Day after Consecration of bishops in Écône, Switzerland There was information about the blessing Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe gave along with 2 retired bishops of the homosexual couple, Julian Filochowski and Martin Pendergast.
Filochowski is simply a longtime manager of Catholic charity CAFOD, and Pendergast – a erstwhile Carmelite and active activist for people surviving with HIV/AIDS and LGBT+ pastoral ministry in the Church. Both men have been a couple since 1976 and have been among the most celebrated Catholic activists in Britain for decades, combining social engagement with sexual morality demands.
But the problem is not simply an act of blessing. It is simply a much deeper change – a fresh approach to morality, which is increasingly marked in the life of the Church.
The fresh Ways Ministry article describes the Thanksgiving Mass celebrated on 13 June 2026 at Holy Apostles Church in London on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Filochowski and Pendergast union. The main component of the event was the homily voiced by Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP.
In his homily, the cardinal focused on relationship theology. He emphasized that relationship is more than a warm feeling – that “every relationship calls for an aspect of ourselves that would otherwise never exist.” He besides stated that "every true, faithful and well-lived relationship is simply a part of God's life" and that relationship is "expansive, like God's love." He combined these thoughts with a couple's commitment to social justice and concern for those most in need.
However, peculiarly characteristic, there was no mention to cleanliness in the homily. The cardinal did not mention a word about teaching the Church about homosexual relations or calling for a clean life. The full homily was built exclusively around affirmative aspects of the relation and its social fruits.
This omission is not random. It is due to a broader reasoning that can be described as a fresh morality. Its basis is simply a concept known as a seamless garment (coherent ethics of life). In the present sense, it assumes that all aspects of moral life are more or little equivalent and can be balanced. In practice, this leads to a situation where fidelity and social commitment become a adequate justification for the celebration of a relationship, without having to mention to nonsubjective moral order in the field of sexuality.
However, there is simply a clear hierarchy of values in teaching the Church. Pope Leon XIV develops teaching in matters of the protection of human life and dignity – for example, on the death punishment – while not applying the same logic in another moral areas. This shows that issues concerning the fundamental order of creation, specified as sexuality and marriage, are more normative in Catholic morality than any elements of social ethics.
In this context, the fresh Ways Ministry article captures the current spirit well: the relation is celebrated, while the teaching of purity remains absent. The good fruits of the couple's life – specified as commitment to aid the mediocre and the fight for justice – are presented in specified a way as to replace or obscure the nonsubjective moral order in the field of sexuality.
Use logic seamless garment in specified a way that a liturgical long-term homosexual relation without any mention to the call for purity leads to interior inconsistencies with the full teaching of the Church. Good deeds in the field of social justice cannot obscure nonsubjective moral order in the field of sexuality.
Oh. Jacek Gniadek SVD
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