Let me guess... a "mistranslation".
Posted on 05/07/2015 11:44:55 AM PDT by Gamecock
As part of the reforms prompted by Pope Francis, Germany's Roman Catholic Church has decided that lay Catholic employees who divorce and remarry or form gay civil unions should no longer automatically lose their jobs.
According to Christian Today, Catholic Bishops have voted to adjust Church labour law "to the multiple changes in legal practice, legislation and society" so employee lifestyles should not affect their status in the country's many Catholic schools, hospitals and social services.
It was gathered that the change came as the worldwide Catholic Church debates loosening its traditional rejection of remarriage after a divorce and of gay sex, reforms for which German bishops and theologians have become prominent spokesmen.
"The new rule opens the way for decisions that do justice to the situations people live in," Alois Glueck, head of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics, said after the decision on new labour guidelines was announced on Tuesday.
Over two-thirds of Germany's 27 dioceses voted for the change, a Church spokesman said, indicating some opposition.
There is no worldwide Catholic policy on lay employees. German law allows churches to have their own labour rules that can override national guidelines.
But German courts have begun limiting the scope of Church labour laws and public opinion reacts badly when a Catholic hospital's head doctor is fired for remarrying or a teacher is sacked after her lesbian union is discovered.
Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the bishops conference and a senior adviser to Pope Francis, has been a leading proponent of making the Church more open to modern lifestyles that its doctrine officially rejects.
A worldwide synod of bishops at the Vatican last October was split on how flexible the Church should be in welcoming openly gay or divorced and remarried Catholics. A follow-up synod is due this October, with its result in doubt as debate continues.
Cologne Cardinal Rainer Woelki, the Francis-style pastor the pope appointed to Germany's richest diocese, said the labour law did not negate official Church teaching that marriage is indissoluble, but brought it into line with actual practice.
"People who divorce and remarry are rarely fired," he told the KNA news agency. "The point is to limit the consequences of remarriage or a same-sex union to the most serious cases [that would] compromise the Church's integrity and credibility."
Passages in the new version of Church labour law say that publicly advocating abortion or race hate, or officially quitting the Church, would be a "grave breach of loyalty" that could lead to an employee being fired.
did the German church ever sell the largest porn publisher in Germany??
Number 1 - the German Bishops don’t speak for the Catholic Church. Number 2 - The issue is not a church teaching in any event. Hiring folks is one think. Approving of their relationships is another. But the Church is clearly within its right of religious freedom to hire only employees whose lifestyles are consistent with Church teaching.
That's the part that I'm inclined to doubt. The Germans have been doing this for years without announcing their material apostasy.
They're coming "out of the closet" with it now, I think, because they realize the Synod in August isn't going to go their way. Cardinal Kasper said outright that it doesn't matter what's "advised" by the Synod or "decreed" by the Pope, the filthy rich, BMW-driving German bishops still know what's best for their own (clearing the throat) "pastoral practices."
It reminds me of the way fiery medieval preacher/reformers used to group together "simony, luxury, sodomy." They seem to go together.
It's a shame that super-caldera is under Yellowstone and not, say, Cologne.
It's a convenient dodge to disclaim that anyone speaks for the Catholic Church. Pray tell, if the LEADERSHIP of the Catholic Church don't speak for it, who the HELL does?!!!
Hiring folks is one think. Approving of their relationships is another.
Hiring them to do what? And with what church-provided benefits? The two are on a collision course.
But the Church is clearly within its right of religious freedom to hire only employees whose lifestyles are consistent with Church teaching.
Agreed. But it looks like the Catholic Church is relinquishing this right more and more. It will be impossible to reassert it later.
Um, by endorsing the move they may not be changing words on paper but are violating their church official teachings by their actions.
Sometimes I think most of the ills in the world are cause by Catholics who have effectively abandoned the faith and morals of the Church and conformed themselves to the worst of secular culture.
The world would be dramatically better if Catholics were Catholic.
Where is Savonarola when you really need him?
Number 3: "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7:20)
Mein Gott!! Was ist hier los?
Here’s what the lawyah community would say about that:
What other choice does he have? In just about every country it would result in endless rounds of labor law litigation, which the Church would almost invariably lose.
Keine Ahnung!
At the same time, these haughty German hierarchs who want to keep actual Church employees on the payroll who openly reject Catholic faith and morals, are described as "Francis-style."
Doesn't that strike you as being a little, I don't know, strange?
I can see where you're coming from, because this is indeed absurd and infuriating. However, whoever speaks Church doctrine, is speaking for the Church; and whoever not, is not.
Germans like Marx, Kasper (and others) tend do slither around this by saying doctrine is one thing, and pastoral practice another. As I see it, this is the very definition of moral corruption.
Depends on 'which' Francis you are referring to.
Yup, that’s the ‘strange’ thing. There seems to be the ‘media” Francis vs that dyed-in-the-wool Catholic guy with the white beanie...
**According to Christian Today**
Need verification from another source. This just does not sound right at all.
Here’s a similar report from Reuters:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/05/06/uk-germany-catholic-reform-idUKKBN0NR16Z20150506
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