Hundreds of priests in Germany bless gay couples with open contempt for Pope Francis

A movement launched by three priests and spread throughout Germany calls this Monday “love wins”, during which at least a hundred parishes will organize religious services in which priests will bless faithful homosexual couples. It is an open challenge to the ban reiterated by the Vatican on March 13, in which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared, with the approval of the Pope, that the Church “cannot bless a sin” .

By ecclesiastical standards, bishops should sanction rebels, but some have already said that they will not punish to their priests.

Many believe that the case of German homosexual couples, with their union blessed by their traces, heals a before and after in the relations between the majority of German bishops and the authority of the Pope.

The president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Georg Batzing, bishop of Limburg, put the hand brake on and considered that the blessings “are not suitable as an instrument of political action or of declaration of ecclesiastical policy”.

Batzing is also a progressive who participates in the two-year Synodal Path which will end in February 2022 when an assembly launches the fiery proposals for reform and revolution in the Teutonic Church.

It is an assembly supported by the majority of 68 bishops alemanes de la que participan también los poderosos movimientos de laicos y otras realidades del de la iglesia germana, una de las más ricas del mundo, que sufre una continua disminución del número de sus fieles, that currently llegan has 22.5 of the 80 millones inhabitants.

Renewing the Church in Response

The Synodal Way was the response to the overwhelming discoveries of cases of sexual abuse who have eclipsed the life of German Catholicism in recent decades.

To cope with a huge loss of prestige, it was decided to escape forward. Discuss in a two-year Camino the main problems of the Church at renew it. The main themes burn: ecclesiastical power and government, the situation of women and their access to the priesthood, openness to married priests and sexual morality.

The more conservative sectors have raised their voices and argue that the harshness of the positions of the majority will lead to a schism of the Germans from the Church of Rome, to the loss of communion with the Pope. Interestingly, the same result of the rebellion in the 16th century by the monk Martin Luther, which led to the historic Protestant Reformation.

At the gates of a schism

the Teutonic schism It begins openly this Monday, May 10, argue the conservatives, with the celebrations in parishes of blessings for same-sex couples, as bishops are forced to sanction those who violate the standards clearly reiterated by the Vatican two months ago that priests did not. cannot bless sins. And the exercise of homosexuality is a serious sin for the Church.

The blessings of homosexual unions are to compare them to the marriage of a man and a woman in an indissoluble way, open to the transmission of life, argues the Vatican.

The bishop of Munich in Vestphalia, Monsignor Felix Glen, warned over a month ago that he would not sanction priests in his diocese who participate in the initiative. Other bishops have said the same.

“A huge scandal”

Conservative Cardinal Walter Brandmuller asserted that “it is a huge scandal, a terrifying sign of heresy, schism and collapse of the Church ”.

The powerful Central Committee of German Catholics, the ZdX, which has advocated the blessing of same-sex couples for five years, reiterated its support for the initiative.

“These are prayer celebrations where people express to God what moves them,” Birgit Mock, spokesperson for the Family Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press in Berlin.

Mox said on Monday he was attending a church service with blessings for same-sex couples in the town of Hamm. “The fact that they ask for God’s blessing and thank him for all the good things in their life has deep roots in the Gospel, ”he said.

The spokesperson for the laity stressed that in German Catholicism “we need systemic changes, with a reassessment of ecclesiastical morality on sexuality ”·.

Priest Woligang Rothe, from Munich, said it was necessary to “give a signal” to remove this from the backyards and place it at the center of Church life, “he said after celebrating a mass in the Saint Benedict church in which blessed several gay couples and also to heterosexual couples who are not married.

The blessings will continue to flow the whole week and they will continue in the future, assured the participants of the movement which launched the idea of ​​the celebrations on Monday.

“Love wins”

In some parishes they were placed colorful balloons and rainbow flags. Three thousand members of Catholic pastoral groups, priests, theologians and activists signed the declaration promoted by three priests which gave life to the “Love Wins” movement.

Too in Austria there were blessings for gay couples fueled by a movement of 350 priests. In addition, acts of disobedience not sanctioned by the bishops were announced, they were recorded in Switzerland, especially in Basel and San Gallo.

In Belgium, John Bonny, Archbishop of Antwerp, said he would not sanction priests in his diocese who bless same-sex unions.

In Rome, the retired but still influential cardinal Camilo Ruini, who was one of the main protagonists of the Curia during the pontificates of Paul VI and John Paul II, declared that “the Church has no power bless same-sex unions ”.

“Only that which is according to God’s purpose can be blessed, not that which is the other way around. People can be blessed with being converted and not confirmed in their sin. “

According to Joachim Frank, who is part of the Central Committee of German Laity, blessings for same-sex couples will be officially approved at the Synodal Way final assembly in February 2022. “What we don’t know is whether he will receive the necessary support from two-thirds of the bishops, ”he said.

This Monday’s celebrations in Germany represent a striking contrast for the Pope, who gave his authorization to the declaration of the doctrine of the faith of March 13, but apparently occupies a less intransigent personal position.

Francis sent a letter to the German bishops in 2020 to try to stop daring of the reforms proposed in the synodal path, but his appeal has not been answered.

One of the three priests who promoted the movement “Love wins”, Father Bukhard Hoze, of the diocese of Wurzburg, author of the motto “bless with courage”, declared that “the Church is losing more and more authority and credibility and it has become a matter of power and abuse of power ”.

In the coming days, it will be possible to better measure the dimensions of the movement which began on Monday in Germany. Conservative Catholics demand clarity from their bishops and the excommunication of those who do not respect the standards reiterated by the Vatican in March.

“We ask the bishops to act. These celebrations in the parishes are a provocation directed against the Pope ”, declared Clara Steinbrecher, of the conservative women’s movement“ María 1.0 ”. For his part, Father Hoze declared that bishops who react with disciplinary measures “will be denounced”.

Vatican, correspondent

ap