Catholics accuse Pope's ambassador of queer hostility

Queer Catholics have criticised the Vatican's ambassador to Germany, Nikola Eterovic, for remarks made at the shrine tour in Aachen.

"The Catholic LGBT+ Committee is appalled that the Catholic Church is once again moving dangerously close to right-wing populist forces that construct gender diversity as an attack on the family instead of recognising different ways of life and relationships," Markus Gutfleisch, co-spokesperson of the Catholic LGBT+ Committee, announced on Tuesday.

Nuncio Eterovic, the diplomatic representative of the Holy See in Berlin, had quoted Pope Francis in a sermon at the Aachen Shrine pilgrimage last Sunday as saying that human beings have a nature "that they cannot manipulate at will". He went on to quote the Pope as saying, "Precisely for this reason, the attitude of one who claims to erase the difference between the sexes is not healthy, because he no longer knows how to deal with it." Eterovic himself stressed: "The Catholic Church has always proclaimed this doctrine in fidelity to the Lord and has withstood old and new attacks on the family, which is the original cell of Church and society."

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Bishop joins in attack

Pope's ambassador reaffirms Vatican line on sexuality

Family the original cell of church and society

The Pope's ambassador to Germany, Nuncio Nicola Eterovic, has reaffirmed the Vatican's position on marriage, homosexuality and transsexuality. Man must respect his nature and cannot "manipulate it at will", he said.

During a service for the Shrine pilgrimage in Aachen on Sunday, he referred to the words of Pope Francis, according to which the attitude is not healthy "to erase the difference between the sexes".

He also pointed out that according to Catholic teaching, marriage is only possible between a man and a woman as a lifelong community that serves, among other things, the procreation of offspring: "The Catholic Church has always proclaimed this teaching in fidelity to the Lord and has withstood old and new attacks on the family, which is the original cell of Church and society."

Dieser has a different stance

The Bishop of Aachen, Helmut Dieser, had spoken out several times in the past for a further development of Catholic doctrine and sexual morality. He had also described homosexual partnerships as "wanted by God" and said in an interview that there was "no one-hundred-percent binarity" in the personal assignment to the female or male sex. Therefore, one can no longer say that there are only two genders.

"To be expected"

In a first reaction after Eterovic's sermon, Bishop Dieser told the Catholic News Agency: "This was to be expected. The nuncio represents - and must represent - the official Roman line, but he didn't do it aggressively." The latter added that he could say yes to all that Eterovic had said, and added: "But we also always say a few sentences more in some places. And that is the point of contention. Is it possible to expand on what has been done so far without endangering or questioning it?"

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