Synod has brought anarchy. Despite Vatican ban – parish offers new homosexual blessing ceremonies

Despite Vatican ban – parish offers new blessing ceremonies

Blessing despite the ban: The Catholic parishes of Sankt Lambertus in Mettmann and Sankt Maximin in Wülfrath near Düsseldorf are ignoring a ban imposed by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki from Cologne.

Blessing despite the ban: The Catholic parishes of Sankt Lambertus in Mettmann and Sankt Maximin in Wülfrath near Düsseldorf are ignoring a ban imposed by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki from Cologne. On the instructions of the Vatican, he had forbidden blessing celebrations for homosexual couples. As reported by the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the "AG Regenbogenkirche für alle" from both parishes wants to offer a "blessing service for all loving couples" again on Sunday, September 10th.

After the first service of this kind in March, Father Herbert Ullmann received a kind of warning prohibiting him from repeating such a celebration. The case, which became public at the end of July, made headlines nationwide. God's love stops at no one, it says in an announcement of the celebration, which is to take place in the evangelical "Culture Church" in Wülfrath. Community officer Ulrike Platzhoff told the newspaper that she would organize the celebration. Full-time pastors from the Catholic and Protestant communities are available for the blessing. Platzhoff described it as a question of credibility not to stay out: "For me as a pastor, it is no pleasure for me to have to violate church rules in order to reach people with the Good News."

The reprimanded parish priest, Ullmann said he had to comply with the archbishop's requirements. “Otherwise I risk my existence. Unfortunately, you have to say that.” The project group knows, however, that they have him behind them. He thinks it's good that the group remains active and committed even without him. "They don't need me as a figurehead." He stays "in the matter, but the archbishop shouldn't read how far in the newspaper," added Ullmann. Andrea Lauer, the spokeswoman for the “AG Regenbogenkirche”, emphasized that Cardinal Woelki had written “horror” about the ban at the end of July and at the same time was informed that further actions were planned. "Unfortunately, we have not yet received an answer from our archbishop" to her request for a conversation with Woelki.

As a reaction to the ban, another blessing service is planned for September 20 in front of Cologne Cathedral. According to current teaching, Catholic priests are not allowed to bless same-sex couples who ask for religious recognition of their union. At the Synodal Path to the Future of the Church in Germany, the majority of participants voted for the possibility of blessing celebrations for homosexual couples - Cardinal Woelki abstained at the time.

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