Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, O.P., of Algiers, Algeria, has written the preface to a forthcoming book, Homos et Cathos: L’Église à l’épreuve du réel (Gays and Catholics: The Church Put to the Test of Reality).
“I like the definition given by James Alison in his contribution: homosexual orientation is a regularly occurring non-pathological minority variant in the human condition,” said Cardinal Vesco. “This definition places homosexuality within the order of creation and not within that of disorder or pathology.”
“How painful it is to recognize that, faced with a human reality so complex and potentially so painful, we in the Church struggle so much to find the right words and to reconcile the solidity of Christian anthropology with the truth of existential experiences that must be accompanied and respected for what they are,” Cardinal Vesco continued.
Turning to Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, Cardinal Vesco concluded:
Through this text, the Church authorizes its ministers to impart this blessing, not merely in their own name but in the name of the Church, and that changes everything. How good it is that homosexual people, whatever their state of life, should hear this blessing just as you and I do.
Outreach, founded by Father James Martin, S.J., posted Cardinal Vesco’s preface on May 13.