German Catholics do not want to sanction homosexual employees
A man hoists the rainbow flag in Cologne. Photo AFP, Oliver Berg
Central Europe
After the "#OutInChurch" campaign, more and more German dioceses declare that they do not want to take disciplinary action against church employees because of their way of life.
This was reported by the German Catholic news website Katholisch.de.
Four out of five dioceses in North Rhine-Westphalia will in future expressly refrain from dismissing homosexual employees. After Essen, Münster and Paderborn, the diocese in Aachen also declared on Tuesday that church employees would no longer be dismissed because of their sexual orientation. In North Rhine-Westphalia, only the Archdiocese of Cologne, which an interim administrator currently manages, has not taken this step.
"Everyone who works for and in the church must be able to speak freely and without fear about themselves and their person, without having to fear that they will be dismissed because of it," said Deputy General Vicar Rolf-Peter Cremer from Aachen to the "Kölner Stadt Anzeiger" (Wednesday).
Open letter
On Monday, eleven vicars general wrote to the chairmen of the German Bishops' Conference a demand to ensure that there are no longer any labour law sanctions for entering into a same-sex civil marriage or a civil remarriage in the case of an existing marriage that is valid under canon law.
In their open letter, the vicars general refer to the #OutInChurch initiative and the most recent synodal assembly as part of the synodal path. Both had contributed to breaking the silence on the countless stories of woe that church labour law had evoked for decades.
Discrimination
With the #OutInChurch initiative, over 120 priests and employees within the German Catholic Church came out as queer (gender identities other than straight) and launched a campaign demanding an end to institutional discrimination against LGBTQ people in the church.
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