BBC News
By Damien McGuinness
image captionFrieda (L) and Sangha for years felt unaccepted by the Church
The church bells fade away, the organ starts playing and Father Jan Korditschke walks up to the altar to say Mass. It all looks like a very ordinary Sunday Catholic service.
But there s a feeling of nervous anticipation in the air. Something very unusual is about to happen.
Fr Korditschke says that anyone who would like to receive a blessing should stand up. Most of the congregation stand, including about a dozen same-sex couples. As harp music plays, the priest moves through the church, quietly asks those standing what they would like prayed for. Then he raises his hands over bowed heads and whispers an individual prayer.
German Progressive Catholics Defy Vatican Ban on Blessing Gay Unions
10 May 2021
Progressive Catholics in Germany have announced their intent to offer blessings to same-sex couples at dozens of churches around the country this week in defiance of a recent Vatican ban on the practice.
The “Love Wins” campaign, which began in Hamburg, said it aims to celebrate “the diversity of people’s different life plans and love stories” and to ask for God’s blessing on those plans, beginning on May 10.
In mid-March, the Vatican’s doctrinal office (CDF) released a document declaring that the Church has no authority to bless homosexual unions, noting that God Himself “does not and cannot bless sin.”