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Parish vicar Wolfgang Rothe blesses two men at a Catholic service in Munich
Photo: Felix Hörhager / dpa
An important signal, an inappropriate political action or a provocation worthy of criticism in the direction of the Pope?
Under the motto "Love wins", Catholic clergy bless homosexual couples - and thus bring new unrest to the Catholic Church in Germany.
Because their actions are clearly against the line of the Vatican.
It was deliberately a matter of performing the blessings publicly - "not to present the couples, but because the initiators found the decades-long practice of secret blessing to be unworthy," said the initiative's announcement.
The practice is "unworthy of the couples to be blessed and unworthy of a church that stands up for human affection and reveals a paradigm in these questions of sexual orientation that is no longer acceptable in any society that is committed to fundamental human rights."
"It is important to us that we are not only legally connected to each other"
Priests, deacons and volunteers all over Germany took part in the campaign. A total of around 100 services were held, the first already in the past few days. However, the main day of the action is this Monday. The initiators declared that everyone was overwhelmed by the response. People who fell in love again after a broken marriage were also blessed. A movement emerged from a "grassroots" impulse.
The husbands Andreas and Thomas were moved by an open-air blessing service in Cologne.
Andreas, 56, left the church years ago, but Thomas remains loyal to her because he is convinced that she also does a lot of good.
The blessing meant a lot to him, said the 59-year-old: “He puts our relationship under God's blessing.
It is important to us that we are not only legally linked. «
In the Munich church of St. Benedict, a rainbow flag was on the altar during the ceremony on Sunday evening.
"My concern is to get that out of the church backyards - to where it belongs: in the middle of church life," said Pastor Wolfgang Rothe.
The 48-year-old Christine Waldner and her partner Almut Münster were touched: "It was very moving."
Henry Frömmichen also took part in the service in Munich.
The 21-year-old had caused a stir when he made public at the end of April that he had been kicked out of the Catholic seminary - according to his own account, because he had published a photo with Alexander Schäfer, the "Prince Charming" from the gay dating show of the same name.
The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising does not want to comment on the reasons why the young man had to leave the seminary.
"On the one hand, I am released from the seminary, kicked out, and elsewhere in the church I am received with open arms," said Frömmichen now.
"Of course, this is a very great gift for me personally."
Criticism from the German Bishops' Conference
An action of this type and magnitude has never before taken place in the Catholic Church.
Not everyone is happy with it.
Blessings for homosexual couples are often already practiced in parishes, they are not unusual, said the President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Sternberg.
The question is whether the blessings are suitable for political manifestation.
Public actions of this kind are "not a helpful sign," said the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing, in view of the ongoing internal church debates about the attitude to homosexuality.
Blessing services have their own theological dignity and pastoral significance.
But they were just not suitable for "protest actions".
Of course, church services should not be instrumentalized, countered co-initiator Bernd Mönkebüscher, pastor from Hamm.
“On the other hand, every service is political.
Now in this context I find that the services are a solidarity with all those who feel offended by this no from Rome. "
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 against this in German-speaking countries.
But there is also support for the ban, for example from the Catholic women initiative Maria 1.0, which campaigns for a conservative understanding of the Catholic Church.
She sees the blessings as "targeted provocation in the direction of Pope Francis," as reported by Deutschlandfunk, among others.
Clara Steinbrecher, head of the initiative, said: "Of course, homosexual people can receive the blessing, but their partnership cannot."
"Open your mouth and hang the colorful flags on the churches!"
The conservative Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki also supports the ban on blessings.
The Archdiocese of Cologne has announced talks with priests who disregard this.
“I'll face that.
I am not afraid of such a conversation and do not fear any sanctions, «says Pastor Ulrich Hinzen, who celebrated a blessing service in the community of Christ's resurrection in Cologne.
The Cologne band Brings supported the campaign with a new recording of their song "Liebe wins".
Singer Peter Brings said: "Open your mouth and hang the colorful flags on the churches!"
bbr / dpa / AFP
