Pope told to reconcile himself with the German gay community

Thierse fordert Papst zur Aussöhnung mit Berliner Homosexuellen auf - Yahoo! Nachrichten

Berlin (DAPD). Four months before the visit to Germany by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vice President of the German Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, called for the leader of the Catholic Church to reconcile with Berlin's gay community. Benedict comes from 22 to 25 September to Germany and wants to make a speech in the Bundestag.

"Berlin is the capital of gays and lesbians who have a conflictual relationship with the Catholic Church", the SPD politician said on Wednesday morning to reporters in Berlin. This is what the Pope has to engage with during his stay in the German capital and react accordingly.

Thierse expected during the Pope's visit to Berlin on 22 September, numerous demonstrations by the gay community, which "will probably get as much media attention as the Pope himself."

The MPs Monika Grütter (CDU) and Josef Winkler (green) placed high expectations for the visit of the pontiff. As experts from their political groups they called on the church that the Pope should meet in Germany with abuse victims, go to the Protestant church, take the abolition of celibacy into consideration and reconsider the rejection of his Church of birth control.

On the other hand, the head of the Commission of the German bishops in Berlin, Karl Jüsten, warned of exaggerated expectations over the visit to Germany, Benedict.

Further stops during his visit are the Diocese of Erfurt and the Archdiocese of Freiburg.

Some background reading for Herr Thierse.  He also failed to draw the correct conclusions from his direct experience of communism in East Germany and joined the socialists to make his career.  His biography.   He could only be a Jesuit or a left-wing intellectual from his picture.

Monika Grütter is at the top of the CDU in Berlin, leading the list in the 2009 elections. On the uberliberal wing of the party, which she probably sees as the only practical politics in multi-cultural Berlin, as wild as it ever was between the Wars. It will be very interesting to see how the Pope projects himself in this society, not forgetting that the Catholic Church is multi-cultural by her very nature.

Josef Winkler in a recent speech to the German Bundestag speculated about changing the exemptions of the churches from anti-discrimination rules.