FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN (LifeSiteNews) — Members of Germany’s heterodox Synodal Way have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a document containing “blessings” for same-sex couples, as well as for the divorced and “re-married,” in a move putting them in direct opposition to the Vatican and Catholic teaching.
In a vote held March 10, participants of the Synodal Way overwhelmingly approved a text called “Blessings for couples who love each other” in a majority of almost 93%. The combined members voted 176 to 14, with 12 people abstaining.
Amongst the bishops of the German Bishops Conference (DBK) who form part of the Synodal Way, the text was approved by 38 to 9, with 11 abstaining. As noted by the National Catholic Register’s Jonathan Liedl, had the 11 bishops not abstained and voted against the measure, they would have prevented the text’s approval.
The results were met with cheering and applause by clerical and lay members of Germany’s Synodal Way, gathered in Frankfurt for the three-day meeting — the final such event of the Synodal Way which formed in 2019 ostensibly in response to sexual abuses crises.
Vote to adopt text on “blessings for couples who love each other” passes pic.twitter.com/Phh71660T8
— Jonathan Liedl (@JLLiedl) March 10, 2023
According to CNA Deutsch, the approved text states that the Catholic Church “offers recognition and accompaniment to couples who are united in love, meet each other in full respect and dignity, and are willing to live their sexuality in the long term in mindfulness for themselves, for each other, and in social responsibility.”
READ: Cdl. Müller: ‘German Synodal sect’ has replaced Catholic faith with LGBT ideology
The vote had been preceded by much debate amongst the participants in the meeting, with proponents of same-sex “blessings” strongly advocating for the text. Pope Francis’ controversial document Amoris Laetitia was cited by those making such arguments, including by former Papal advisor Cardinal Reinhard Marx.
Bishops Rudolf Voderholzer, Stefan Oster, and Maria Hanke continued their habit of being the few voices defending Catholic teaching in the Synodal Way and opposed the document, with Volderholzer stating that “reasons of conscience” prevented him from supporting it.
A previous attempt to have the document approved in September last year failed, after bishops were able to vote against it in a secret ballot. Cardinal Marx was furious at the outcome, and in today’s proceedings a secret ballot was not permitted.
Liberal bishops around the world continue promoting heterodox views on homosexuality, female priests, divorce, contraception, and more — advancing anti-Catholic positions that jeopardize the salvation of souls.
Such bishops often sideline, ignore and even persecute traditional Catholics who simply ask that the Faith be preserved and passed on to their children.
But traditional Catholics cannot be silenced any longer, which is why we are uniting in this international boycott of modernist bishops and dioceses until the deposit of Faith is upheld by the hierarchy again.
SIGN: We will not fund modernist bishops or priests who undermine the Catholic Faith, but rather direct our contributions towards faithful clergy and orders that work for the salvation of souls.
There are countless examples of bishops working against Christ’s Church in calling for divine law to be ignored in favor of sexual, doctrinal and liturgical deviancy, even trying to clamp down on Catholics who practise the Faith.
Just last year, Cardinal Cupich banned traditional prayers after Mass, and more recently has curtailed the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese.
Cardinal Cupich has banned the Hail Mary and St Michael Prayer after Mass
Who but a devil would ban these prayers after Mass
— Nick Donnelly (@ProtecttheFaith) August 27, 2021
The attack on the Faith is out in the open, with modernist bishops causing scandal in countless ways:
We have seen enough. Now is the time to show true Catholic unity against those who undermine the Faith – do not be bullied into submission by these men who would disfigure Christ’s Church.
JOIN THE BOYCOTT & SHARE! Tell everyone you know to STOP giving money to bishops who attack the Catholic Faith.
“We therefore commit to a financial boycott of modernist bishops until the hierarchy resolves to uphold the entire deposit of Faith.”
If the bishops refuse to uphold and protect the teaching of Christ’s Bride, the Catholic Church, then we must refuse to support them until they repent.
Thank you
P.S. — Demanding that liberal bishops be held to account through financial boycott will help save the Church from doctrinal and pastoral ruin. This is the first step in restoring the Faith for future generations. Our time is now, so please join us by signing today!
Photos: Pope Francis. Flickr. Long Thiên; Cardinal Cupich. Flickr. Goat_Girl; Collection Plate: Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock
READ: German Synodal Way approves text calling homosexual acts ‘not sinful’ and ‘not intrinsically evil’
The German Synodal Path has long been a scandal in the Catholic Church, with more than 70 bishops rejecting it in public and entire bishops’ conferences raising their voices in alarm. Laity are also concerned. Irme Stetter-Karp, the Vice-President of the Synodal Path, was rebuked by German Catholic laity for endorsing abortion and for demanding “that the medical intervention of an abortion should be made possible across the board.”
Bishop Bonny assists German heterodoxy
Proponents of the text today were notably supported by the presence of Belgium’s Bishop Johan Bonny. Bonny joined with other Flemish prelates in September and published a text for the “blessing” of same-sex couples, in violation of Catholic teaching.
Bonny has consistently claimed that Pope Francis supports the bishop’s personal promotion of homosexuality and since September has further claimed the Pope’s approval for the Belgian bishops’ same-sex “blessings.”
Both the German and Belgian bishops’ conferences made their respective ad limina visits to the Vatican last fall, where they were received warmly by Pope Francis.
READ: Pope Francis is encouraging dissident bishops to spread error and sinful teaching
This fact was noted by participants at the meeting today, who highlighted how Pope Francis had taken no action against the Belgian bishops for their promotion of same-sex “blessings.”
Speaking in Frankfurt, Bonny said that Francis had neither approved nor disproved of their Belgian text, but instead said it was a matter of pastoral concern for the local bishops to decide. “We did, from a pastoral point of view, what we are supposed to do,” said Bonny of the same-sex “blessings” document.
READ: The ‘Synodal Way’ wants to reverse Catholic teaching on homosexuality. Here’s why that’s impossible
What happens now?
With the text approved, it is now the duty of the DBK to prepare a handbook containing the formula for such blessing, reported the German bishops’ news outlet. The bishops must “develop and introduce appropriate liturgical celebrations in a timely manner,” added CNA Deutsch.
The outlet reported that such liturgical notes should consist of “suggested forms for blessing celebrations for various couple situations (remarried couples, same-sex couples, couples after civil marriage) … as well as a pastoral-theological introduction and pastoral-practical advice.”
Priests are not required to participate in any such blessings, but neither may any who conduct them be punished by the German bishops.
The blessings, as approved today, will commence in March 2026.
However, the vote directly rejects the CDF’s March 2021 responsum condemning same-sex “blessings.” The responsum was in answer to whether or not the Church has the “power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex.”
The CDF stated that it is “not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”
It remains to be seen whether this direct rejection of Catholic teaching on the part of the Synodal Way incurs any response from the Vatican. So far, the Roman Curia’s — at best only mild — interjections on the Synodal Way have been freely ignored by the Germans, who appear to enjoy the implicit support of Pope Francis.