THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
German Catholic Bishops
Back Blessing of Gay Relationships,
Defying Pope Francis
The vote lends unprecedented
approval to the practice,
but threatens to divide the church
Germany’s Catholic bishops voted to adopt formal ceremonies for the blessing of same-sex relationships, defying the Vatican and testing church unity on what has become one of the most contentious issues in contemporary Christianity: moral teaching on homosexuality.
The bishops on Friday voted 38 to nine, with 11 abstentions, in favor of liturgies for the blessing of couples who don’t qualify for the Catholic sacrament of matrimony, including same-sex couples and those who have remarried outside the church after a divorce. The resolution calls on individual German bishops, each of whom has authority over the matter in his own diocese, to adopt the practice.
The resolution is a bold rejection of the Vatican’s position, expressed in a 2021 decree approved by Pope Francis, which prohibited the blessing of gay couples on the grounds that God “cannot bless sin.”
Pope Francis has taken a conciliatory approach to gay people, and he endorsed civil unions for same-sex couples in a 2020 documentary film, but he hasn’t changed church teaching on homosexuality.
The bishops voted as part of Germany’s Synodal Path, an assembly of national Catholic clergy and lay leaders that started in early 2020 in response to an investigation of historical sex abuse in the German church. The body as a whole voted for same-sex blessings 176 to 14, with 12 abstentions.
The German synod, which concludes on Saturday, has called for rethinking teaching and practice on a number of topics including priestly celibacy, the ordination of women, homosexuality and the role of lay people in church governance.
Pope Francis and other church leaders have warned the German synod not to stray too far from the rest of the church.
In November, during a meeting with Vatican officials, the head of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, rejected a request that he put the synod on hold. Last month, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s office for bishops, echoed other conservative prelates, including in the U.S., who have warned the Germans of the danger of schism, or a permanent split in the church.
The Vatican didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Friday.
During the debate before the vote, Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke of Eichstätt warned against the proposed move, saying that he hoped “this step is not going to tear us apart the way the Anglican Church finds itself torn apart.”
Conservative Anglican churches, including some in Africa that include nearly half of the world’s estimated 100 million Anglicans, have broken off relations with churches that espouse liberal teaching and practice on homosexuality, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S.
Last month, after the Church of England decided to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships, a dozen leading archbishops, most in the global South, called for a break with that church, the historical progenitor of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
African bishops in the Catholic Church have also emerged as a prominent conservative bloc regarding homosexuality.
But at Friday’s debate in Frankfurt, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen said, to applause from the assembly, “I pay attention to what is happening in Africa, but I expect others to respect what we are doing here as well.”
Maria 1.0, , an organization that seeks to support traditional Catholic doctrine, tweeted after the vote: “Only nine German bishops vote against a blessing form for homosexual couples. Eleven bishops appear to have no opinion and abstain. Incomprehensible.”
Blessings of same-sex relationships by Catholic priests have been common in Germany for years, with the tolerance of many bishops there, but Friday’s vote gives unprecedented official approval to the practice.
The resolution calls for bishops and others to develop the liturgy over the next three years. Maria Mesrian of Maria 2.0, a group that supports the ordination of women and other liberalizing changes in the church, called that measure a “delaying tactic” intended to avoid a confrontation with Rome, and said it would lead people to leave the church in frustration.
The resolution specifies that no clergy who object in conscience to blessing same-sex relationships will be obliged to perform them.
A conservative minority within the German church have opposed what they consider the synod’s overreach. Last September, a resolution calling for a wide-ranging revision of teaching on sexuality narrowly failed to muster the required two-thirds supermajority of bishops’ votes.
Last month, six members of the synod, none of them bishops, resigned from the process, warning that its innovations threatened to undermine the unity of the church.
Some of the most progressive voices in the synod, on the other hand, say that its German proposals don’t go far enough. Gregor Podschun, head of a Catholic youth organization and a member of the synod, tweeted on Friday that mere blessings for same-sex couples were an inadequate concession: “We want marriage for everyone!”
The synod was scheduled later on Friday to vote on a document calling for greater acceptance of transgender people in the church, by allowing them to change their name and gender on their baptismal certificates, to receive blessings of their relationships, and to be admitted to the priesthood and religious orders. However, the meeting ran behind schedule and adjourned until Saturday without taking up the matter.
Pope Francis himself has called a global synod that will culminate in two meetings at the Vatican this fall and next year, and where topics will include the roles of women and LGBT Catholics, according to a preparatory document released last year.
Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com
Appeared in the March 11, 2023, print edition as 'German Catholic Bishops Back Blessing of Gay Relationships'.
"Take it from me - this will go nowhere. GENE"
ReplyDeleteGene's track record of prediction is impressive, as follows:
He predicted that same sex couples could never be allowed to adopt children: the act permitting this was passed in 2005.
He predicted that same sex couples could never be allowed to marry in the UK: the act permitting this was passed in 2014.
He predicted that same sex couples could never be allowed to marry in the Irish Republic: the act permitting this was passed in 2015.
All these things happened despite Gene's vicious, nasty campaigning against them - obviously his support for any cause automatically dooms it to fail.
The same will happen with same marriages in the Catholic Church.
Would you buy a bottle of hair restorer from a bald man? or support a cause adopted by man in possession permanently of the wrong end of the stick? - not to mention that he is also a lying, dirty minded hypocritical snivelling creep?
Bischof Robert Arschlecker, Kirche unten die Gesäßspalte, Nürnberg.
Your faux outrage fools nobody Detterling.
ReplyDeleteYou know perfectly well that anyone professing Christianity must as a matter of principle be opposed to the totally spurious claim of a so-called LGBT community (no such community exists) and to the bullying and intolerant Gay Lobby.
And on the subject of 'buggering' aren't you the man who on several occasions has condoned sodomy?
GENE
Detterling has neither condemned nor condoned sodomy, any more than he condemns or condones fellatio or cunnilingus or any other way chosen by couples to express their love physically. Provided that these practices are legal and take place consensually, Detterling doesn’t see what other people do in the privacy of their own homes as anyone’s business but theirs. Gene Vincent’s leering prurience, on the other hand, makes him sick.
DeleteFr Tom Bowler, Church of the Pious Canters, Hillingdon
And furthermore Detterling, answer me this: Did the Lambeth Anglican Conference in 1998 reaffirm that homosexual activity is always sinful? Methinks it did.
ReplyDeleteGENE
Yes, it did. And so what?
DeleteThe Lambeth Conference is not the Congregation of the Faith nor is it the College of Cardinals, It does not set out the Church of England's doctrines, and Anglicans are in no way obliiged to follow its decisions.
Anglicans are allowed, indeed expected, to think for themselves.
Gene Vincent, and his fellow bigots in the Roman Catholic Church are happy to let senile celibates do their thinking for them, which is their problem but also probably just as well. The juvenile, knee-jerk bigotry which passes for an intellectual process in Gene's shrivelled, drink-addled mind would probably lead to a revival of the burning of witches and the casting out of demons from persons suffering from mental illness.
And in any case, Gene and his fellow bigots in the Roman Catholic Church disobey church doctrine when it suits them. In common with the rest of European and North American Catholics, he has ignored the Roman Catholic doctrine on artificial contraception in both of his marriages.
Don't come the barrack room lawyer with Detterling, you snivelling little creeping-Jesus.
Monsignor Campione Segaiolo, Chiesa dei Masturbatori Abituali,
Stoke on Trent.
And furthermore Detterling, answer me this: Did not Justin Welby last year repeat the Lambeth Anglican Conference 1998 reaffirmation that homosexual activity is always sinful? Methinks he did.
ReplyDeleteGENE
Yes, he did. And so what?
DeleteJustin Welby is not some senile celibate, nor does he speak arrogantly ex cathedra in order to bully his fellow Anglicans into toeing some imaginary party line. He does not set out the Church of England's doctrines, and Anglicans are in no way obliiged to follow his pronouncements.
Anglicans are allowed, indeed expected, to think for themselves which is why the Synod's decision to allow the blessing of same sex marriages in church is not enforced as a matter of policy. Any priest who does not feel able to bless a same sex marriage in the light of his beliefs is under no compulsion to do so.
Gene Vincent, and his fellow bigots in the Roman Catholic Church are happy to let senile celibates do their thinking for them, which is their problem but also probably just as well. The juvenile, knee-jerk bigotry which passes for an intellectual process in Gene's shrivelled, drink-addled mind would probably lead to a revival of the burning of witches and the casting out of demons from persons suffering from mental illness.
And in any case, Gene and his fellow bigots in the Roman Catholic Church disobey church doctrine when it suits them. In common with the rest of European and North American Catholics, he has ignored the Roman Catholic doctrine on artificial contraception in both of his marriages.
Don't come the barrack room lawyer with Detterling, you snivelling little creeping-Jesus.
Monsignor Campione Segaiolo, Chiesa dei Masturbatori Abituali,
Stoke on Trent.
But never mind all this. How about these terminally embarrassing posts, especially Gene's feeble response. Well down to his usual spineless snivelling, or do we mean snivelling spinelessness?
ReplyDelete• FROM GROINRASH AND PUSTULE - “PORN FOR THE PEOPLE”, AND VANITY PUBLISHERS TO THE DELUDED & ILLITERATE.
The miracle we would like Padre Pio to perform is for Gene Vincent to write the other 74, 688 words of GRANNY BARKES FELL IN WOOLWORTHS and pay the balance of the publishing fee. We drew up the original contract for a 75,000 word novel in 2018, with Mr Vincent to pay our £3,500 publishing fee by December of 2020. So far neither the novel nor the money has appeared, despite repeated promises and excuses, the latest and least credible being some nonsense about the illustrations, supposedly by a painter called Johnny Bluenote who, as far as we know, is yet another of Gene’s sock puppets. If Mr Bluenote is as good an artist as Mr Vincent is a writer, then we imagine that most of his pictures, like Gene’s writings, adorn various lavatory walls in the seedier pubs of West London.
The latest promise was of publication this month, but so far neither manuscript nor money has appeared. We regret therefore that unless both are received by next Friday fortnight, March 31st, GRANNY BARKES FELL IN WOOLWORTHS will never be published. This is no loss to the literary world - the three hundred words we saw (which we now realise is all there ever was) were beyond terrible - a sort of alphabet soup, a demented, drunken parody of Finnegans Wake,
twenty times watered, too bad even even to be called balderdash.
Having said all that, we realise that our prayer is asking too much even of the admirable Fr Pio. Working this miracle would require the impossible - for Gene to be endowed with literary ability as well as determination, sobriety and creative imagination, too long an order. Perhaps we should try St Jude.
Perry “knee ‘em in the bollocks” Kidney-Wiper, Contracts Manager, Groinrash and Pustule, Publishers.
Anonymous11 March 2023 at 02:15
Don’t be silly, Mr Kidney-Wiper. These Padre Pio stories are all fraudulent nonsense, as bogus as the man himself and those, like Gene Vincent, who believe in him. Dear me. whatever next, Gene Vincent writing a novel indeed. He couldn’t write “knackers” on a toilet wall.
Geoffrey Archer
Reply
•
Anonymous12 March 2023 at 11:03
'Granny Barkes Fell in Woolworths' will be published soon after Easter 2023.
GENE
Reply
•
Anonymous13 March 2023 at 02:40
No, it won't.
Perry “knee ‘em in the bollocks” Kidney-Wiper, Contracts Manager, Groinrash and Pustule, Publishers.
So no one is obliged to follow Anglican doctrine? No wonder the Church of England is f**ked.
ReplyDeleteDetterling in that case answer me this: Some time back an Anglican priest, a woman who is the daughter of Rev Desmond Tutu, and who lives abroad in a same sex marriage (sic) wished to conduct a C of E funeral service in England. She was barred from doing so - and quite correctly in my opinion as the C of E does not permit same-sex married priests officiating.
So someone was able to enforce this C of E rule. How come?
Got you there Detterling.
GENE
Nonsense. The Church of England permits priests in same sex marriages to officiate in all the sacraments of the church provided that the priest concerned is prepared to accept and undertake that his relationship should remain celibate. Don’t talk crap based on your pig ignorance. It’s the kind of fudge familiar to Catholics with regard to the “housekeepers” who look after “celibate” Catholic priests. As for the excellent Ms Tutu, she actually officiated at the funeral with the permission of the Bishop of Hereford. He gave permission for this to happen so long as it took place not in the village church but in a marquee in the Rectory next door. Again, don’t talk crap based on your pig ignorance .
ReplyDeleteSister Labia Maioria, Abbess of the Order of Stupid Twats.
"The Church of England permits priests in same sex marriages to officiate in all the sacraments of the church provided that the priest concerned is prepared to accept and undertake that his relationship should remain celibate."
ReplyDeleteMy God! WHAT ABSOLUTE BOLLOCKS!
"He gave permission for this to happen so long as it took place not in the village church but in a marquee in the Rectory next door."
Ha! Ha! Ha! You couldn't make it up!
GENE
Gene, your offensive pig ignorance about the church of England makes any opinion you hold about it worthless.
DeleteNo amount of your pig ignorant scoffing can alter the fact that homosexual clergy in civil partnerships can continue in their parishes provided that they undertake that their relationship remains celibate. This has been the case since 2016.
In the same year, In September 2016, Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, announced that he is gay and in a celibate relationship with his male partner, becoming the first bishop to do so in the Anglican church. Detterling knew Nick quite well at one time, his having been a vicar in the Newcastle Diocese - a wonderful preacher and an inspirational parish priest, not least for owning his sexuality at a time when pig ignorant tossers like you jeered at him for doing so.
You can call absolute bollocks as much as you like, but you cannot, with your despicable heckling, cancel out the ministry of noble men like Nick Chamberlain.
As for Ms Tutu, you asked how come and Detterling told you. Now fuck off and take your pea-brained scoffing elsewhere.
Mgr Eugeniusz Wincenty, Parafialny ksiądz, Kościół Represjonowanych Homoseksualistów, Ulica Tysiąca Dupków, Kraków.
"... that homosexual clergy in civil partnerships can continue in their parishes provided that they undertake that their relationship remains celibate."
DeleteYes, but clergy who enter into a same-sex marriage (sic) cannot.
Glad to be able to clarify this for you Detterling.
GENE
There is no difference in law between a marriage and a civil partnership. Don’t be a bigger stupid twat than you need to be, Gene. So far from “getting me” you have made an even bigger tit of yourself than ever.
DeleteFr P E R Vert, Chaplain, Oo-Aye Fartyrs Catholic High School.
Ha! Ha! Ha! But that's not what we are talking about. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE (sic). The Anglican church does not allow clergy who are in a same-sex marriage (sic) to officiate.
DeleteBanged to rights! Detters, You won't bluff and bluster your way out of that one. Another victory for Gene.
GENE
What is the legal difference between a marriage and a civil partnership?
Delete"What is the legal difference between a marriage and a civil partnership?"
DeleteWho cares? That is not the issue here and you know it. The issue is whether the C of E allow clergy who have contracted a same-sex marriage (sic) to officiate in C of E churches. IT DOES NOT. That is why Ms Tutu could not conduct this funeral service in a C of E church.
No point in trying to bluff and bluster Detters.
Another victory to Gene - remember how often that cry used to go up on the TES Opinion Forum?
GENE
The issue is that clergy in a same-sex civil partnership are allowed to officiate in all the Church of England sacraments, and no matter how often you try to bluster your way past that fact, you cannot gainsay it. The legal difference between a civil partnership and a civil marriage resides simply in the lack of ceremony involving vows in the former. The rights and responsibilities in law of civil partners are exactly the same as those of a married couple, so stop pretending that there is any difference.
DeleteIt is the lack of vows or promises in signing up to a civil partnership which has allowed priests in civil partnerships to remain in post and administer the sacraments. The church has thus recognised in practice the validity, before God, of committed same-sex relationships.
In the case of Ms Tutu, the moving of the funeral to a marquee was again a technical way of observing the letter of canon law whilst allowing a generous interpretation of its spirit, and was done with the full approval of the Bishop of Hereford. The Archdiocese of Canterbury was content to leave the matter in his hands. Perhaps you should take it up with him? [Not that you will - you are far too much of a coward].
Crowing about "victory" shows what you are really about, Gene: cheapness, nastiness and bigotry. Not to mention that despite all your "victories" on TES, the cry only ever seemed to go up from your chorus of sock puppets: and you lost all your battles - homosexual adoption, same sex marriage in the UK, same sex marriage in Eire. And there will be a law allowing assisted dying in my children's lifetime. Some victories.
Now fuck off.
Mgr Eugeniusz Wincenty, Parafialny ksiądz, Kościół Represjonowanych Homoseksualistów, Ulica Tysiąca Dupków, Kraków.
What despicable attempt at obfuscation. The Church of England does not allow clergy who have contracted a same-sex marriage (sic) to officiate at services and the sacraments in C of E churches. End of story. No way you can get around that by prattling about civil partnerships Detterling. That is why Ms Tutu was barred from conducting the funeral service in a C of E church. She was in a same-sex marriage. If not what was the reason for her being barred?
DeleteHolding the funeral service in a marquee! My God! Even you must be embarrassed by such a farce.
GENE
Detterling has obfuscated nothing. The issue is that clergy in a same-sex civil partnership are allowed to officiate in all the Church of England sacraments, and no matter how often you try to bluster your way past that fact, you cannot gainsay it. The legal difference between a civil partnership and a civil marriage resides simply in the lack of ceremony involving vows in the former. The rights and responsibilities in law of civil partners are exactly the same as those of a married couple, so stop pretending that there is any difference in kind between the two.
DeleteDetterling has nowhere denied that Ms Tutu was barred from conducting her godfather's funeral in his home parish church because she is in a same-sex marriage, contracted civilly in Holland in 2015 and blessed informally at a ceremony in Cape Town the following year.
As for being embarrassed by a funeral service conducted in a marquee, once again Gene shows what a trivial, cheap and shallow mind he has: see Matthew 18:20 if you can find your Bible, you canting bastard. And describing the funeral of Martin Kenyon as a farce is an insult to the memory of a great man - a lifelong friend of Desmond Tutu's and a tireless campaigner against apartheid. To refer to this background is not, as I am sure i will be be dubbed by Gene Vincent, "prattling on" - it is the kind of context his superficial bigotry habitually ignores.
As he will no doubt find a way of scoffing at this background too. Mpho Tutu van Furth is the daughter of Desmond Tutu, one of the great souls of modern Christendom. He was proud to attend the blessing of his daughter's marriage to Dr Marceline van Furth in Cape Town, and bestowed his personal blessing on the couple. He also said, in 2014: "I would never worship a God who is homophobic: I am as passionate about the campaign against homophobia as I ever was about apartheid."
You pays your money and you takes your choice: on the one hand a great Christian soul, Desmond Tutu: brave, steadfast, committed and principled, with a generosity of spirit leading him to bless his daughter's same sex civil marriage: and on the other, Gene Vincent: a snivelling coward, a homophobic whose condition is a consequence of his own repressed and twisted sexuality, a bigot with a cheap and nasty mind, the sort of man who thinks it Christian to write pornography about buggering other men's wives.
H'mm: that's a choice?
Mgr Eugeniusz Wincenty, Parafialny ksiądz, Kościół Represjonowanych Homoseksualistów, Ulica Tysiąca Dupków, Kraków.
Waffle, obfuscate, bluff and bluster all you want Detterling, the fact remains that Ms Tutu was barred from conducting a funeral in a C of E church because she is in a same-sex marriage. A very rare occasion when the C of E has applied its own rules. Had Ms Tutu been simply in a same-sex civil partnership would she have been barred? No she wouldn't. Don't try to pretend that there is no difference.
DeleteThe funeral service was held in a marquee - what a disgrace. And how disrespectful to the deceased.
GENE
And I should have added that Ms Tutu, had she been simply in a civil partnership, would have been allowed to take this funeral in a C of E church only if her civil partnership union was celibate.
DeleteWhere is the bluff, bluster and obfuscation, Gene? Detterling stated ONCE that clergy in same sex MARRIAGES could obtain a PTO in Anglican churches provided that their relationship was celibate - an obvious error which you were understandably quick to correct. He has since stated SIX TIMES - what is true - that clergy in CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS can obtain a PTO for Anglican churches - why do you persist in referring only to his first statement, which was obviously a mistake on his part? Nor has Detterling ever denied that Mpho Tutu van Turth (someone to whom you deny the elementary courtesy of getting her name right) was refused a PTO in the Diocese of Hereford because she is in a same sex civil marriage.
DeleteYou are obviously badgering Detterling over an error he made and then corrected because you are unable to address any of the other points he made. Par for the course with a pig ignorant tosser like you.
Tell us, for example, just why Desmond Tutu is wrong to compare the homophobia of bigots like you with apartheid?
Tell us, for example, why it was wrong to conduct a funeral in a marquee when the pope himself has conducted masses in football stadia?
And tell us this: what is the theological difference between homosexual clergy in same sex marriages and homosexual clergy in civil partnerships in terms of the validity of sacraments they administer?
Father Eugene “Tosser” Craddock
"And tell us this: what is the theological difference between homosexual clergy in same sex marriages and homosexual clergy in civil partnerships in terms of the validity of sacraments they administer?"
DeleteYou'd better ask Welby Co - or whoever made the C of E rulings as to civil partnerships/same-sex marriages (sic)
GENE.
"And tell us this: what is the theological difference between homosexual clergy in same sex marriages and homosexual clergy in civil partnerships in terms of the validity of sacraments they administer?"
DeleteYou'd better ask Welby & Co - or whoever made the C of E rulings as to civil partnerships/same-sex marriages (sic)
GENE.
Question:
ReplyDeleteDoes the Church of England teach that homosexual activity is incompatible with the Scriptures and is always a sin?
Answer:
Yes, it does.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Detterling.
GENE
Again, so what?
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Church teaches that artificial contraception is a sin, yet millions of Catholics including you practise it. Stuff that up your arse, Gene.
Fr Thomas Osser.