Homosexual Couples blessed at St. Stephansdom?
A report began circulating a week or so ago claiming that "the rector of Vienna's Catholic cathedral has instituted a ceremony to bless 'couples, fiances and people in love' including homosexual partners."The story was quickly spread by several popular news outlets, including Rueters News Service which categorized the story as an "Oddly Enough" entry (often bearing the title, "Valentine's Day or April Fool's? Vienna gays unsure," and similar phrases).
However, this event has been mischaracterized greatly by the news media.
Gerald Augustinus, an Austrian native, has a post on his weblog that clarifies what actually did occur based upon the original German-language report published on the Archdiocese of Vienna's website.
As Augustinus explains, a Valentine's Day blessing - not a Mass - was celebrated for "people in love," engaged couples, about-to-be-wed-couples, and married couples. However, homosexual couples and heterosexual couples not among the last three categories mentioned were blessed as individuals and not as couples.
"The point Sullivan and Palmo made was that Cardinal Schoenborn had given his tacit [consent] to the official blessing of homosexual (non-marital/non-engaged in general) relationships, so to speak. Given the rules of the bishops conference [of Austria] and Cardinal Schoenborn's being a part of it, that is simply not true, unless of course you think that Cardinal Schoenborn, editor of the Catechism, does not abide by Catholic teaching that he helped set forth in the Catechism. However, there is no evidence for such a stance, on the contrary.
It is proper to bless homosexual individuals[,] of course. The Austrian bishops did in fact not distinguish between homo[sexual] and hetero[sexual individuals] but between [those] married/engaged and non-married/non-engaged."
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