CNA Staff, Mar 15, 2021 / 12:00 pm
A leading German Catholic bishop responded to the Vatican’s rejection of blessings for same-sex couples on Monday by saying that there were “no easy answers” to the issue.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, made the comment March 15 after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) clarified that the Catholic Church does not have the power to give liturgical blessings of homosexual unions.
Bätzing said that the CDF’s response to a question about the possibility of same-sex blessings reflected “the state of Church teaching as expressed in several Roman documents,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
He continued: “In Germany and in other parts of the worldwide Church, there have been discussions for some time about the way in which this teaching and doctrinal development in general can be advanced with viable arguments -- on the basis of fundamental truths of faith and morals, progressive theological reflection, and also in openness to more recent results of the human sciences and the life situations of people today. There are no easy answers to questions of this kind.”