The Archdiocese of Cologne has been beset by fresh controversy after Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki rebuked a priest who had blessed homosexual couples.
The rebuke of a priest in the Archdiocese of Cologne over a blessing ceremony that was also offered to homosexual couples has led to renewed criticism of its leadership.
The dean of the city of Duesseldorf and his deputies declared their solidarity with the priest, Herbert Ullmann, who had held a “blessing service for all loving couples” in Mettmann near Duesseldorf at the end of March.
Following an anonymous complaint to the Vatican, Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne had forbidden Ullmann to hold such services again.
“In these crisis-ridden times, in which we as a Church as a whole and especially as its ordained representatives are morally badly tarnished and have – rightly – become a bone of contention for very many people, a priest who celebrates a blessing service for ‘loving couples’ is anonymously denounced at the highest level and institutionally rebuked,” the city dean Frank Heidkamp wrote on Facebook.
In 2021, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had said that Catholic priests were not allowed to bless same-sex couples who asked for religious recognition of their union. In March, the majority of participants in the Synodal Path reform consultations in the Catholic Church in Germany had recommended that blessing ceremonies should be offered for homosexual couples. Beforehand, however, instructions should be developed for such services.
The Maria 2.0 reform movement also criticised the rebuke. Cardinal Woelki and the Vatican were moving ever further away from the teachings of Jesus, it said in a statement. In this way, they were driving even more believers out of the Catholic Church.
According to a survey by the Rheinische Post newspaper published on Wednesday, the neighbouring dioceses of Aachen, Essen and Muenster did not want to prohibit such blessing ceremonies.
In concrete cases, local pastoral ministers were faced with a dilemma between Church doctrine and pastoral concerns, the report said, citing Bishop Felix Genn of Muenster and Vicar General Klaus Pfeffer of Essen. However, the diocesan authorities trusted the decision of conscience taken by those involved.
The vicar general of Cologne, Guido Assmann, on the other hand, defended the archbishop’s course of action. The archdiocese of Cologne applied the official position of the Catholic Church, he said.
*Originally reported by KNA Germany.
