At Bondings 2.0, Frank DeBenardo has written about the call by a Belgian bishop for the Church to bless same – sex couples:
Belgian Bishop’s Call to Bless Gay & Lesbian Couples Elicits Positive Feedback
Response to Bishop Johan Bonny’s historic call for the Catholic Church to recognize and bless the committed relationships of lesbian and gay couples has been slow, but very positive. The Belgian bishop made in his remarks in an interview published on December 27th in De Morgen newspaper, and it was made known to the English-speaking world in a National Catholic Reporter news story.
New Ways Ministry provided a response in its blog post on December 30th. As evidence of the great interest in this story, that blog post, in under 8 hours, became the fourth-most viewed blog post of Bondings 2.0’s three-year history, beating out posts which have been public for months and years. Obviously people are interested in this news.
Perhaps the Christmas holidays have impeded the distribution of this important news, though, and so there has been little commentary about it. Still, the reaction we have seen has been positive. The Huffington Post began their article on the bishop’s comments by stating:
“A Belgian bishop is bravely standing up for love.”
Rev. James Martin, SJ, renowned Catholic author and commentator, offered this response in the HuffPost story:
“His comments recall the initial report from the Synod on the Family, which said that committed gay relationships have ‘gifts and talents’ to offer the Christian community. (That language was removed from the final report.) So we shouldn’t overemphasize what Bishop Bonny is saying: after all, he’s only one bishop. On the other hand, we shouldn’t underemphasize it either: it’s quite revolutionary.”
(Read the complete post at Bondings 2.0)