'A step forward' or 'contradictory'? Catholic reactions to approval of blessings for LGBT couples

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 05, 2024

Regis Martin

Professor Regis Martin, who teaches at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, published an op-ed in Crisis Magazine Tuesday, calling on Pope Francis to resign in response to "Fiducia Supplicans."

While he acknowledged that "there is zero likelihood of this happening," Martin suggested that he nonetheless had an obligation to "tell him" that his declaration was "flat out wrong."

Martin cited his actions as consistent with those of St. Paul, who corrected St. Peter, the first Pope, on a matter of doctrine in his Letter to the Galatians.

"However far Pope Francis may wish to extend the reach of his vaunted 'pastoral vision,' it can never encompass the blessing of sin," Martin wrote. "Either adultery and sodomy are wrong, and those who engage in such practices are committing serious sin and in need of repentance; or there is nothing wrong or untoward about either, and no priest should stand in the way of those who come forward to have their unions blest. That way lies madness."

Martin asserted that "the Church, which has always stood for sanity, may have to ask the Pope to step down in order to make things sane again." He included a call to resign as one of two things the pontiff "might do" to repair the damage and confusion caused by the declaration while listing dumping the document and removing Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith who spearheaded it, from his post as things he "must do."