German Catholics to bless gay unions despite Vatican ban

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s powerful Catholic progressives are openly defying a recent Holy See pronouncement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions by offering such blessings at services in about 100 different churches all over the country this week.

The blessings at open worship services are the latest pushback from German Catholics against a document released in March by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”

The document pleased conservatives and disheartened advocates for LGBTQ Catholics around the globe. But the response has been particularly acute in Germany, where the German church has been at the forefront of opening discussion on hot-button issues such as the church’s teaching on homosexuality as part of a formal process of debate and reform.

The dozens of church services celebrating blessings of gay unions are the latest escalation in tensions between conservatives and progressives that have already sparked alarm, primarily from the right, that part of the German church might be heading into schism.



Vicar Wolfgang Rothe, left, blesses the couple Christine Walter, center, and Almut Muenster, right, during a Catholic service with the blessing of same-sex couples in St Benedict's Church in Munich, Sunday, May 9, 2021. Germany’s Catholic progressives are openly defying a recent Holy See pronouncement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions by offering exactly such blessings at services in about 100 different churches all over the country. The blessings at open worship services are the latest pushback from German Catholics against a document released in March by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions. (Felix Hoerhager/dpa via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-lifestyle-religion-f94e1e634f3b80e209d82ce29927deab

[burrowowl]

1. YES!

[patphil]

2. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Love is Love".

It doesn't matter if it's heterosexual or homosexual. The important part is the love.
Only on Earth, in physical bodies that need two sexes to reproduce, do you have a division of male and female. Once you leave your physical body, this is no longer an issue.
And while we are at it, Sex and Love are two different things. You can have sex without love, and love without sex. When they happen at the same time it can be and amazing experience.
Marriage is a 3D idea to create stable family units for the sake of the children. In the bible where it is said that "What God has joined together let no man separate" refers to the link between our physical bodies and our Angelic soul body. It has nothing to do with a physical marriage between two people.
And it is certainly not a decree in the eyes of God that marriages must be heterosexual.
That is an idea in the minds of humans.

The Catholic Church has failed the test of love, and has fallen into the darkness of judgement and condemnation.
Homosexual love is not a sin. Hate is a sin, for it denies God's Love.

[Schmice3]

3. Martin Luther. The Reformation.

Once again.