Catholic Church: Queere believers urgently demand more visibility!

Catholic Church: Queere believers urgently demand more visibility!

The Catholic Church in Austria shows increasing commitment to queer believers, as the current discussion on the rainbow pastoral illustrates. Voluntary organizations are committed to the visibility of queer communities in many dioceses. However, there is often a lack of professional resources and mandatory training for pastoral, which makes it difficult to implement queersensibler pastoral. Therefore, Jansen demands that guidelines are implemented in all dioceses, especially in priestly training, to create reliable bridges between queer communities and church places. A central point is the need for consequences for bishops who have homophobic sermons. Jansen emphasizes that today's measures are often only partially in part, which requires improvement in dealing with queer belief communities.

An essential impulse of the initiatives in Austria is the Vatican letter "Fiducia Supplicans", which does not exclude blessing celebrations for same -sex couples, even if they are not regarded as a sacrament. Couples who want such a blessing party have a right to pastoral accompaniment, which nourishes hope for an ongoing positive development within the church. The positive impression in many parishes, especially in Vienna, where the rainbow flag is hoisted, shows a matter of course handling of the LGBTIQ*community in organizations such as Catholic Action.

Vatican perspectives and local reactions

The Vatican Congregation on January 4, 2024 emphasized in a press release that bishops should not deny the opportunity to give blessings for people who ask for it. This explanation, which was signed by Pope Francis on December 18, 2023, emphasizes the pastoral waiting of the blessings. It is emphasized that a distinction must be made between liturgical and spontaneous blessings. While some bishops conferences in western countries welcome this perspective, others, especially in Africa, meet the topic with resistance. Bishop Robert E. Barron from Minnesota and Bishop Georg Bätzing from Germany have defiantly supported the pastoral perspective, while other bishops in different countries, including Kazakhstan and Malawi, have prohibited their priests.

The bishop of the diocese of Dresden-Meißen, Heinrich Timmerevers, also spoke out in the discussion about the equality of homosexual couples. He pleads for a repositioning of the Catholic Church in dealing with homosexuality and sees the need to expand pastoral care for homosexuals. Timmerevers made it clear that he supported the blessing of homosexual couples and that he was moved by the life stories of gay-lesbian transexual Christians. He recognizes the exclusive pastoral of the past and calls for more acceptance and tolerance for homosexuals within the church. Timmerevers also sees the need to think about the form of such blessings in order to promote an open dialogue within the community.

These developments show how the Catholic Church is increasingly responding to the needs of queer creditors. The progress in Austria, supported by the Vatican perspective, could be a guide for future changes in the global Catholic community. It remains to be seen to what extent the dialogue will continue in the coming years.