German Catholic bishops back blessings for gay couples, ignore Vatican

A large majority of German bishops have supported offering blessing ceremonies to homosexual couples in defiance of the Vatican.

Some 38 bishops on Friday voted in favour of the proposal in Frankfurt at Synodal Path, a high-level conference organised by the Catholic Church in Germany.Nine bishops voted against the proposal and 12 abstained.

The result, according to AFP, was welcomed by the head of the German Bishops’ Conference Georg Baetzing as a “very good” outcome.

The Church considers that marriage is exclusively the union of a man and woman, and the issue of homosexuality is highly controversial.

Most recently, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the powerful Vatican office responsible for defending church doctrine, handed down a ruling in 2021 that same-sex unions could not be blessed despite their “positive elements.”

However, in many countries, including Germany, the blessings are already offered in practice.

In 2021 and 2022, German churches participated in nationwide days of action where they held blessings for homosexual couples.

The practice depends to a large degree on the attitude of the local bishop. The implementation of the decision of the Synodal Path conference rests wholly with the bishops.