German bishops declare that homosexuality is normal as the country’s Catholic Church begins review of its teachings on sexual morality
German bishops have said homosexuality is normal as the country’s Catholic Church begins a controversial review of its teachings on sexual morality.
They agreed that being gay is a normal form of human sexual identity, the chairman of the Marriage and Family Commission announced after discussions in Berlin last week.
This comes ahead of a two-year Synodal Process by the Germans which will see a national reform consultation, despite warnings from the Vatican.
Berlin’s Archbishop Heiner Koch said in a statement seen by the Catholic News Agency: “The sexual preference of man expresses itself in puberty and assumes a hetero or homosexual orientation. Both belong to the normal forms of sexual predisposition, which cannot or should not be changed with the help of a specific socialization.”
He said the move had been made possible by Pope Francis’s book on marriage and family called Amoris laetitia.
Bishops from four diocese met in Berlin on December 5 to formally talk about “The Sexuality of Man: How should one discuss it scientifically-theologically and judge it ecclesiastically?”. Archbishop Koch was joined by Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz, as well as medical experts and canon lawyers.
Koch said that the Synodal Process has to start from an “unbiased” position and consider the “latest scientific insights”.
Everyone at the meeting reportedly agreed that “human sexuality encompasses a dimension of lust, of procreation and of relationships”. Sexual orientation was considered unchangeable, and “any form of discrimination of persons with a homosexual orientation” was to be rejected, as was explicitly stressed by Pope Francis in Amoris laetitia.
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7 Comments
Duc
December 15, 08:01Das sind gute Nachrichten.
Fred
December 15, 10:01A positive action plan is what needs to follow the good news
We’ve been getting rays of hope for far too long
I think it’s best to turn their reports into actions and not just use news reports or empty promises to take advantage of some people somewhere
Dillish
December 15, 13:03I see Nigerian Catholic church leaving the Roman Catholic church like the anglicans. If you see the Kain prayers wey Dem dey fire upandan because of homosexuality..we wey dey Lagos archdiocese can relate
Q-Mara
December 16, 20:34Aswear! Sigh ?
Dunder
December 16, 21:48It’s the entire Church of Nigeria. I remember when they broke off fellowship from the Episcopal church in USA over Gene Robinson being made a Bishop and those against his ascendency were even adopted by the Naija Anglican church. I was thinking should a church that can barely feed and with a tapering membership be adopting ndi abroad that are already accustomed to a certain standard?
This same church and Jasper Akinola will accept 1 million dollars from the blood stained hands of Abacha government then turn on an innocent Bishop of a small church in near-rural America because he is in love and his parishioners love him? Over a decade down that line, I am sure the American bigots and their sponsors in Nigeria are seeing just how expensive hate can be. And with everything in a collar wanting to be posted to that diocese abroad, the Episcopalians are having a better view of their brothers in hate.
Dunder
December 16, 21:33I expected something like this after the Amazonian synod that was held recentl and the reforms by Francis about that Catholic society on the family (I forget the exact name).
Unfortunately for those on the right side of history, the church is heavily populated by Africans and South Americans who suddenly become anticolonialist upon hearing the word “gay”. This is why Pope Benedict is still a favourite and bigots like Kaigama in Abuja were esctatic over Jonathan’s hate bill until they were checked by the Vatican few years ago.
These pie-in-the-sky peddlers sowed the seed of hate in these previously accepting and diverse communities and continents and our ancestors drank all the kool aid in exchange for mirrors, salt, lace and the still unconfirmed claim of a four seasons hotel in space. Now that the West has repented of the Middle Eastern culture they exported and want to correct a horrible wrong, they don’t have anything to cure the rabid strain of fanatism that has taken over their last converts. We are all victims of these tales by moonlight dumped on African and American shores. Even the Bible says great will be the suffering of those who go after foreign Gods. Our suffer never start. These bishops and Francis will do all they can but until people stop seeking permission from unseen and inaccessible strangers on how to relate with their own blood and neighbors, we have to wait for the few German bishops to risk their own standing in a corrupt bureaucratic order.
Yazz
December 18, 03:33Hmmmm,And among those Catholic priests gays and bisexuals plenty ehhnnn..