Free Republic

Rome’s Failure to Correct Germany’s Bishops has Emboldened Their Pro-LGBT AgendaAs the country’s bishops issue a new document encouraging diversity of sexual identities in Catholic schools, German Catholic sociologist Gabriele Kuby explains the full extent of the crisis.A recently published document from the German bishops encouraging Catholic school pupils to self-identify according to their “sexual identity” is the latest significant departure of the bishops’ conference from the Church’s teaching, re-igniting talk of a possible new, German-born schism.The “orientation aid,” published on Oct. 30, states that Catholic schools should consider “diversity of sexual identities is a fact,” effectively normalizing any pupil...

[Catholic Caucus] German Bishop Opposes Using the Bible to Condemn HomosexualityThe Bishop of Mainz, Germany, has spoken out against using Biblical passages as a reason to oppose homosexuality.Bishop Peter Kohlgraf made his statements during an interview on the television show “SWR Democracy Forum in Hambach Castle,” broadcast by Südwestrundfunk (SWR), a TV channel in western Germany, reported Katholisch.de. Bishop Peter KohlgrafKohlgraf said that one “cannot simply derive timelessly valid, eternal truths” in Biblical passages about homosexuality. The topic of the show was “Taboos in our society – between morality, power, and the media.”“I don’t take a single sentence from the...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishops looking to promote gender ideology in schoolsA 20-page document says Germany's Catholic schools should respect and make more visible students who are 'non-binary' and 'non-heterosexual.' The heretical German bishops are planning to introduce guidelines for Catholic schools promoting radical gender ideology without questioning its horrendous consequences for children.The German Catholic News Agency (KNA) reports that the Catholic bishops, or more precisely, their school commission headed by Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, are preparing a 20-page document on “sexual diversity” for Catholic schools.The paper says schools should respect and make more visible students who are “non-binary” and “non-heterosexual.” It...

In his latest challenge to Rome’s authority, the president of the German bishops conference is publicly rejecting recent Vatican instructions regarding this issue.In his latest salvo to challenge Rome's authority, the president of Germany’s bishops’ conference has said that any German Protestant who wishes to receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church on Ökumenischen Kirchentag — a day of Christian unity in May — may do so. “Anyone who is Protestant and attends Communion can receive Communion,” Bishop Georg Bätzing told an online discussion in Frankfurt on Thursday about the May 15 event that usually brings thousands of Christians to...

It’s Official: German Bishops introduce Protestant CommunionPresiding Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing wants to advance "unity" with Protestants, he said during an April 22 discussion (Katholisch.de).Therefore, the Protestant and "Catholic" services at the May 15 Ecumenical Kirchentag (church meeting) in Frankfurt will make this clear: "Anyone who is Protestant and comes to Communion can receive Communion," Bätzing believes.He adds that those believing that Jesus is "the inviter at the Eucharist" will not be turned away. Bätzing explains that this practice is followed “all over" and is "nothing new".Bätzing does not expect "any objection from Rome". There are Vatican reservations about the...

CNA Staff, Mar 16, 2021 / 01:00 pm MT (CNA).- Catholics and Protestants in Germany announced on Tuesday that they would press ahead with intercommunion at an event in May despite Vatican objections. In a March 16 press release, organizers of the third Ecumenical Church Congress (ÖKT) in Frankfurt said that they planned to invite Christians to attend celebrations “in many churches” in the city and across Germany on May 15. According to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, they said: “Christians of all denominations have the opportunity on this evening to come and enter, to get to know different...

Lay theologian Beate Gilles is the first woman to be elected as the general secretary of the German Catholic bishops' conference. The move comes as bishops face calls to fully own up to scandals.The German Catholic Bishops' Conference (DBK) elected a woman for the first time as the conference's top administrator on Tuesday, in a move aimed at modernizing the body. Theologian Beate Gilles was appointed as general secretary of the conference, which is based in Bonn. After her election to the post, the 50-year-old noted her skills as a runner are also well suited to her new role. "I...

VATICAN CITY, June 4, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Just one month after directing the bishops of Germany to reach a “unanimous” decision on whether a Protestant spouse married to a Catholic may receive the Holy Eucharist, Pope Francis has changed course and blocked the German bishops’ intercommunion proposal. In a letter sent to German Cardinal Reinhard Marx “with the explicit approval of the Pope” by Archbishop Luis Ladaria, S.J., prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Holy Father has halted the publication of the German bishops’ intercommunion document that ignited the controversy. Veteran Italian Vaticanist, Sandro Magister,...

Meet the admitted liars: Taking the point of view of "Palestinians" as facts despite recognizing & admitting it's falsehoodThe virus of criminal 'Palestinianism', taking their point of view as "facts", despite knowing it's falseMeet the bigots that fantasize in the mud of Arabists' slurs.You see it by the German Bishops that "clarified" their despicable criminal gross "analogies" from the darkest page in history, German Nazi ghettos to stopping terrorists by police, by saying that it's just what the "Palestinian" population believes... oh well, then What? Why would they simply repeat what "Palestinians" think? And why shouldn't truth matter? March 07,...