"Take the damn flag down"

The rainbow flag also flies at World Youth Day

Whom may I love? Do I see myself as a man, a woman - or neither? Is marriage the only legitimate form of relationship? These questions also move and polarize Catholic young people.

Not only in Germany is there renewed discussion about blessing ceremonies for homosexuals. When more than half a million young people gather in a not too big city like at the World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, contrary views and realities of life collide there, too. The rainbow flag - a symbol of solidarity for gender and sexual diversity - leads to all kinds of tensions, but also to productive debate.

Flag down

"Take the damn flag down," two unknown men aggressively told her in the middle of the opening Mass, reports 21-year-old Pia Held of the Catholic Young Community (KjG). Another young man told her that Germany was "no longer part of the Catholic Church anyway"; he snatched the flag from her, broke the wooden staff and forbade her to hold it up again. The man left only when she started crying and asked him several times to leave because she was afraid.

At first, she said, no one around her reacted. After the service, however, several people approached her and offered support; a few women religious gave her a bracelet.

Middle finger and encouragement

The 28-year-old Elli Weniger, who is being trained as a parish worker in the Regensburg diocese, wore the large flag around her shoulders. A young man held his middle finger in front of it, took a photo and shared it online. When she came out of a church service crying, ten young men approached her and told her that homosexuality was a sin. But otherwise, she said, she received a lot of encouragement. "Many told me it gave them hope."

Frenchwoman Marisol Cusis is with a German pilgrimage group at WYD. She said a priest accompanying the group forbade her from taking out the flag. Various people told her that, as a woman, loving a woman is a sin - because then you would love yourself; the LGBTQ community are atheists who have no business being in church. Furthermore, they are a political community, but the WYD is apolitical. The English abbreviation LGBTQ stands for people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay or queer.

Church-critical means undesirable

From the networks #OutInChurch and "offen.katholisch" there were considerations to register a booth at the big event World Youth Day, tells the pilgrim Clemens Kannegiesser. On the official WYD website, however, it said that no stands critical of the church would be allowed. The groups would not have felt welcome and then "let it stay", according to Kannegiesser. His assessment of the attitude of international youth: "I have the feeling they prefer to ignore the issue."

Sister Micha has a positive experience

At #OutInChurch, Sister Micha is also active. The asexual transperson is 29 years old and part of a northern German monastic community that fully accepts her in her identity, as she says. At WYD, Sister Micha wore a gray top with the colorful flag and the words "Made by God" underneath. And she happily reports, "I have had positive experiences with it throughout. So many people nudged me and said: Hey, great shirt!" Young people, some of them trans people, from Spain, Brazil or Puerto Rico, for example, have thanked her, she says.

The fact that young people are currently meeting in Portugal, whose paths would otherwise hardly overlap, is also shown by a round of talks in the German Pilgrim Centre, organized by the network "offen.katholisch".

When someone who is skeptical about the flag takes the floor, the young people in the audience sit up and raise their heads.

Talking with instead of about others

"I have to admit, I'm always quite alienated when I see a rainbow flag at Catholic events, too," he says. He came to the event, he says, because he didn't want to talk about people, but with them.

It's a sizzling moment; for in the hall sit predominantly pro-queer young people. The young man repeatedly emphasizes that he does not want to condemn anyone and that he also accepts homosexuals. But the ideal from a biblical point of view is marriage between a man and a woman; in this respect, he sees a contradiction between the flag and the faith. Not every inclination that is in one is in accordance with the will of God. However, he does not understand this interpretation of Catholic teaching as a devaluation of man himself.

Pro and contra in the room

In response to this statement, a priest speaks up and contradicts him. There is applause for both statements. "We have the different positions in the room," emphasizes Bishop Michael Gerber, who is present. This could be a help to understand the thinking of the other positions.

Many young people in the room would like to see a clear position on sexual morality from the senior bishops. But even among the clergy, there are differences of opinion, as Gerber explains. "But I sense a growing sensitivity through the Synodal Way."

Bishop Gerber senses growing sensitivity

In the bishop's view, theology and science must be brought into dialogue with each other. Moreover, he said, church doctrine has never been static. Theologically, he points to the creation story: there, too, there are opposites that are not mutually exclusive: "There is land and water; but there is also the mud flats." This transition, he said, is not something "deficient," but an independent area of the ecosystem.

And the pope? The assured God's love to a transperson in a podcast episode leading up to WYD. "God loves us as we are," Francis said. "The Lord accompanies us always, always. Even when we are sinners, he comes closer to help us."

What those pilgrims with more WYD experience seem to agree on: The topic of sexuality and gender is much bigger among young people at this year's WYD than in the past. It is certainly upsetting for the young people.