Priests in about 100 Catholic churches in Germany have been marrying same-sex couples since Monday, May 10, in defiance of a Vatican ruling that calls gay marriage a “sin.”
The Love Wins movement emerged in the country after the official announcement of the Catholic Church, which last March declared that God “can not bless a sin”. “Couples taking part (in the movement) should receive the blessing that God desires to give them, without secrecy,” the movement said in Germany.
Hopes in same-sex couples had given the Pope statements
The Pope Francis had made statements in the past that led many Catholics to assume that the Catholic Church could embrace same-sex couples. As the pope had stated, he believed that same-sex couples should be able to marry in a civil marriage. In the last year, the Pope has stated in a documentary that these couples “have the right to be a family.”
However, the Vatican Council of Doctrine ruled last March that the Catholic Church did not have the power to bless gay marriage.
In the Catholic Church and the Sacrament of Marriage, the blessing is given by the priest in the name of the Church.
The Vatican’s response was not “intended to be a kind of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of its ritual,” Pope Francis himself said a little later.
Signatures of priests in Germany in favor of gay marriage
However, a group of Catholics in Germany described the Church’s decision as a “slap in the face to many people around the world.” The movement even released a map with the churches in which the priests agree to bless the union of same-sex couples.
Thousands of priests and church workers also signed a petition calling on the Catholic Church to extend marriage to same-sex couples, and some parishes hung rainbow flags, a symbol of the LGBTQI community.
The Catholic Church in Germany tends to take a more liberal stance on the issue. Gay marriage before the state was legalized in the country in 2017, while Berlin declared “anti-homosexuality treatment” illegal for those under 18 years of age.
