Vatican Denounces Homosexual Unions, God 'Cannot Bless Sin' - German Bishops Slide Toward Schism

Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight

German Bishops are sliding toward schism after the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) clearly stated, on Monday, that possible blessing for homosexual couples as "illicit," "unlawful," and that God "does not and cannot bless sin."

The responsum ad dubium (reply to a doubt) was issued as pressure continues to rise, particularly from the German Bishops' Conference, to restate and redefine Church teaching on homosexuality and the Sacrament of Marriage, instituted by Christ during His public ministry and unchanged for nearly two millennia.

The responsum affirmed Catholic teaching that it would be illicit to bless any partnership outside the indissoluble sacrament of marriage, a union that Christ divinely created, binding flesh of man and wife, for lawful procreation and the eternal happiness of both souls.

"There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family," the CDF declares. For this fact, "it cannot be licit to bestow a blessing imitating the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of matrimony."

A surprise to many faithful, Pope Francis approved the publication, for whom the CDF assured that the response "is not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination" but rather because "God loves every person and the Church does the same" it rejects "all unjust discrimination."

Performing the charitable act to correct sin and teach truth, the responsum reiterates that "the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex." While the Church has the authority to bind and loose what is on Earth and in Heaven (Matthew 18:18), the CDF insists that the Church "does not have the power over God's designs," and is commanded to comply and clarify the commandments of divine law not as the "arbiter of these designs and the truths they express, but their faithful interpreter and witness."

Furthermore, the responsum affirms the requirement for recipients of the sacraments to be in a state of grace, "objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation and fully revealed by Christ the Lord." A member of a homosexual union, no different than someone who fraternizes outside of the bonds of holy matrimony, is not living in a state of grace.

German Bishops Slide Toward Schism

Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference Bp. Georg Bätzing quickly rebuked the responsum, arguing that such complex questions on the status homosexual unions in the Catholic Church had "no easy answers."

Bätzing argued that the response was negative and that "in Germany and in other parts of the Universal Church there have been discussions for a long time as to how this teaching and teaching development can generally be advanced with sound arguments — on the basis of fundamental truths of faith and morality, ongoing theological reflection and also in openness to newer results of the human sciences and the living situations of today's people."

Clearly, Bätzing's incorrect understanding of truth and divine law is flawed by his love for the world. "Teaching development" and "the living situation of today's people?" To offer that the Church has the option to deign itself to the world and adapt to its culture, which opposes Christ and His teachings, is the heresy of modernism.

In direct defiance to Church teaching and disobedience to a lawful ruling from the Vatican, the German Bishops' Conference intends to "endeavor to discuss the topic of successful relationships in a comprehensive way that also takes into account the necessity and the limits of Church teaching development." This was one malicious reason for why the German bishops were the chief proponents of the Amazon Synod.

Bad German bishops got in line behind the support for ecclesial blessing of homosexual unions since Germany legalized them civilly in 2017.

Bp. Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück publicly suggested that the Church offer blessings to homosexuals in civil union and active in the church in order "to accompany them with pastoral care and in the liturgy."

The Central Committee of German Catholics, a very left leaning organization, called for homosexual blessings in 2015 to "build bridges between church doctrine on marriage and the family and the world that believers are living in today."

In 2019, German Cdl. Reinhard Marx, a very ironic and inappropriate name, insisted that homosexual couples can receive a blessing in the church "in the sense of pastoral care," only if the blessing would not publicly imply that the gay partnership was a marriage-like relationship. However, that would fail to meet the eye test, just like facing the people during Holy Mass and Communion in the Hand would boost the faith.

Pray for Pope Francis, the clergy in the Vatican, and for good bishops to continue to defend divine truth and Catholic teaching. Unfortunately, we are witnessing the schism of the German bishops before our very eyes.

In Christ Crucified and the Most Victorious Heart of Jesus.