Enlarge image
Georg Bätzing (archive): "Aha, something is moving in the church"
Photo: Peter Hartenfelser / Hartenfelser / imago images
Georg Bätzing, wants to stand up for homosexual couples.
"I want us to give them God's blessing," said the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference on Saturday at the Ecumenical Church Congress in Frankfurt am Main.
He hoped that this could be achieved within the framework of the current reform process of the Catholic Church in Germany, the Synodal Way.
"Then people would notice from the outside: Aha, something is moving in the church."
In March the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear that it was illegal to bless homosexual partnerships.
Numerous Catholic associations and over 280 theology professors protested in German-speaking countries.
Last Sunday and Monday, in response to the Vatican's no, blessing services also took place nationwide for homosexual couples.
He is critical of the blessing services, said Bätzing.
They would have been provocative.
Incidentally, he also positioned himself very clearly against the Vatican's ban and communicated this to Rome.
Many blessings are already taking place.
The step that is now at stake is that the blessings should come out of the secret and purely private and should be made public.
“This is exactly the new movement.
So far we haven't, it's forbidden, and that's exactly where I think it needs to take a step forward, "said Bätzing.
jpz / dpa
