Jakarta –
As the faint sound of church bells faded into the sound of the organ, Father Jan Korditschke walked to the altar to say mass. A ritual ritual that is very common in Catholic Sunday services.
But there was a feeling of nervousness among the congregation. Something very unusual is going to happen.
Father Korditschke said that everyone who wants to be blessed must stand up.
Most of the congregation stood, including a number of same-sex couples.
As the harp started playing, the priest began to move around the church hall. He calmly told the standing congregation what he wanted to pray for. Then he raised his hands above the bowed head of the congregation and began whispering a prayer.
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Father Korditschke is one of 120 Catholic leaders in Germany who have opposed the ban on blessings of same-sex couples. (BBC)
Many people’s tears were shed when Father Korditschke prayed. This is because for lesbian and gay Catholics here, it is the first time they feel fully accepted after a lifetime of worshiping at church.
“It is heartbreaking, and I realize how hurt I feel,” said Sangha, one of the devotees present. He was with Frieda, his lesbian partner for 25 years.
“In 49 years, I never got acceptance. But eventually, people started saying: It’s okay if you’re here.”
The Vatican shocked liberal Catholics
Matthias, who was born Catholic and blessed with his partner, Thomas, admits that he has never had problems going to mass. But statements from Catholic leaders have led him to consider leaving the church.
“I often wonder if I can stay in a church that doesn’t want me. But the ‘real’ church is here, standing on this land, restoring my faith again.”
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In March, the Vatican issued a stern statement stressing that same-sex couples are “sinful” while underscoring the prohibition for priests to bless same-sex partners.
Same-sex couples blessing is a very individual thing, sometimes practiced by priests who have liberal thoughts – but until recently it rarely came out to the public.
At the ceremony, a pastoral officer is blessing same -sex couples in Cologne (Reuters)
This open statement from the Vatican has shocked liberal Catholics in Germany. In response to that statement, thousands of priests, nuns and parishioners launched a campaign named Love wins (Love wins), to make it clear that LGBTQ is accepted in the church.
“I felt angry, and ashamed, because I thought it was a hurtful statement,” Father Korditschke told me.
He is one of 120 pastors in Germany who openly oppose the Vatican ban.
‘How could you not bless someone who is grieving?’
Over the course of a week, priests hold mass in Catholic churches across Germany serving blessings for those who wish, including couples the Vatican calls ‘sinners’, such as divorcees or same-sex couples.
When I asked Father Korditschke how he justified his defiance of Vatican rule, he responded with tears in his eyes.
According to him, there was a congregation who put a rose in the chair next to it. The flower was intended for her lover who had died a few months ago.
The congregation, according to Father Korditschke, had recounted the grief he had experienced, and he asked that his deceased partner be blessed. This blessing helps the congregation alleviate the sorrow after losing a loved one.
Same-sex couples blessing is only part of a turbulent movement in Germany of Catholics seeking change.
Women on the pulpit
Grassroots organizations, such as Maria 2.0, also demand equal rights for women in the Church.
The day after Father Korditschke’s mass in Berlin, women preached at 12 Catholic churches in Germany – something the Vatican dislikes very much.
“The Catholic Church once said that the Earth is flat, and told us to believe in it. The Church must change its position. Or you should believe that Adam and Eve are real people,” said Ulrike Gken-Huismann, who delivered a sermon at his church in Düsseldorf.
“It’s not that the Church has never changed its teachings.”
Church leaders in Germany are divided: liberal dioceses support a number of reforms, while conservative Church leaders support the hardline Vatican.
However, polls show Catholics in Germany tend to be more liberal.
A survey conducted by several universities in Berlin and Mnster showed 70% of German Catholics support same-sex blessings; 80% did not question partners living outside of marriage; and 85% believe priests should be able to marry.
After same-sex couples were blessed in Berlin, about 100 people gathered outside the church, to drink sparkling wine in the sun as a form of celebration.
But at the church gate, about 10 protesters carried posters reading “God does not bless sins”.
There was no animosity between the two groups. The two groups are important parts of the Catholic Church that disagree.
That’s all right, said Father Korditschke, smiling.
What did Pope Francis say about homosexuality?
Oktober 2020: Pope Francis told documentary filmmakers that same-sex couples should be allowed to become “civil partners”. “Homosexuals … are children of God and have the right to have families. Nothing should be expelled, or made miserable for it.”
Oktober 2014: The bishop at the Church’s synod rejected the proposal to further accept the gay group that the Pope supports.
Juli 2013: During one flight, the Pope told journalists that gay groups should not be marginalized, but integrated into society. Gay priests must be forgiven, and their sins blotted out, he said.
2013: In the book On Heaven and EarthThe Pope said that legally equating same-sex relations with heterosexual marriage would be “an anthropological regression”.
2010: When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he opposed same-sex marriage, but legally supported a number of protections for same-sex couples.
See also the video ‘New Zealand PM Cabinet: There are Gays and Women with Chins on the Chins’:
(ita / ita)
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