German Diocese Supports Gay Pride Parade

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by Juliana Freitag • ChurchMilitant.com • August 13, 2017

Germany's largest Catholic youth group calls for rite of blessing of same-sex unions

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The German Church is at it again. After last year's commentary condoning the gay civil union of two former nuns in Italy, the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart — guided in the past by the heterodox Cdl. Walter Kasper — joined the city's gay pride parade at the end of July.

The local section of the Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (or BDKJ, the largest Catholic youth association in Germany) officially supported the "Christopher Street Day" gay pride march, the name taken up by lewd LGBT parades in Germany and Switzerland. It is named after Christopher Street in New York, where the 1969 Stonewall riots took place. And if marching alongside with unrepentant homosexuals wasn't scandal enough, BDKJ also organized an LGBT prayer vigil in St. Maria Church with the full support of the diocese.

Pictures of the vigil were posted on the diocese's Facebook page with the caption "The world is colorful! Thank God!" along with a request "to pray for tolerance for a diverse society." One of the pictures showed BDKJ's pamphlet, which provided guidelines for "acceptance" of LGBT people during the Christopher Street Day celebrations. These are some of BDKJ's positions on so-called acceptance: "At the 2016 diocesan meeting, the BDKJ reaffirmed its full recognition of same-sex love: 'We, therefore, call on our Church leadership to develop a suitable rite for the blessing of same-sex couples, in order to ... demonstrate that their love is good and that they are an important part of the Church.'"

We, therefore, call on our Church leadership to develop a suitable rite for the blessing of same-sex couples.

The rest of the pictures are just as heart-wrenching. One of them shows a heart-shaped LGBT flag next to a holy Paschal candle, the representation of Christ Himself, the Light of the World (usually only lit for baptisms, funerals and special occasions when outside of the Easter season) and an altar embellished with balloons, overshadowing Christ on the Cross. A few comments on social media reminded the diocese that homosexuality is disordered and that the German Church should be leading people to their salvation, "asking Christians to gather around the Cross, not around a flag," to which the diocese replied, asking the faithful to "remain factual" and "watch their language."

The BDKJ has a long history of "fighting reactionary minorities." As one of their latest press releases reminds us:

[T]he treatment of sexual diversity has been discussed by Catholic youth associations since the 1990s. Rottenburg-Stuttgart's BDKJ gave a foundation for tolerant co-existence when publishing the essay "With body and soul — crazy for you" in 1994, where it established that "two people, regardless of their gender, who are in love and are responsible for each other, deserve not only respect and recognition but also equal rights."

This essay was published under the approving eyes of Cdl. Kasper, bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989–99. In 1994, Kasper was also named co-chair of the International Commission for Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue, and in 1993 he signed a pastoral letter urging permission for divorced and civilly remarried German Catholics to return to the sacraments (which resulted in the opposing document, "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concerning the Reception of Holy Communion by the Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful," sent out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to bishops worldwide and restating the position of Familiaris Consortio).

For decades the web of excessive ecumenism and LGBT activism has been intrinsically connected to the strategies of diluting Church teaching to cater to the world and destroy the Church from within, all disguised as "acceptance," "love" and "mercy."

Bishops and priests have acted in a cowardly manner, attempting to please those who publicly promote sin.

While the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart proudly and openly supports public displays of mortal sin, the bishops of the Italian cities of Reggio-Emilia and Rimini seem too scared and ashamed to show any vestige of encouragement to the faithful willing to offer prayers of reparation for the sinful, a complicity the liberal intellectuals in the German Church certainly appreciate.

The Bl. Giovanna Scopelli Committee, founded earlier this year to promote a reparative procession for Reggio-Emilia's first ever Gay Pride Parade, unlike the BDKJ folk and their LGBT friends, is not welcome in their own diocese.

Church Militant spoke to Gabriele Colosimo, spokesman of the committee, who commented:

The Bl. Giovanna Scopelli Committee organized two reparative processions for Gay Pride parades. In both cases it faced a formal and determined opposition from the local bishops. They have indeed condemned sodomy, but they have also firmly condemned our initiative, while never explicitly condemning the ostentation of homosexual pride. These occurrences, along with the public understanding the Gay Pride organizers seemed to have with the local clergy, have aroused many uncertainties among the faithful. One can definitely affirm that bishops and priests, with rare exceptions, have acted in a cowardly manner, attempting to please those who publicly promote sin.

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