From March 2026 there will be official blessing celebrations for homosexual couples in the Catholic Church in Germany. This was decided by the synodal assembly on the reform of the Catholic Church on Friday in Frankfurt/Main.
Divorced people who have remarried should also be able to have their relationship blessed by the Catholic Church. After a controversial debate, the synodal path reform project passed a paper with a majority of almost 93 percent on Friday, which recommends developing and introducing appropriate liturgical celebrations in a timely manner.
Almost 81 percent of the bishops voted in favour. A handout for blessing celebrations for different couple constellations is to be developed. Pastors who carry out such a blessing celebration should no longer face disciplinary consequences. For all interested couples there should be talks with pastors and, if necessary, seminars in preparation. The paper, entitled “Blessing Celebrations for Couples Who Love Each Other,” emphasizes that a refusal to bless the relationship of two people “who want to live their partnership in love, commitment and responsibility to one another and to God” is merciless to the point of discriminatory. In particular because this “cannot be justified convincingly in terms of theology of grace”.
In 2021, the Vatican labeled homosexuality a sin
The nun Katharina Ganz emphasized that the text was an “important signal to the universal church”. The representative of the Catholics of other mother tongues, Emeka Ani, said: “Catholics from the African culture are strongly against same-sex partnerships.” The topic should be dealt with at the level of the world synod, where he sees no majority for it. Essen’s Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck replied: “I consider us as a universal church to be so interculturally diverse that we have to say at this point that we have to answer it differently in our country than elsewhere.”
In a letter published in 2021, the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed that the Church had no authority to bless same-sex relationships. For these included sexual activities outside of the marriage of a man and a woman. God bless sinful people, but not sin, according to the Vatican authorities. This was met with criticism in Germany and other countries. The text of the action states that the survey as part of the synod of bishops showed “that the view of homosexuality on which this document is based is in many places not considered sufficient”. A theological development is needed. The German initiative should therefore flow into the global synodal process.