BERLIN (AP) — More than 120 employees of the Catholic Church in Germany publicly came out as gay on Monday, saying they want to “live openly without fear” in the church and pushing for it to allow couples’ blessings of the same sex and change its work rules.
A group of 125 people – including priests, religious teachers and administrative workers – have identified themselves as supporters of the initiative called “#OutInChurch – For a Church Without Fear”.
In a March document, the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”
The document appealed to conservatives and discouraged LGBT Catholic advocates around the world. But it has prompted a noticeable pushback in Germany, which has seen hot-button issues such as church teaching on homosexuality discussed as part of a formal process of debate and reform.
Bernd Moenkebuescher, a west German pastor who helped initiate blessings for same sex couples last year, told the dpa news agency that participants in the new initiative were inspired by a public coming out of 185 actors in Germany last year.
The initiative calls on all LGBTIQ people who work for the church to join and calls on bishops to publicly support its manifesto. He attacks the church’s “discrimination” against same-sex relationships and argues that the church should make it clear “that LGBTIQ+ people, whether living alone or in a relationship, are blessed by God.”
The initiative specifically calls on church officials to allow gay people to go out at work if they work for a Catholic institution without having to fear that their employment contracts will be voided.
“The #OutInChurch initiative asks… to change the labor law of the Church so that a life in accordance with one’s own sexual orientation and gender identity, also in the context of a partnership or of a civil marriage, does not lead to exclusion from tasks and functions or dismissal,” the supporters of the initiative wrote.
The German Bishops’ Conference welcomed the initiative, according to dpa.
“I would like to greet this on behalf of the German Bishops’ Conference as a sign that we are working to ensure that such a climate of freedom from fear should prevail and be manifested in our Church,” the Bishop of Aix said. -the Helmut Dieser Chapel on the sidelines of the consultations of the Permanent Council of the Episcopal Conference in Würzburg.
No one, he said, should be discriminated against, devalued or criminalized because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We have an image of man that tells us the person is unconditionally loved by God,” Dieser added.
