Scores of Catholic priests and officials have come out as queer and are appealing to the Church to amend its stance on LGBTQ issues.
A group of 122 people which includes current and former priests, teachers, administrators and volunteers identified themselves as gay or queer to pressure the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to do away with its “outdated statements of church doctrine,” Deutsche Welle reports.
The mass coming out coincides with the launch of the OutInChurch initiative, which created a Change.org petition celebrating the move and suggesting several ways the Catholic Church can update its policy around LGBTQ Catholics.
“Our group is diverse. It includes people who in the past have courageously and often single-handedly dared to come out in an ecclesiastical context,” the petition reads.
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“But it also includes people who have only now decided to take this step and those who cannot or do not want to take this step for various reasons. What unites us is that we have all always been part of the Church and are helping to shape and shape it today.”
“We call for a correction of misanthropic doctrinal statements — also in view of the church’s worldwide responsibility for the human rights of LGBTIQ+ people,” the group wrote. “And we demand a change in the discriminatory ecclesiastical labor law, including all degrading and exclusionary formulations in the basic order of ecclesiastical service.”
OutInChurch detailed seven core demands, including having the freedom to be out publicly in the Church without fear of consequence.
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EdWoody
Yeah, well… good luck with that.
right1
?
Cam
The Catholic church is struggling with priest numbers, they can’t afford to lose more.
Justnanny
I’m just waiting for the pedophile, sick priests to come out to everyone. Gay priests have been part of the church for ages. No one had to tell me they were gay. They couldn’t have sex anyway, right? So sexual preference couldn’t have been an issue at all. They harmed no one and I’m assuming they are celibate (wink, wink). it’s the heterosexual pervert priests that drove me out. I’m a recovering Catholic.
Prinny
Meh
Bosch
Wouldn’t it just be amazingly magical if they decided to protect the gay community instead of the child abusers?
Mack
Don’t hold your breath, at least not in the US. They have too many right wing bigots in their group. I miss the old days (the 60’s) when the Priest were liberal.
Fahd
Even though I think the church authorities will avoid engaging with this initiative (how surprising!), German Roman Catholics are a big source of Geld – if anyone could turn the ocean liner….
JTinToronto
There is only one way that the catholic church will EVER change the way it does things: they have to be hit where it hurts, right in the bank account. If people stopped giving them money until they came into this century they would have no choice but to change. It is ALWAYS about money.
maddog
The church would lose more money than they would gain.
Either they would have to admit that they were screwing over LGBTQ+ people all these years OR they would have to say “God changed her mind”.
What would “God changing her mind” lead to? That women were equal to men? That slavery is and always has been wrong? That there is no special day to eat fish? An update to clerical fashion?
Can’t see it happening. These priests are now screwed (and in a bad way).
Cam
They were hit very hard under the old Pope, Ratzinger. And you are right, as they lost major numbers in countries like Ireland and Belgum, that Pope was saying they needed to respond by becoming even more right wing.
So the church responded by retiring that Pope while he was alive, the first time they’ve done something like that in hundreds of years.
So if they try to go after those priests in Germany it could cause another backlash and I’m here for it.
xanadude
The Catholic Church has no issue with gay members, as long as they stay CELIBATE. Yeah, good luck with that all around.
Kangol2
Tell that to the ex-Pope Benedict, i.e., Ratzinger, who wrote that extremely homophobic manifesto claiming that gay people were “objectively disordered” and counter to Catholic doctrine!
[email protected]
WOW Instead of 10 Hail Mary’s its 10 Our Father’s who scored in Heaven.
Doug
I think it’s great that a large group of priests are doing this, but it’s unlikely to get much recognition from the Catholic church.
Joshooeerr
Zero sympathy. These are the very people who have vehemently upheld the church’s homophobic policies and attitudes for decades, and who actively participated in the cover-up of the organisation’s sexual abuse of children. (Go on, name those who spoke out and risked repercussions.) They are only changing their tune now (and there’s nothing “courageous” about it) because the (wrongly) perceive the church hierarchy is willing to change it’s position on homosexuality (it’s not), or because they think they now have more power to affect change (they don’t). Despite making smoke-and-mirrors statements that create the false appearance of a softening of attitudes to homosexuality, the current Pope and church hierarchy have made not one single change to traditional doctrine or policy. And there is no sign of that changing.
DarkZephyr
Oh Lord. Dude, you have no idea what any of these individual priests have done.
Jimsie
WHAT on earth are you talking about? You’re actually saying that priests who want to come out now have been complicit for years in their own closets? Is that what you’re saying? Because that’s what it sounds like. What an insane notion. It’s the same as saying that priests, NOT the Church, created the closets in the first place. You must have been dumped by one of those priests, you’re so bitter….
Bosch
Many different sectors of German society are taking explicit stands against homophobia, and they are currently the only country doing so. We should be applauding this and following their example.
Cato
Germany, like many other European countries, has a church tax that automatically collects income tax from people who say they are affiliated with a particular denomination. The Catholic church in Germany collects about 6 billion euros a year from 2.5 million Catholics.
cuteguy
The church/cult has over the years “evolved” it’s stance on other hot button topics such as inter racial coupling and allowing girls become altar “boys” . They will do whatever to stay in touch with the times for survival. I as a recovering Catholic myself have no desire to go back but that doesn’t take away my belief in the almighty. Once ppl God from Church, they will be at peace
Me2
Hmm so now that the work of those who gave their lives, were ridiculed, shunned and many times fored to die alone is paying off, these cowards find the courage to be honest and humane. I can’t respect it or them. The Catholic Church is complicit with crimes against humanity. It will take a lot more than this to right those wrongs.
johncp56
Hard pass on religious BS, it is a setup for failure! 5th grade i jumped the fence from my catholic school, and never turned back, making them all pay their taxes !!!!! would be a start
rawbeartop
IM A RECOVERING CATHOLIC ALSO I KNOW IT WILL PROBABLY TAKE ANOTHER 100 YEARS BEFORE THEY CHANGE!
bachy
Opposite-sex love and affection is by nature competitive. Same-sex love and affection is integral to spiritual ideas like brotherhood/sisterhood and community building. The fact that it sometimes results in sexual congress is part of the genetic deal.
Jimsie
You’ve obviously never ben in a relationship with me.
DarkZephyr
I don’t see the Church changing its stance on this issue for a loooooooooooong time to come. They would probably hold some kind of Ecumenical Council before that happened and seeing as how Vatican II (1962-1965) was the last such council, its gonna be some time before the Church calls another, and I don’t see the Pope EVER speaking Ex Cathedra (from the Chair of Peter) on this issue. He would want it to at least seem as though he was getting input from the other Dioceses and Sees at a Council.
winemaker
As a practicing gay Catholic man I applaud those who challenge the church’s policies. That said, when people can be open about themselves and not have to hide who they are everyone benefits. And as for priests being required to be celibate and not permitted to marry, I’ve always questioned this. I have many Protestant friends who’s ministers are permitted to marry. If the Catholic Church permitted their priests to get married, there might be renewed vocations and more young men going into the seminary..
cuteguy
Practicing gay Catholic? That makes as much sense as a Jewish Nazi or a Black Klansman! Get a therapist
Heywood Jablowme
@winemaker: Maybe you can answer this. I’ve always wondered: how do they get the Blood of Christ into the wine? Does the vineyard use a special fertilizer or something? (I’m one of those “low church” Protestants; we use grape juice!)
DarkZephyr
@Heywood Jablowme
That isn’t how the Catholic Church sees it. They have a much more sacramental view about what happens. They aren’t getting His blood “Into” the wine, they believe that through the priest, via a mystical process called “transubstantiation”, God is changing the wine itself into the blood of God the Son, in an invisible, mystical but very real way. The wine becomes His body, blood, soul and divinity (and the bread does as well) making His presence on earth (which is already everywhere and in everything) local in a manner similar to when He was bodily present on earth. It is thus called “The Real Presence”. So His blood is not injected into the wine, the bread and wine becomes Him, which includes his blood as well as His body, soul and divinity.
At any rate, that is what the Catholic Church believes happens.
TomG
Did you expect priests NOT to be gay ? After all, it’s a cult of all men.
Preppy1000
YAWN! As a recovering Catholic of many years I’ve heard this before. Nothing will come of it. Let’s put it this way–it wasn’t till the 1960s that the Church allowed their masses to be done in English and not Latin!
THAT Steve
The Catholic Church should go back to married priests. They changed it back when because of abuses by clergy and in present day have more horrific abuses than they did under the previous rules. Stifling people’s God given sexual nature hurts even the priests who don’t end up sexual abusers.
Invader7
The RCC is NOT ever going to change. The corrupt system entrenches the anti-everything “values” of the RCC !!
Kangol2
I applaud these clerics’ bravery but they’re dealing with a very powerful, super-rich international organization that has oppressed LGBTQ for centuries. In the US the right-wing Catholics and hierarchy have their knives drawn and guns out against LGBTQ people! If gay clergy decided to speak up they would go after them like rabid dogs!