The importance of “Fiducia Supplicans” for college campuses today
By Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M.
When I was an undergraduate student at St. Bonaventure University in western New York State during the early 2000s, LGBTQ+ visibility was notably low. There were very few openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual students and even fewer (if any) openly trans and nonbinary folks. At that time, there was a student organization called the “Straight-Gay Alliance,” but when the group met, it did so rather surreptitiously as a means to help protect the privacy and safety of its members. There were certainly queer students, faculty, and staff but, like at most Catholic colleges and universities in the United States at that time, for many, their sexual orientation and gender identity were kept in the “higher-education closet.”
That was more than two decades ago. And a lot has changed since, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ visibility.
Today at my undergraduate alma mater, like at so many U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities, things are very different. There is a robust LGBTQ+ student organization, a graduation stole ceremony for LGBTQ+ students, and a range of resources and programs geared toward support and ongoing education.
And yet, despite the impressive range of resources and support on our college campuses — by way of example, I think of Georgetown’s impressive LGBTQ Resource Center and Loyola Marymount University’s LGBT Student Services office, among others — there are still tensions that exist in the minds of many when it comes to increased inclusivity of and support for the LGBTQ+ communities on our campuses and perceptions of Catholic teaching and identity.
This is why the recent promulgation of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith declaration “Fiducia Supplicans, On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” is so important. Fiducia Supplicans clarifies when people in relationships considered “irregular,” including people in same-sex relationships, are eligible to receive blessings and under what circumstances. As I have written elsewhere, most people have embraced the positive and rather matter-of-fact declaration that there is no pastoral or theological reason to withhold a blessing for a person seeking one, especially when the church already sanctions the blessings of animals, as well as tools and other inanimate objects.
Pastorally, the clear affirmation that queer couples have a right to request an informal blessing, as much as any other person or set of people, provides both support for LGBTQ+ spiritual outreach and perhaps raises some challenges analogous to what ministers in parishes are now experiencing. And the ways Fiducia Supplicans can be incorporated into campus ministry programs and outreach is a topic worthy of greater exploration and implementation.
But, for now, I’m interested in a subtler, yet still important, implication of the promulgation of Fiducia Supplicans on our college campuses: namely, the importance of LGBTQ+ people finally being seen and acknowledged by the institutional church.
When it comes to Catholic institutions, our colleges and universities have often been some of the most intentional organizations in the church to prioritize LGBTQ+ inclusivity and support. Nevertheless, queer people and queer love often have been erased by both misunderstanding and, at times, overt bigotry over the years. Fear of discrimination, violence, or mockery has kept LGBTQ+ students, staff, and faculty at the margins and in the closet. And, at times, explicit recourse to our institutions’ Catholic identity and mission have been misused to justify such shameful behavior.
This is one reason why Fiducia Supplicans is particularly meaningful. In order to declare that those in same-sex relationships can and should receive blessings from the church’s ministers upon request, you must first acknowledge that such people actually exist in the world!
Seeing another person and recognizing not only their existence but celebrating their particularity, dignity, and value, is one of the most important things we can do for one another. As the New York Times columnist and best-selling author David Brooks recently wrote,
There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen — to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.
When it comes to Jesuit higher education, we have a term for the imperative to do precisely this kind of radical recognition and authentic seeing: cura personalis. Care and concern for the whole person means not only accepting people in their radical diversity, but also being attentive to the particularity of their life and experiences.
One of the ways Fiducia Supplicans aligns well with the Ignatian tradition is the recognition that, indeed, God is in “all things.” In other words, this is not a matter of our imposing the divine on others or sleuthing to discover the hidden presence of God in discrete people, places, and things. Instead, to offer a blessing of a kind described by Fiducia Supplicans draws our attention to the divine love and presence always already present in the lives of all people, including LGBTQ+ individuals and couples. And that can make all the difference.
It is my hope that, while the Pope has not departed from anything doctrinal that has come before with the promulgation of Fiducia Supplicans, the existence and embrace of this text will encourage greater LGBTQ+ visibility and support on our campuses moving forward.
Daniel P. Horan, O.F,M., is professor of philosophy, religious studies, and theology and director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. He earned his Ph.D. in theology at Boston College.
