessed, while on the other hand, it expressly forbids any ritual text that might specify it, For Pastoral reasons, | therefore, exhort my priests to invite those couples to a life of conversion by the words of the Gospel "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1,14).

The Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith "FIDUCIA SUPPLICANS" should be rejected in totality and we faithfully uphold the Gospel teachings and Catholic traditional teachings on Marriage and sexuality.

Repentance is metanoia in Greek and it simply means a change of mind. However, we often speak of repentance as a turning from sin. When a sinner repents - he changes his or her mind about sin, the Saviour, and salvation. This is exactly what these couples, like any other Christian, should look for in the blessings. For only a repentant sinner who has a firm intention to no longer sin again can receive blessings. Therefore, to bless couples in an irregular situation or the same-sex couples who are not ready for conversion directly and seriously contradicts the Scripture Teachings and Sound Magisterium. Worse more still, in this 21* Century, it will only support the propagandist of the globalist and ungodly gender ideology.

In conclusion, the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith "FIDUCIA SUPPLICANS" should be rejected in totality and we faithfully uphold the Gospel teachings and Catholic traditional teachings on Marriage and sexuality.

Your Servant in Christ Jesus

Rt. Rev. Paul Karijuki Njiru

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of WOTE - KENYA

Latest from RTV — FRANCIS TURNS 87: Catholic World Divided Over Worst Pope in History

“To promote ecumenism means signing a treaty of non-aggression, granting all religions citizenship in the great pantheon of creeds. The only commandment is the exclusion of exclusivity: freedom for all in all things, except for those who believe in the truth.” (Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, One Hundred Years of Modernism

To all the bishops of the world: Fiducia supplicans has made it abundantly clear. The Vatican has been infiltrated. Stand firm, resist Francis, and reject Traditionis Custodes, too – for God’s sake and for the sake of the whole world.

A Christmas Truce at the World War I Front

Editor’s Note: This article was published in The Remnant in 2006 after having first appeared on the Your Guide to 20th Century History website. It is reproduced here with the permission of the author. The original song by John McCutcheon, also posted below, is well worth listening to as you read this incredible story from a moment (and an innocence) not so very long ago, the memory of which is fading from the consciousness of "enlightened" men who've lost sight of God, Country, and certainly the true meaning of Christmas. We repost this article every Christmas as yet another means of keeping the old stories (and thus the old reality) alive until saner men return.  The true meaning of Christmas broke through the fog of war in 1917 and it will do so again this year, so long as we keep telling the stories. Merry Christmas to all, and to Hell with the New World Order. MJM

In the midst of the darkest moment in the history of the church, when the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15) reigns in the place that is holy, it is vital to remember the essential. The learned Origen of Alexandria (c.185–c.253) is the one who tells us what to do in such a situation: “let those who see this flee from the Judæa of the letter to the high mountains of truth.” So, faced with an unprecedented spread of both doctrinal and practical heresies, it is absolutely necessary to ascend to “the high mountains of Truth.” Not just any truth, but that divine, revealed Truth that teaches us how to return to the Paradise lost by Adam and Eve through original sin. Thus, preparing our minds through prayer and humble reflection to receive the light that emanates from the Holy Scriptures, we strive to delve into the meanings of an event that decisively influenced the history of the world. The verse that initiates such meditation is found in the Gospel of the Holy Apostle John (chapter 3, verse 13):

“And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.”

As a strong and steady backlash to the Vatican’s declaration on blessings for same-sex couples continues to flow in from Catholic Bishops around the world, Bishop Athanasius Schneider is referring to the document as “a mockery of the natural and revealed law of God.”

If there is one historical figure more than any other who most immediately and prominently prepared the way of the Lord, it was John the Baptist. This was the same John who was cleansed of original sin and leapt for joy in the womb of his mother when first encountering the Christ Child in the womb of Mary. Some thirty years later, John emerged from the desert, offering a baptism of repentance to the faithful.

In his 1936 book studying the human character of Christ, In the Likeness of Christ, Fr. Edward Leen described the way in which the cave of Bethlehem shows us the “paradox of Christianity.” He began with a picture of the inhospitable cave in which the Divine Infant was born:

“The cave of Bethlehem is an exact presentation of the paradox of Christianity. It is austere and forbidding. Even in the daylight and under the bright sun the cavern would look miserable and uninviting. In the darkness it is positively repellant. The glimmer shed by Joseph’s lantern was not strong enough to shed a cheerful light; it served but to reveal and bring out into relief every harsh and rude feature. The sides dripped with moisture and showed bare and jagged. Through openings in them, here and there, the wind moaned dismally. The strong draughts increased the natural chilliness of the place. The floor was uneven and covered with straw that had been trampled to filth by the animals. What was in the rude manger, though clean, was coarse and prickly; it scarcely tempered the hardness of the few planks for the Infant limbs. The dripping of the water and the sounds of the animals as they stirred in their rest, falling on the ear, intensified the general feeling of comfortlessness.” (p. 51)

In the December 18, 2023 document approved by Francis, Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith approved the blessing of same-sex unions. The dicastery’s prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel "Tucho" Fernández, described the document as follows:

“As with the Holy Father’s above-mentioned response to the Dubia of two Cardinals, this Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion. The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective. Such theological reflection, based on the pastoral vision of Pope Francis, implies a real development from what has been said about blessings in the Magisterium and the official texts of the Church. This explains why this text has taken on the typology of a ‘Declaration.’”

A few days ago, the head of the former Holy Office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, went out of his way to let the world know that single mothers who repent and confess their sins should be allowed to receive Holy Communion. NEWSFLASH to Cardinal Victor: The Catholic Church has never said otherwise.

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