The Good Reasons for the Holy See Emotions: Outlining an Argumentative Analysis of the Responsum on the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions

Abstract

Relying on the work Les bonnes raisons des émotions: Principes et méthode pour l'étude du discours émotionné (2011), by Christian Plantin, we carried out a short argumentative analysis of a responsum issued by the Holy See in the year of 2021 which addresses the subject of the blessing imparted to same-sex unions. This is an official statement published by the highest leadership of the Catholic Church which, in response to questions arising from lower hierarchical levels of the institution, asserts that the Church does not have the power to bless such unions. Following Plantin's understanding (2011), we aim to look at a presumed dichotomy between reasons and emotions in our corpus. It is in the light of this approach, which takes emotion as one of the constraints of discourse, that we argue about the inseparability of reasons and emotions in the argumentation of the selected text.