Blessings for same-sex couples were yesterday given the green light by the German Synodal Way.
Delegates voted by 176-14, with 12 abstentions, for a five-page document called “Blessing ceremonies for couples who love each other”.
Of the German bishops who voted, a total of 38 were in favour of the text and nine were against, while 11 of them abstained.
The document request that bishops “officially allow blessing ceremonies in their dioceses for couples who love each other but to whom sacramental marriage is not accessible or who do not see themselves at a point of entering into a sacramental marriage”.
It says: “This also applies to same-sex couples on the basis of a re-evaluation of homosexuality as a norm variant of human sexuality.”
The synod also voted overwhelmingly to accommodate the ideology of gender into the Catholic Church, including the changing of baptismal records to reflect a person’s preferred self-identified choice.
They also voted for the normalisation of lay preaching and also agreed to ask the Holy See to “re-examine” the discipline of priestly celibacy.
Delegates hesitated over plans to press ahead with the roll out of synodal councils at national, diocesan and parish levels, however, following warnings from the Vatican that the model was incompatible with the structure of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of the bishops’ conference, told journalists afterwards that the votes would serve as a springboard to further reform.
He said: “The Church is visibly changing, and that is important.”
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