THE GERMAN SYNODAL ASSEMBLY ON THE REFORM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH voted on this date in Frankfurt, Germany, to bless same-sex couples, with 176 of the 202 assembly members voting for the proposal, including two-thirds of the bishops in attendance.
According to a report from the newspaper Donaukurier, same-sex blessings have already been going on in the German church — but were in a canonical grey area and took place in private, rather than openly in churches.
The move stands in direct contradiction to the Vatican, which has explicitly declared that “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.”
The Vatican argued that while God and the Church can bless individuals, including homosexuals, it cannot bless sin, including sexual activity that takes place outside of a valid marriage.
The issue of same-sex couple blessings is one of the main demands from the German Synodal Path, a series of conferences of the Catholic Church in Germany since 2019 that have been looking to greatly transform the Church.
The Synodal Way has proposed radical reforms, such as ordaining priestesses, declaring homosexual acts not to be sinful, and allowing all priests to be married.
