February 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Diocese of Essen simply posted a journal with statements from three guys – a homosexual diocesan employee, a priest, and a therapist – calling for the acceptance of homosexuality within the Church. Professor Ansgar Wucherpfennig, the head of the Jesuit Graduate college in Frankfurt, claims, "I believe that the Bible as source is not sufficient for statements of the Church on this subject [of homosexuality]." He, as well as one more interviewee, demand a liturgical blessing of gay couples.
Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck – considered as some of the leading candidates for the upcoming election of a new president of the German Bishops' convention – has many times made statements which exhibit that he is in prefer of the Church re-assessing its instructing on homosexuality. In an October 2019 remark, he regretted his old rejection of homosexuality and proposed the dialogue of feminine "ordination." In an essay for the German journal Herder Korrespondez, he had referred to as for a "de-pathologization" of homosexuality. Overbeck is additionally the bishop who claimed that, after the Amazon Synod, "nothing could be the equal as earlier than."
Wucherpfennig himself had been involved in a battle with the Vatican in 2018 when he become being blocked from remaining the rector of the Sankt Georgen Graduate school of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt. Rome had objections considering that he changed into promoting the thought of blessing gay couples and had questioned the all-male priesthood. however ultimately, with the moral guide of the Jesuit order, the Vatican authorized his closing in office.
In his interview with the diocesan journal Bene (March/April concern), Wucherpfennig explains that he believes that next to the Bible – and "Christian lifestyle" – "the insights of contemporary human sciences," as neatly as the "regularly painful experiences of the faithful" should be taken into consideration.
The German Jesuit also proposes that "several dioceses" may establish a liturgical blessing for homosexual couples with an "authentic Church cognizance." In his view, this would "definitely" be viable and "in response to the Church's doctrine" when you consider that he claims there is in such relationships "tons that is in a position to receiving a blessing," similar to "loyalty," "equality," and "mutual appreciate of freedom." additionally, Wucherpfennig states that the Church should re-consider her time period "fecundity," or fruitfulness, in regards to marriage. Fruitfulness couldn't most effective mean having babies, he suggests, but also "different indications of fruitfulness," such as "looking after the elderly or being active within the social box."
If the Church doesn't make such variations, the priest concludes, she can become a sort of "house shuttle" it really is "removed from all earthly realities."
The diocesan journal Bene published the interviews with Wucherpfenning, in addition to as a therapist and a homosexual diocesan worker, with the explicit reference that Bishop Overbeck needs a questioning of the Church's teaching on sexuality.
"The Diocese of Essen," states the journal which is sent into 500,000 Catholic households, "desires to determine and change the device [of the] Church. For this, it is additionally critical to take a glance on the Catholic sexual morality." The purpose is, the journal continues, "to boost an understanding of sexuality which is simply towards plenty of ways of lifestyles."
A diocesan working community is now preparing "proposals for concrete measures."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2357) says about homosexuality: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents gay acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has at all times declared that 'gay acts are intrinsically disordered.'" It also states that "gay individuals are referred to as to chastity" (no. 2359).
Bishop Overbeck is not the most effective German bishop who now promotes the acceptance of homosexuality. In 2018, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the pinnacle of the German Bishop's convention, revealed that there existed an episcopal commission in Germany that turned into discussing the be counted of a blessing of homosexual couples.
This theme is now also part of the German "Synodal path" that's already underway, with the reputable discussions having all started on January 30. one of the four dialogue boards aims at questioning the Church's educating on homosexuality, and the main architect of this forum – Professor Eberhard Schockenhoff – explicitly proposes the Church approve of such relationships.
The Diocese of Limburg has already developed proposals for a blessing that could be bestowed also on couples who're divorced and "remarried," and, as Wucherpfennig proposes, the equal blessing could be given to those couples "who are not willing to enter into a marriage but who having said that wish to have their relationship blessed." that might be conveniently the blessing of cohabiting couples.
furthermore, not lengthy ago, the vice president of the German Bishops' convention, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, wrote a foreword to a ebook merchandising the idea of blessing gay couples in the Catholic Church. He proposed discussing publicly a likely blessing for gay couples. He first did so in January 2018 after which once again on the end of December 2019.
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