Bishop George Bätzing, the head of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference in Germany, says that the Catholic church there is already blessing gay unions and the church is moving to formally implement it.
This is in direct defiance of the Vatican, which maintains that homosexual relationships are sinful and that God “does not and cannot bless sin”.
We told you in 2021 that German Catholic churches were defying the Vatican by blessing gay unions. Now the church is going to formalize it according to Bishop Bätzing.
The interview with Bishop Bätzing has captions in English but if anyone speaks German and sees a problem with the captions, let me know:
Bishop Bätzing speaking on the decision made by the #SynodalWay to implement blessings for homosexual and divorced+remarried couples; stating that that practice already exists in 🇩🇪 anyways and should be made public independently of what the #Vatican or the @Pontifex might think. pic.twitter.com/7th6bQw7Bw
— Maria 1.0 (@Maria_1Punkt0) March 15, 2023
Below is the transcript in English with minor corrections:
BISHOP BÄTZING: Homosexual couples, couples who are divorced and remarried, couples asking for a blessing, yes that is something we are going to do here.
INTERVIEWER: Yes, you can do that here, but the issue is that so far the Vatican has always said it was not allowed to bless homosexual relationships. Does that mean that you are quasi defying the Pope?
BB: For a start, it must be said that the practice of blessings exists and we want to bring it to the light. And that means that we the bishops must position ourselves on this and say it is good that we are doing this. Whatever is good in a relationship between two people can receive God’s blessing. That is only logical. And today we have heard from the Belgian church that this has already been implemented there. That this has even been discussed with Rome already.
INT: Yes, your colleague from Belgium said that he somehow got it through the side. But is this what you really want? To use your own words, “to bring it to the light because it is good”? Are you sure the Pope will agree to this?
BB: We will implement it here. After all, we have worked in four (forums) with umpteen persons from among the Synodal Way. With experts we created solid texts that extensively present the argumentation behind our rulings. And we are gladly willing to discuss those, but the action will be changed.
Two things I want to highlight. The Bishop claims that “whatever is good in a relationship between two people can receive God’s blessing” and that’s his excuse to bless gay unions. So he’s basically saying that because they ‘love’ each other, the sinful basis for their union doesn’t matter. But it absolutely matters and the Bible is clear on the subject.
Secondly, when asked if the Pope will agree to the German Catholic Church blessing gay unions, Bätzing suggests that it doesn’t matter whether the Pope agrees or not, he’s going to implement it anyway. “The action will be changed.”
I’ve been saying for some time that the German Catholic Church is creating the basis for a new schism. Because of the way the German government operates, the German Catholic Church has a lot of money and gives a lot of money to the Vatican. If they do create a schism and pull away to create their on version of the Catholic Church, it will certainly be felt at the Vatican. And I’m not sure what will happen then.