Coptic Orthodox Church suspends theological dialogue with Catholic Church over *Fiducia supplicans*

The Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that it is suspending theological dialogue with the Catholic Church. The decision followed a March 7 press release from the Coptic Orthodox Church, which said it had been reached “after consultation with the sister churches of the Eastern Orthodox family.” The release said the church would “suspend the theological dialogue with the Catholic Church, re-evaluate the results that the dialogue has achieved since its beginning twenty years ago, and establish new standards and mechanisms for the dialogue to proceed.”

The church said the suspension was a response to the recent declaration *Fiducia supplicans* from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which concerns the blessing of couples in “irregular unions,” including same-sex unions. The Coptic Orthodox Church reached its decision at a meeting presided over by its leader, Pope Tawadros II, in Alexandria. The commentary’s author, writing in *Catholic World Report*, describes the move as a significant signal of wider Eastern Orthodox opinion, and as an act of peacemaking that has been set back, since dialogue built over two decades has now stalled.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is not the first Orthodox body to voice concern about the declaration. In February, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Budapest, who has long served as the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer, led a meeting of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission. According to the article, Russia’s Orthodox bishops unanimously decided that *Fiducia supplicans* is an “innovation” that “manifests a sharp deviation from the Christian moral teaching.” Russia’s Catholic bishops also issued a statement critical of the declaration. The author argues that the Russian statements amount to a broad rejection of both the declaration’s disciplinary changes and its underlying rationale.

The author notes that Pope Tawadros II leads the See of St. Mark and is the only other Christian leader who legitimately uses the title that Pope Francis holds. The article says Pope Francis has recognized the Coptic Orthodox Church’s canonization of twenty-one Coptic Martyrs of Libya, and that Pope Tawadros celebrated a Divine Liturgy at the cathedral archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during a visit there. The author calls both events historic and argues that Pope Francis has done more than anyone else in history to foster relations with the Coptic Orthodox Church. For that reason, the author regards the current dispute as a serious setback.

The article also cites Pope Francis’s remarks in an interview with the Italian weekly *Credere* in February 2024. In that interview, he said: “No one is scandalized if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and this is a very serious sin, while they are scandalized if I give it to a homosexual: This is hypocrisy!” The author rejects the premise that people are scandalized by such blessings, and argues that the declaration’s distinction between blessing the persons in a union and blessing the union itself is difficult to understand.

The *Credere* interview was the second that Pope Francis gave within two weeks to outlets friendly to the declaration. The first was an interview with the Italian newspaper *La Stampa*. In it, he said, “The Gospel is to sanctify everyone,” and added, “Of course, there must be good will.”

Source: Read the original report