Pope has not replied to letter of OutInChurch including proposal for Station 14b of the Stations of the Cross

Dear Pope Francis!

In October 2022, a letter from #OutInChurch was handed over to Pope Francis - to this day without a response. The initiators are now publishing the wording on feinschwarz.net.

In the past few months there have been important milestones in the struggle for the recognition of queer people and their way of life in Roman Catholicism. Church. Among other things, the change in Catholic labor law and the most recent resolutions of the Synodal Way to introduce blessing celebrations for queer couples and to deal with gender diversity should be mentioned here. With all the joy about what has been achieved, it must also be pointed out that an important reform request has become even more urgent: the necessary change to the Catholic teaching.

In addition to these changes, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided that ICD 11 will come into force on 1 January 2022. Here transgenderness is taken out of the realm of mental disorders. We have also noticed carefully that the Pope has campaigned for the criminalization of homosexuality by state law to end because it is unjust. We very much agree with this demand. However, this demand becomes all the more credible when it is made by someone who implements it in their own laws and standards. It strengthens our appeal to the Pope, who alone as head of the Church can end the discrimination and mental and psychological criminalization of queer people!

As long as church teaching continues to classify lived homosexuality as a serious sin, trans people deny their identity, homosexuality continues to be marked as an obstacle to ordination, etc., the above-mentioned developments remain in a contradictory framework. That is why one of the demands of the OutInChurch campaign is: “Defamatory and outdated statements of church teaching on gender and sexuality must be revised on the basis of theological and human scientific findings. This is of the highest relevance, especially in view of the global church responsibility for the human rights of LGBTIQ+ people.” (Demand 4)

As early as September 2022, an OutInChurch working group wrote a letter to Pope Francis that made concrete suggestions for changing the relevant catechism passages. In addition to the three signatories, other people were involved. This letter was personally delivered to Pope Francis by two intermediaries in early October 2022. Unfortunately, there is still no answer to this day. The text of the letter is documented below.

15.9.2022

Dear Pope Francis

Station 14b, which Msgr. Stephan Wahl formulated in view of this year's prayer of the Way of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum, we put at the beginning of our letter to you (Cathcon: put after the translation for clarity)

We are queer employees in the church who came out together on 24 January 2022 and shared some of their stories of suffering in the church. The accompanying book, which we are happy to give you, documents some of these stories. What everyone involved has in common is that we try to live and work out of our faith and feel at home in our church despite many injuries.

We would like to have our say with our #OutInChurch initiative. We don't (anymore) want people to only talk about us, but not with us. We don't want to hide anymore, but tell stories about our lives, about our feelings, love and faith.

Many of us are familiar with suicidal thoughts because of our queerness. Many do not feel accepted in and by the Church, since church teaching still makes homosexuality and transsexuality appear to be deficient.

There is a widespread awareness today that sexuality goes beyond man and woman and that there are no longer any pathological constitutions to be seen in the various forms. In 2018, transsexuality ICD 11 was removed from the psychiatric disorders section. So is the scientific belief that homosexuality is not a disease. In addition, theological sciences have convincingly demonstrated that the story of creation in Gen 1:27 is not to be interpreted as a creation of man and woman, but as male and female and thus allows for a variety of gender identities. Likewise, numerous exegetes emphasize that the Bible did not know homosexuality in its present form, as a responsible adult love relationship, and therefore there is no condemnation of homosexuality in the Bible. In view of the social changes, the scientific knowledge of medicine, psychology and theology, it is only logical for the church to teach in the light of the gospel that homosexuality, like the diversity of gender identities and sexual orientations in theological anthropology, is willed by God and the church is therefore working all over the world against exclusion and violence against LGBTIQ+ people.

A reformulation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is an important step towards reducing injustice, oppression, violence and internal hardship of LGBTIQ people. That is why we consider it urgently necessary to change the catechism with the following aspects:

• With regard to the condemnation of homosexual relationships: in view of the new theological and human scientific research, which no longer allows the previous interpretation of homosexuality as a bad aberration, homosexuality needs to be valued positively as a variant of creation (Number 2357).[1] Therefore, a condemnation of homosexual relationships is inadmissible because it violates the sanctity and dignity of the person.
• the deletion of number 2358 and number 2359 because they do not stand up to research and also do not recognize that God created people with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations and could not have erred in his creation. God's plan of creation wanted people to be different, to live differently, and to shape their loving relationships.
• Also based on the gospel, we expect that the church around the world will actively work to end the persecution and oppression of LGBTIQ+ people so that people can live their vocations in different relationships with dignity.
• Homosexuality and trans identity are not a disease. So-called “conversion therapies” should therefore be rejected. They are not medically indicated. In pastoral care, self-determination must be respected and the integration of sexuality into the person must be supported. No one should be persuaded that his or her homosexual orientation or transgender identity and its biographical realization are inherently sinful.

We experience many life plans and life experiences of queer people as diverse places of knowledge of faith and sources of divine work. We are convinced that diversity makes our church richer, more creative, more philanthropic and more alive. As workers in the church, we want to contribute our life experiences and our charisms as equals and share them with all Christians and non-Christians.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Station 14b – an addition

Dear Papa Francis, Santo Padre,

I was there via TV, just at the Stations of the Cross in the Roman Coliseum.

Very you gathered and invited very different families to carry the cross a stage,

to tell their story. 

The widowed mother was there with her child families with adopted children

or a child disabled in a wheelchair, the large and the childless family

and others. Moving.

Two girlfriends at the end from Russia and Ukraine

no words on that, just deep filled silence for peace.

Fourteen stations. 

Allow me to add one since there are no fifteen stations

I just call it 14b,

it is part of it, no question for me.

The “other” families I mean, you in Rome, behind Vatican walls, still shamefully concealed,

as if they didn't exist or if they does, then unfortunately.

I mean the two men  who love each other and gave each other their yes,

and the child who grows up protected with you.

The two women, grown old together, who for a long time did not dare to confess

practiced in decades of hide-and-seek.

So many mothers, so many fathers who have their gay son, their lesbian daughter,

embrace and protect in love.

The daughter who, after years of torment, the parents will have a son

now free and so full of life. 

The long childless couples those by artificial means

finally become parents even if Rome forbids it.

I set them up for them the Station Fourteen B,

look at them Pope Francis,

they exist and thank goodness for that.

Life, multifaceted, is richer and more colourful,

the imagination of God knows no bounds.

Let airy wind into the dusty rooms,

Our church should dance and celebrate life!

Monsignor Stephan Wahl 15/16.4.2022

Father Wahl is very ecumenical.  Seen here with the former head of the Protestants in Germany, Margot Käßmann, who was forced to resign her post for drunk driving.