Hear that whirring sound? That’s Pope Benedict XVI spinning in his tomb. Unfortunately, it’s not loud enough to drown out the German Catholic Church declaring its own irrelevance.
According to Breitbart, “The Synodal Assembly on the Reform of the Catholic Church voted in Frankfurt, Germany, to bless same-sex couples on Friday.” The German bishops can’t perform gay wedding ceremonies (yet), so blessing same-sex couples is the best they can to fit in with the cool kids.
The vote was a product of “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,” Breitbart says. “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.”
So they’d really like the Church to give up being Catholic. Oh, and if we could maybe tone down the whole “Christian” thing, that would be great. They really just want to be a place to go for Christmas music and lesbian bake sales.
According to one German newspaper, the clergy have been blessing gay unions on the downlow anyway. Now they can be out and proud. Maybe add some liturgical dance to the rite. With fewer Catholics in the pews, there should be plenty of room for innovation.
For its part, the Vatican is holding firm, stating that “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.” The Church can bless homosexual individuals, but homosexual acts are sinful, and the church because, as Breitbart notes, it can’t bless sin. Go figure.
And there are killjoys in the U.S. Church who don’t like the idea:
This action is schism plain & simple. As the Vatican made clear months ago, “We cannot bless sin”. The 38 bishops who voted for this need to repent and return to the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ. https://t.co/UBW3F625sl
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) March 10, 2023
On the other hand, the Jesuit currently known as Francis is a big fan of synods, and the Church is now having a “Synod on Synodality,” which is just about as postmodern as it sounds and something no good can possibly come of. So the gays may get their blessings eventually. Eternal truths aren’t as eternal as they used to be.
As Breitbart notes, the Church of England just declared it would bless same-sex unions, but wouldn’t go all in and perform weddings. Reports are that the dozen or so active Anglicans are split over the wisdom of the decision.
