Representatives of the Catholic Church in Germany made a collective coming out

125 Catholic priests, community leaders, teachers and church administrators declared their affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community.

In an unprecedented collective coming out, 125 representatives of the Catholic Church in Germany publicly declared their affiliation with the queer community, demanding a change in church labor law, according to dpa in the early hours of Monday, January 24th. They also encouraged other Catholics to join the #OutInChurch initiative.

As specified in the message, among those who disclosed their belonging to LGBTQ+ there are priests, pastors-referents and leaders of Catholic communities, teachers and teachers of religious schools, employees and employees of the church administration.

Participating requirements

According to the demands of those who took part in the action, the Catholic Church must stop using sexual orientation and gender identity as a reason for dismissal, in addition, defamatory statements regarding gender and sexuality must be excluded from church teaching.

According to priest Bernd Mönkebüscher, who initiated the blessing for homosexual couples in 2021, the coming-out action in the church environment was inspired by last year's example, when 185 German actresses and actors revealed that they were gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans - queer, intersex and non-binary people.

Government commissioner for the queer community

Earlier, on January 16, it was reported that in Germany, for the first time in history, a commissioner of the federal government for the implementation of sexual and gender diversity appeared - he was a member of the Bundestag from the "green" Sven Lehmann. The scope of his activity is joint work with the ministries of Germany on projects related to LGBTQ+. In addition, Lehman will be responsible for the National Action Plan on Sexual and Gender Diversity.

Catholic Church and queer community

In March 2021, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acknowledged the "presence of positive elements" in same-sex relationships, but emphasized that such partnerships, however, cannot rightfully "become the object of the Church's blessing".

In October 2020, the head of the Catholic diocese of Dresden-Meissen, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, called for a change in the attitude of the German Catholic Church towards believing homosexuals and same-sex marriages.