Blessing ceremony: Protest: Priests bless queer couples in front of Cologne Cathedral

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Blessing celebration
Protest: Priests bless queer couples in front of Cologne Cathedral

Same-sex couples can have themselves blessed in front of Cologne Cathedral on September 20th. photo

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

A priest who also blessed homosexual couples is being reprimanded, to the outrage of many. There will now be a protest event in Cologne – on Woelki’s birthday.

In protest against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, several Catholic priests celebrated a blessing ceremony for same-sex couples in front of Cologne Cathedral on September 20th. There will first be a short service, then the individual blessing and then church political statements, said Munich clergyman Wolfgang Rothe to the German Press Agency.

Rothe had suggested the blessing ceremony in front of the cathedral. September 20 was chosen because it is the anniversary of Woelki’s inauguration in 2014. The celebration is scheduled to take place in the evening at 6:30 p.m.

The current reason for the planned protest is the reprimand of a pastor from Mettmann near Düsseldorf who held a blessing ceremony for lovers – including homosexual couples. The archdiocese reprimanded him for this and pointed out that the Vatican expressly forbids such celebrations.

This approach led to a wave of outrage. The Cologne Carnival festival committee wrote on Instagram: “Blessing keg barrels & Rose Monday floats, but not loving people? No understanding!”

dpa

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