In a controversial new statement, progressive German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said he could envision blessing homosexual couples in the Catholic Church, but added that it would have to be up to the “pastor on the ground” rather than made into a universal rule.
In an interview with the Bavarian State Broadcasting’s radio service, the cardinal—who is president of the German bishops’ conference as well as a member of Pope Francis’ nine-man advisory board—said there are “no general solutions” to the question of blessings for same-sex couples.
In reporting on the interview, the German edition of Vatican News acknowledged that the cardinal had said that the blessing of homosexual couples is possible in individual cases.
“It’s about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies in other areas as well, which cannot be regulated, where there is no sets of rules,” he said.
“I really have to leave that to the pastor on the ground, and the individual under pastoral care,” the cardinal told interviewer, Karin Wendlinger. “There you can discuss things, as is currently being debated, and consider: How can a pastoral worker deal with it? However, I really would emphatically leave that to the particular, individual case at hand, and not and not demand any sets of rules again – there are things that cannot be regulated.” READ MORE
