Cardinal Marx endorses blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples

Munich, Germany, Feb 3, 2018 / 09:31 am (CNA).- The president of the German Bishops’ Conference has declared that, in his view, Catholic priests can conduct blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx told the Bavarian State Broadcasting’s radio service that “there can be no rules” about this question. Rather, the decision of whether a homosexual union should receive the Church’s blessing should be up to “a priest or pastoral worker” and made in each individual case, the German prelate stated.

Speaking on Feb. 3, on the occasion of his 10th anniversary as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Marx was asked why “the Church does not always move forward when it comes to demands from some Catholics about, for instance, the ordination of female deacons, the blessing of homosexual couples, or the abolition of compulsory [priestly] celibacy.”

Marx said that, for him, the important question to be asked regards how “the Church can meet the challenges posed by the new circumstances of life today – but also by new insights, of course,” particularly concerning pastoral care.

Describing this as a “fundamental orientation” emphasized by Pope Francis, Marx called for the Church to take “the situation of the individual, … their life-story, their biography, … their relationships” more seriously and accompany them, as individuals accordingly.

Marx has recently called for an individualized approach to pastoral care, which, he has said, is neither subject to general regulations nor is it relativism.

Such “closer pastoral care” must also apply to homosexuals, Cardinal Marx told the Bavarian State Broadcaster: “And one must also encourage priests and pastoral workers to give people in concrete situations encouragement. I do not really see any problems there.”

The specific liturgical form such blessings – or other forms of “encouragement” – should take is a quite different question, the Munich archbishop continued, and one that requires further careful consideration.

Asked whether he really was saying that he “could imagine a way to bless homosexual couples in the Catholic Church,” Marx answered, “yes” – adding however, that there could be “no general solutions.”

“It’s about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies in other areas as well, which we can not regulate, where we have no sets of rules.”

The decision should be made by “the pastor on the ground, and the individual under pastoral care” said Marx, reiterating that, in his view, “there are things that can not be regulated.”


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


11 Comments

  1. Well, my goodness me! I think that I shall take up bank robbery for a living, and will go to Cardinal Marx to have my endeavors blessed before I head out for a heist. And while I’m at it, I’ll go out and commit perjury, but I’ll ask him for a blessing ceremony beforehand. And, y’know, there are some people who really annoy me, so I think I’ll poison or knife or shoot them – but I’ll be sure to get Cardinal Marx to “accompany me as an individual” as I do it.

    It is a terrible thing to have evil on the loose in the Church, with corrupt leaders cooperating with it.

  2. An internal contradiction of immense proportions. It is not possible to square this circle.

    To be led away from Christ in the name of “mercy”.

  3. Dr Maike Hickson German born wife of Dr R Hickson and member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family recently interviewed Dr Josef Seifert for 1Peter5 on his firing in Spain. Seifert cited Prof Gerhard Hover’s repudiation of intrinsic evil [Time is greater than space], the phi theological basis of Pope Francis’ New Paradigm, and basis for Cardinal Reinhard Marx’ position on homosexual union. From my Thomistic perspective “concrete circumstances” frequently cited by Pope Francis as moral determinants however mitigating or thought favorable cannot make an evil act good since the object of the act must be ordered to God. The moral law referencing human acts that are inherently evil reflect the divine law, and God who is neither subject to time or change. Evil is in the will of man, due to a willful privation of direction to a due end. If as Gerhard Hover argues time is reduced to the continuous motion of the Aristotelian tradition [form and absence of form which affects human acts] it must be taken as an excessive limitation [coarctata temporis acceptio]. Time Hover says is actually greater than the space by which it is measured. Human acts are of themselves transient in nature inclusive of their intrinsic moral nature. Time in this sense transcends the limitations of space and consequent restrictions like intrinsic evil. This theorem [Hover’s] effectively denies that evil is in contradiction to God. Evil must then exist as commensurate to the divine nature as good or evil, but dependent on human measurable time. Then nothing is intrinsically and forever evil to God. Since it is man that determines what is good or evil. That is apotheosis. Instead God unchanging undivided Pure Act and First Principle cannot be subject to moral divisibility that mirrors a Zoroastrian good and evil composite of justice, namely what is evil today is good tomorrow. In God there is no Darkness.

    • Hi ,
      I’ve been a Catholic all my life, that’s almost 59 years.
      This Cardinal Marx seems to have stopped being a Catholic AND DEFINATLY A CHRISTIAN, with his heinous attack on our Faith. How can you bless someone who quite clearly is facing an eternal punishment for their sin, and then inviting this perversion into any Christian church.
      He should be guiding lost souls to the right path.
      He is an insult to everything he is supposed to be, but more importantly what the Catholic faith is supposed to be.
      I fear this could be a case of ” birds of a feather. He should get out of our Religion instead of soiling the already bad image Catholism already has with crimes against children.
      This person or wanna be do gooder is a complete imbecile, if he finds his job too hard to do he should get out ,and stop damaging 2000 years of Christianity.

    • Hi Father Peter,

      I find your comments very very deep and learned, complicated and difficult to understand.

      But to simplify.

      God does, many many times through the bible point out what is good and what is evil. This to me is where mankind finds the answers to life’s conundrums, so in ” the rule book” or bible every conceivable sin for mankind is addressed.
      Now, if an individual commits certain sins throughout their lives and never seeks forgivenesses and most importantly, never ceases these sins – then their soul is lost for eternity. This may sound very harsh BUT this is Gods law and no matter how hurtful any individual may find this, this is the truth.
      Now anyone who tries to alter the word and teachings of God is foolish because the Bible is foolproof, but NOT for the foolish.
      To be truly fair to anyone who seeks advice and who genuinely does not know the answers it is best to make them fully aware of the dire eternal consequences of leading a sinful life.

      God Bless

      Brian.

  4. Hi ,
    I’ve been a Catholic all my life, that’s almost 59 years.
    This Cardinal Marx seems to have stopped being a Catholic AND DEFINATLY A CHRISTIAN, with his heinous attack on our Faith. How can you bless someone who quite clearly is facing an eternal punishment for their sin, and then inviting this perversion into any Christian church.
    He should be guiding lost souls to the right path.
    He is an insult to everything he is supposed to be, but more importantly what the Catholic faith is supposed to be.
    I fear this could be a case of ” birds of a feather. He should get out of our Religion instead of soiling the already bad image Catholism already has with crimes against children.
    This person or wanna be do gooder is a complete imbecile, if he finds his job too hard to do he should get out ,and stop damaging 2000 years of Christianity.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Cardinal Marx promotes false news about blessings and “homosexual unions” – Catholic World Report

Leave a Reply to Leslie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*