Cardinal Marx instructs priests to offer blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples

Cardinal Reinhard Marx has instructed priests and full-time pastoral workers in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising to adopt the controversial guideline "Blessing Gives Strength to Love" as a basis for pastoral care. Those who do not wish to perform such blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples or remarried divorcees themselves are to refer the couples to the dean or other pastoral staff.

A letter from the Cardinal, reported on Monday by "Die Tagespost," states that the guideline should become "the basis for pastoral action." Starting in June, the "Queer Pastoral Care" and the Marriage and Family Pastoral Care departments will offer training courses on conducting blessing ceremonies for all full-time pastoral staff.

Marx emphasized that "the blessing is not the celebration of a sacramental marriage." However, this does not mean "that blessing a non-sacramental union, which in many cases is already a civil marriage, marginalizes the couple within the parish and the Church."

According to the Tagespost newspaper, Marx demanded that the "theological meaning" of the text be explained to all those "who still struggle with this blessing."

The guide "Blessing Gives Strength to Love" is the result of a process that emerged from a vote within the Synodal Path. In March 2023, the Fifth Synodal Assembly adopted the action text "Blessing Ceremonies for Couples Who Love Each Other" with 92 percent of the vote. The Joint Conference of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) presented the text of the guidelines in spring 2025.

The guidelines are highly controversial within the Church in Germany. The dioceses of Limburg, Osnabrück, Rottenburg-Stuttgart, and Trier issued official recommendations. However, the Archdiocese of Cologne and the dioceses of Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau, and Regensburg rejected their application, citing the Roman declaration Fiducia supplicans as justification.

According to Fiducia supplicans of December 18, 2023, the Vatican declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, blessings of unions in irregular situations and of same-sex couples are, in principle, possible—even though the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had asserted the opposite just two years earlier.

Paragraph 31 of the document states that their form should “not be ritually prescribed by ecclesiastical authorities […] so as not to cause confusion with the blessing proper to the sacrament of marriage.”

According to Paragraph 38, “the blessing of couples who are in an irregular situation should neither be encouraged nor a ritual prescribed for it.” Paragraph 39 explicitly excludes blessings “in direct connection with a civil ceremony.” According to the Vatican, “clothing, gestures, and words that express marriage” are also to be avoided.

Numerous bishops, indeed entire episcopal conferences, have rejected the Vatican’s fundamental permission for blessings of same-sex unions. Thus, a struggle exists within the Church between those who adhere to the clear rejection of homosexuality, as dictated by traditional doctrine based on natural law, and those who consider blessings of such unions fundamentally possible—whether in the form envisioned by the Vatican or in the form that is widely practiced in Germany.

The Catholic Church distinguishes between homosexual inclination and homosexual acts. According to the Catechism, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “in no way to be approved” (CCC 2357). At the same time, they are to be “approached with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (CCC 2358). According to Church teaching, marriage is exclusively the union of a man and a woman, open to the transmission of life.

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