Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who has served as archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany since 2008, has instructed priests and full-time pastoral staff in the archdiocese to offer the controversial handouts.blessings give strength to love“As the basis of pastoral care.
Priests who do not wish to conduct such blessing ceremonies for same-sex marriages or remarried divorcees must refer couples to the dean or other staff.
A letter from the Cardinal, who die tagspost Reported on Monday, indicates that the handout should be “the basis of pastoral care” and that, starting in June, various offices of the archdiocese are to provide further training about the design of the blessing ceremony for all full-time officials in pastoral care.
Marx emphasized that “the blessing is not the celebration of a holy matrimony.” However, this does not mean that the blessing of a non-sacramental union, which in many cases is already a civil marriage, leads the couple to the margins of the community and the Church.
According to Tagspost, Marx directed that the “religious meaning” of the text be explained to all “who still struggle with this blessing.”
The handout “Blessings give power to love” is the result of a process that emerged from a vote in the Synod passage. Fifth Synod meeting in March 2023 adopted Text of the handout with 92% votes. The joint conference of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK) presented the text of the handout in spring 2025.
In the Church of Germany, the handout is highly controversial. Official recommendations were issued by the dioceses of Limburg, Osnabruck, Rotenberg-Stuttgart and Trier. However, the Archdiocese of Cologne and the dioceses of Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau and Regensburg all rejected the application and referred fiducia supplications For justification.
according to fiducia supplicationsThe Vatican’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of the blessing, issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or CDF) in December 2023, states that the blessing of union is possible in irregular situations and same-sex couples – although the CDF had claimed to the contrary only two years earlier.
Article 31 of the document states that the form of the blessing “may not be ritually determined by Church authorities…so as not to cause confusion with the blessing of the sacrament of marriage.”
According to Article 38, one should neither promote the blessing of couples who are in an irregular state nor provide any ritual for it. According to number 39 blessings are explicitly excluded “in direct connection with the civil celebration”. Additionally, “clothing, gestures and words that are indicative of marriage” should also be avoided.
Many bishops – including entire bishops’ conferences – have rejected the Vatican’s approval of blessings for same-sex unions. Thus, there is an ongoing struggle for direction in the Church between those who follow the Church’s traditional teaching on homosexuality and those who consider the blessing of same-sex couples theoretically possible – whether in the form outlined by the Vatican or in the form that is largely common in Germany.
In the Catechism the Catholic Church, basing its teaching on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, distinguishes between homosexual inclinations or tendencies and homosexual acts, calling such acts “intrinsically disordered” and contrary to natural law. “They make the sexual act closer to the gift of life. They do not proceed from genuine emotional and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be taken for granted,” states Catechism No. 2357.
The Church also strictly forbids discrimination against homosexuals and says they should always be accepted with “respect, compassion and sensitivity”. Furthermore, the Church calls persons with homosexual attractions to chastity – as all are called according to their situation in life – and “to fulfill the will of God in their lives” (No. 2358).
According to Catholic doctrine, marriage is exclusively the union of a man and a woman, and their union has a twofold end: “the well-being of the spouses, and the transmission of life” (No. 2363). The Catechism states that these two values ​​of marriage can never be separated.
this story was first published It is produced by CNA Deutsch, EWTN News’ German-language affiliate, and translated and adapted by EWTN New English.
