Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of the Diocese of Speyer, Germany, has called on priests in his diocese to grant “blessing ceremonies” for homosexual unions as well as adulterous and sinful relationships outside of marriage.
In a November 2 letter to the clergy and staff of the diocese, the bishop invoked the German Synodal Way, which voted 93% in favor of same-sex “blessings,” together with other heterodox practices. Wiesemann also invoked Pope Francis’ statement, “Who am I to judge?” and suggested that such “blessings” should be adopted by the wider Church through the Synod on Synodality.
Claiming an urgency to the “blessing” of same-sex unions, Wiesemann wrote, “Both with regard to believers whose marriages have broken down and who have remarried, and especially with regard to same-sex oriented people, it is urgently time, especially against the background of a long history of deep wounds, to find a different pastoral attitude inspired by the Gospel, as many of you have been practicing for a long time.”