Catholic priests in Germany have defied Rome with a series of Masses around the country to bless same-sex couples.
In March the Vatican said the Catholic Church could not bless same-sex unions, as “God does not and cannot bless sin”.
That drew protest from more than 200 theologians in German-speaking Europe and sparked an online campaign with the title “Love Wins”.
Now more than 100 services have been organised in more than 50 cities around the country, with the first at the weekend in St Benedict’s church in Munich.
“We found it very moving that people in the Catholic Church were courageous enough to bless us,” said Christina Waltner, who received a blessing with her partner, Almut Münster.
“I’m just overjoyed that there are parts of the church who think in this progressive way,” said Ms Münster. “A blessing has a meaning. It’s nice that this love is blessed.”
Next Sunday Berlin’s main Jesuit church will hold a final service to “bless people who love each other. No one will be excluded.” Celebrant Fr Jan Korditschke said he was “ashamed of my church’s homophobia”.
“I know many couples, homosexual and heterosexual, who live in so-called ‘irregular’ relationships and who are there for each other in good and bad times,” he said. “They live their love with a devotion that I can only admire. Describing such relationships universally as sinful is something I cannot reconcile with my belief.”
Bishops’ ire
Almost immediately after the March 10th publication of the Vatican statement, a grass-roots movement in Germany began , steered by Fr Bernd Mönkebüscher, a priest from the western German city of Paderborn who went public as homosexual in 2019.
“When people ask for a blessing for their love and partnership, who am I to appear as a church and say ... ‘That is [a] sin?’ ” said Fr Mönkebüscher on national radio.
Catholic bishops have reacted with annoyance to the campaign, saying the Masses “expressly oppose” church teaching.
“I would like to state emphatically: of course, people with a homosexual orientation, including those who live in same-sex partnerships, have a place in the church, you are welcome,” said Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, head of the German Bishops’ Conference.
While the church was anxious to “accompany them with pastoral care”, he said services blessing their unions “have their own theological dignity and pastoral significance” and were therefore “not suitable as an instrument for church political manifestations or protest actions”.
The ceremonies up the ante in a growing stand-off between Rome and Germany’s Catholic Church, currently engaged in a so-called “synodal path” consultation process between local church leaders and members.
German film director Wim Wenders has joined the protest, expressing his disappointment with Pope Francis for signing off on the March document.
Three years after his critically acclaimed documentary about the pope, Wenders said the pope had been captured by conservative forces in the curia. “There’s little left of the energy on his appointment ... to make a church for the poor,” he said.
