(LifeSiteNews) — The German bishops have adopted a new Church employment legislation, which allows employees to live openly in same-sex or “re-married” relationships.
Only a few days after the German bishops’ ad limina visit to Pope Francis, the German prelates introduced their reformed employment regulations for employees of the Catholic Church in Germany.
The German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) announced on Tuesday that they passed the new law with the necessary majority at their plenary meeting. The “basic order of ecclesiastical service” states that employees’ private lives, “in particular relationships and intimacy, are not subject to legal assessment.”
Employees, including Catholics, will therefore no longer face termination for living in a “second marriage” or a same-sex relationship.
This new law will affect only lay people working for the Church and not priests, seminarians, or members of religious orders, according to the text.
The new employment law states the following:
Diversity in church institutions is an enrichment. All employees can be representatives of God’s unconditional love and thus of a Church that serves the people, regardless of their specific tasks, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their gender, their sexual identity, and their way of life.
As a revision to a previous draft, the term “sexual orientation” was replaced by “sexual identity.”
According to a report by katholisch.de, the German bishops’ news outlet, the law was first adopted by the Association of German Dioceses (which is headed by the bishops) with a vote that requires a two-thirds majority. The plenary assembly of the German dioceses includes all diocesan bishops and, if applicable, the diocesan administrators.
The new “basic order of ecclesiastical service” is now episcopal law. However, to take effect in a diocese, it must be enacted by each diocesan bishop for his own diocese as a particular law. In the last amendment in 2015, three bishops expressed reservations and delayed putting it into effect.
The reform of the employment law has been in the making for months. At the fourth Assembly of the Synodal Way in September 2022, more than two-thirds of the German bishops voted in favor of a document that called for a change of the labor law of the Catholic Church in Germany in order to allow employees to live openly lifestyles contrary to Catholic doctrine on sexuality.
READ: German Synodal Way approves text calling homosexual acts ‘not sinful’ and ‘not intrinsically evil’
***MAJOR UPDATE, November 10, 2022*** LifeSiteNews reported the bombshell statement issued by Archbishop Viganò, declaring that members of the “Bergoglian church” are no longer in union with the Church of Christ.
According to Archbishop Viganò:
the visible church, to which the world gives the name of Catholic Church and of which it considers Bergoglio as Pope, is no longer Church…
This statement was long overdue, and Archbishop Viganò is finally sounding the alarm — Pope Francis is leading the Church into something radically different than the Church established by Christ. Pope Francis cannot continue betraying the faithful by abdicating his duty as Universal Shepherd.
The time to redouble our efforts and fervently request that Pope Francis repent and be reconciled with the Church is NOW.
SIGN and SHARE. Defend the Church and demand that Pope Francis faithfully uphold the authentic Catholic faith!
Bishops from across the world have raised concern over Pope Francis’ unfaithfulness to the 2,000+ years of Catholic teaching, and the recent statement by Archbishop Viganò is truly the breaking point into a new era for faithful Catholics.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM LIFESITENEWS AND SIGN THIS PETITION TO DEFEND THE CHURCH NOW.
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Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. James Altman, and two dozen more faithful Catholic priests & scholars are publicly calling out Pope Francis for his outrageous, dangerous, and heretical teaching concerning reception of Holy Communion.
Pope Francis stated that “faith” is the only requirement for those who wish to receive Holy Communion in his June 29 Apostolic Letter on the liturgy, Desiderio desideravi.
This statement is dangerous because:
- The Council of Trent explicitly anathematized those who make this claim calling it ‘heresy’
- Pope Francis omitted the essential step of repentance for sin to worthily receive the Eucharist.
- Pope Francis is thereby allowing the faithful to eat and drink condemnation on themselves, should they receive Holy Communion unworthily
- Pope Francis is supporting moral relativism, eradicating the clear distinction between good and evil
- Pope Francis is eradicating the need for the Sacrament of Confession
- Pope Francis is damaging the teaching office of the Church by sowing doubt and division among faithful Catholics
But there is a way to stop Pope Francis’ modernist attack and defend the true Catholic teaching on Holy Communion.
Catholics everywhere must renounce Pope Francis’ heresy and uphold the truth: only Baptized Catholics in the state of grace, and therefore free of mortal sin, can receive Holy Communion*.
For those in mortal sin, repentance and absolution must first be sought in the Sacrament of Confession before receiving the Eucharist*.
Pope Francis’ statement would mislead many souls, which is why we need your help today to stand with Bishop Strickland, Fr. Altman, Bishop Schneider, and more.
TELL POPE FRANCIS: HOLY COMMUNION CAN ONLY BE RECEIVED IN THE STATE OF GRACE!
The growing list of faithful Catholics who are standing for the truth and bravely resisting Pope Francis’ attempt to dilute the Church’s moral authority is only growing. This is great news, but the news can’t simply stop with you.
You must join the growing list of supporters to but a STOP to Pope Francis’ heresy.
WATCH: LifeSiteNews’ co-CEO and Editor-in-Chief, John-Henry Westen, fully breaks down the growing list of faithful Catholics choosing to resist Pope Francis’ attack on the faith.
Stand with these faithful Catholics: Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, Bishop André Gracida, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, Father Gerald E. Murray, Father James Altman, Father John Lovell, Professor Claudio Pierantoni, Dr. John Lamont, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Professor Anna Silvas, Dr. Anthony Esolen, Professor John Rist, Professor Paolo Pasqualucci, Julia Meloni, George Neumayr, and LifeSite’s John-Henry Westen.
*However, if a Catholic is unable to attend Confession but has a grave reason for receiving the Eucharist (such as a priest who may be required to celebrate Mass at a given time but who is unable to go to Confession), such a person must be confident to the best of his ability that he have perfect contrition for any mortal sins that he may have committed before receiving Holy Communion in an exceptional situation.
MORE INFORMATION:
Full statement by Catholic bishops and scholars correcting Pope Francis’ heresy – LifeSiteNews
In addition to the new law allowing employees of the Church in Germany to live contrary to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, the change of the phrase “sexual orientation” to “sexual identity” indicates that German bishops believe the claim that people are “born” as homosexuals, and their erotic inclinations are, therefore, part of their identity.
As LifeSite’s Pete Baklinski demonstrated in 2021, the assumption that someone can be “born gay” is not backed up by any valid scientific facts:
Science has made it clear that there are no known biological factors, such as a “gay gene” for instance, that can be used to distinguish someone with same-sex attraction from someone with opposite-sex attraction. The pro-LGBT British Royal College of Psychiatrists admitted in a 2014 position paper that same-sex attraction is not something one is born with but is determined by a number of factors, including “postnatal environmental factors.” Psychologists have pointed out that childhood trauma, especially in the area of the child-parent relationship, is a key factor in the development of same-sex attraction.
Over 800,000 people work for the Catholic Church in Germany or its institutions. According to Statista, the Catholic Church in Germany received 6.73 billion euros in church taxes in 2021.