A sign of the new times? German Bishops put a stop to paper affirming homosexuality in schools

An affirmative guideline on homosexuality in schools has been stopped by the German bishops. A sign of a change of course for the Church - or just a backdown in the midst of social tensions? And what does the new Pope have to do with it?

Pride Month has come to an end. June was dedicated to the celebration of "sexual and gender diversity". This year, Bundestag Vice President Julia Klöckner decided not to fly any more rainbow flags in front of the Reichstag for Berlin's Christopher Street Day - citing the political neutrality of the Bundestag administration. There also seemed to be far fewer such flags flying in the major cities than a few years ago. And hasn't the number of companies that have redecorated their social media profiles accordingly also decreased?

This may reflect a certain weariness, triggered by the culture war pathos with which the diversity issue has recently been propagated. Historian Niall Ferguson speaks of a global social "vibe shift" in connection with the election of Donald Trump as US president. Under the impact of Trump's anti-austerity policy, European companies with US business have also stepped up their measures to promote "diversity, At their "Permanent Council" last week in Berlin, the German diocesan bishops rejected a long-prepared paper affirming homosexuality in schools. The document on "visibility and recognition" of the "diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities" in Catholic schools is available to the editorial team. It was drawn up by a working group that included the Catholic social ethicist Marianne Heimbach-Steins and the Auxiliary Bishop of Essen, Ludger Schepers. The Commission for Education and Schools of the German Bishops' Conference acted as the client.

The recommendations in the letter are similar to familiar positions: Teachers should, for example, "contribute to the visibility of people of different sexual identities" by "using language that does justice to the diversity of sexual identities and thus to each individual, and [avoid] learning materials in which stereotypical gender and role images dominate and diversity is hidden". Such debates are particularly familiar from the USA and the UK. The Catholic recommendation could have seriously raised the question of which classics of world literature on the relationship between men and women would have been acceptable as school reading at all.

Further demands of the paper: school headmasters should publicly communicate their self-image as a school of diversity. Counsellors and social workers should promote diversity projects and encourage young people to "gain clarity about their sexual orientation and gender identity". Pupils, in turn, are required to respect the self-designation and choice of name of homosexual people.

The plan was for the paper to be published as an official statement by the bishops. This has now been cancelled for the time being: the bishops have decided that it should be fundamentally revised and possibly published later as a commission paper. The spokesperson for the German Bishops' Conference, Matthias Kopp, referred to "internal consultations" and did not comment further on the matter.

Setback for Church reformers

You might think so: It's no surprise that Catholic head shepherds are unfamiliar with the topic. However, in recent years, many German bishops, together with the Central Committee of German Catholics, have pursued an offensive course of reform in the "Synodal Path". In 2022, the committee spoke out in favour of a "doctrinal reassessment of homosexuality". However, a basic text on the reform of the Church's sexual ethics failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority of bishops at the time.

The provisional cancellation of the paper is a further setback for the forces of reform. Individual dioceses are already setting their own priorities: for example, a new "framework concept for sexual education" in the Archdiocese of Hamburg aims to promote the "acceptance of diversity with regard to sexual orientation and gender identity". Herder-Verlag is also distributing a themed booklet financed by Catholic dioceses entitled "Visibly recognised: Diversity of sexual identities", which was apparently intended to accompany the now halted paper.

Criticism of scientific one-sidedness

The paper claims to argue on the basis of "human scientific knowledge". However, according to moral theologian Franz-Josef Bormann, this reference to "scientific findings" suggests a clarity that does not do justice to the complex topic. He was a member of the German Ethics Council until 2024 and criticises it: The text succumbs to a "constructivist misunderstanding of gender". The idea of a "diversity of gender identities" effectively means a departure from the biblical-humanities-based binary gender identity.

Bormann particularly criticises the selective handling of empirical studies on trans gender. The assertion that the sharp increase in young people with "gender identity incongruence" is not due to a higher prevalence, but to a change in awareness, is misguided. According to Bormann, the authors concealed problematic influencing factors.

Ironically, the paper refers in a footnote to the child and adolescent psychiatrist Alexander Korte, who himself speaks of a "zeitgeist phenomenon". Korte warns against a purely affirmative approach in which identification with the opposite sex should no longer be questioned. According to Korte, many young people revert to their biological gender in the course of puberty.

And the educational duty of care?

The authors of the Church paper at least concede that incongruities often do not become entrenched - but do not draw any conclusions from this. Bormann criticises the fact that the paper commits all school stakeholders to affirmative action without taking into account the controversial academic discourse or seriously reflecting on the pedagogical duty of care. It is unclear whether critical perspectives were considered in the drafting of the document. Were they ignored? Did they not exist at all? The only thing that seems certain is that scepticism prevailed among the bishops. Perhaps this is connected with the new pope. Little is known about Leo XIV. But a speech from 2012 is attracting attention. In it, the then Bishop Robert Prevost warned against Western media culture that "promotes sympathy for beliefs that contradict the Gospel" - in particular also for a "homosexual lifestyle" and "alternative families".

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