Several Catholic dioceses in Germany have declined to adopt a new set of guidelines for blessing couples. The document includes provisions for same-sex and irregular unions that critics say contradict Vatican guidelines.
The dioceses of Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau and Regensburg joined Cologne last week in rejecting the pastoral text produced jointly by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics, The Catholic Herald reported.
The handout, titled Segen spendet Liebe Kraft (“Blessing Gives Strength to Love”), has been in circulation since March and proposes a framework for blessing couples, including music, readings and ceremonial elements.
The dioceses that declined to use the text have cited its divergence from the Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Dec. 18, 2023. That document, approved by Pope Francis and signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, allowed for brief, spontaneous blessings of couples in what the Church considers irregular situations, while ruling out any liturgical or ritual form resembling marriage.
In Augsburg, diocesan leaders identified four areas of concern, including the handout’s promotion of “blessing ceremonies” and its aesthetic guidance for events, which they said blurred distinctions between blessings and sacramental marriage rites.
Bishop Bertram Meier noted that while the Vatican document advised against promoting or prescribing rituals, the German handout explicitly spoke of “blessing celebrations” and planned to review experiences with them, according to Catholic News Service.
The Archdiocese of Cologne stated earlier in the year that it sought ways to assure people of God’s companionship within the boundaries of universal Church provisions. Regensburg, Eichstätt and Passau have taken similar positions, rejecting the handout but affirming their adherence to the Vatican’s December guidance.
Responses from other dioceses vary widely. Eleven have formally adopted or endorsed the guidelines, among them Limburg, Osnabrück, Trier, Hildesheim and Aachen.
In Mainz, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf sent the document to all pastoral workers with a recommendation to follow it. Würzburg has advertised blessings at wedding fairs, with a diocesan spokesperson describing the need for sensitivity and flexibility in shaping each ceremony, according to the Herald.
The remaining dioceses have taken middle positions, with some allowing local pastors to decide. In Münster, diocesan administrator Antonius Hamers said the leadership trusted in “the sensitivity and pastoral empathy of the local pastors.” In Berlin, Bishop Heiner Koch has opted not to conduct such blessings himself but will not sanction clergy who do so after a pastoral conversation.
The pastoral handout is nonbinding and was not approved by the German Bishops’ Conference’s General Assembly. It was issued instead by a joint advisory committee of bishops and ZdK (Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken, or the Central Committee of German Catholics) members, which has no authority to enact binding rules.
Criticism has also come from Catholic groups and senior clergy.
The lay initiative Neuer Anfang, or “New Beginnings,” has argued that the handout promotes “the opposite of the stated intentions” of Pope Francis and contradicts the purpose of Fiducia Supplicans. The group contends that some bishops are failing to uphold Catholic sexual ethics and that the guidelines encourage practices that exceed what the Vatican permitted.
Former Vatican doctrine chief Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has compared the German practices to medieval indulgence trading, which he said “endangered the eternal salvation of deceivers and deceived and brought us the continuing division of Christianity to this day.”
Writing in Die Tagespost on July 18, Müller asserted that, according to biblical teaching, marriage exists only between a man and a woman, making blessing rites for irregular situations “ineffective before God” and a form of “pious fraud” toward participants, according to CNA Deutsch.
