{"id":40728,"date":"2018-02-15T14:21:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T20:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=40728"},"modified":"2018-02-19T08:00:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T14:00:36","slug":"valentines-blessing-of-same-sex-couples-in-austrian-catholic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/15\/valentines-blessing-of-same-sex-couples-in-austrian-catholic-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentine\u2019s Blessing of Same-Sex Couples in Austrian Catholic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pray Tell<\/em> reports, without editorial comment, on occurrences in parts of the universal church which will probably be of interest to all readers, not least if such occurrences also take places in other locales in the future.<\/p>\n

KirchenZeitung,<\/em> the official newspaper of the diocese of Linz, Austria, reports on parishes in which same-same couples were to be offered a blessing in the time around Valentine\u2019s Day. \u201cA few parishes in Upper Austria extend the invitation to worship services and celebrations of blessing for same-sex and homosexual couples,\u201d KirchenZeitung<\/em> states.<\/p>\n

For the parish of St. Francis in Wels, the papers says that \u201cthis offer can be used by all lovers in all life situations \u2013 also lesbian and gay couples.\u201d Few availed themselves, however. Parish assistant Imgard Lehner says that this is because \u201cit still remains a taboo to identify oneself.\u201d She said that there are gay and lesbian people in the worshiping community, but many of them have experienced \u201cinjury and hurt\u201d in their contact with the Catholic Church and would now wonder whether there is a place for them. But \u201cGod is love,\u201d she said. \u201cTherefore there can be no limitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diocesan newspaper reports on the diocesan task force for pastoral care of homosexuals, which advocates for greater openness. \u201cLove between two equal people is divinely desired and thus is already blessed,\u201d the paper says of the task force\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

There are also reports of same-sex blessings that have been taking place for several years in the Catholic Church in Germany. Fr. Christoph Simonsen, chaplain of the university community in Aachen, states that he has blessed approximately 50 such unions in the last 15 years, including in his prior position as hospital chaplain in M\u00f6nchengladbach. Fr. Siegfried Modenbach in Dortmund (Archdiocese of Paderborn) offers liturgies for gay and lesbian people, and has blessed two homosexual couples in the last 10 years. It could be presumed that the bishop is aware of this, but there is no record of a public response by him.<\/p>\n

H\/T kath.net<\/a> and kath.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are also reports of same-sex blessings that have been taking place for several years in the Catholic Church in Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":40735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-new-ws"],"yoast_head":"\nValentine\u2019s Blessing of Same-Sex Couples in Austrian Catholic Church - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/15\/valentines-blessing-of-same-sex-couples-in-austrian-catholic-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Valentine\u2019s Blessing of Same-Sex Couples in Austrian Catholic Church - 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