More than 120 employees of the Catholic Church in Germany publicly outed themselves as queer on Monday, saying they want to “live openly without fear'' in the church and pushing demands for it to allow the blessing of same-sex couples and change its labor rules.
A group of 125 people — including priests, religion teachers and administrative employees — identified themselves as backers of the initiative titled “#OutInChurch — For a church without fear.” In a document last March, the Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.” The document pleased conservatives and disheartened advocates for LGBT Catholics around the globe. But it drew notable pushback in Germany, which has seen discussion on hot-button issues such as the church's teaching on homosexuality as part of a formal process of debate and reform.
Bernd Moenkebuescher, a pastor from western Germany who helped initiate blessings for same-sex couples last year, told the dpa news agency that the participants in the new initiative were inspired by a public coming-out by 185 actors in Germany last year.
The initiative is calling for all LGBTIQ who work for the church to join up, and appealing to bishops to give its manifesto public support. It assails the church's “discrimination” against same-sex relationships and argues the church should make clear “that LGBTIQ+ people, whether living alone or in a...
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