Great diversity of sexual identities and orientations

adminonDecember 9, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Great diversity of sexual identities and orientations

Aachen Bishop Helmut Dieser hopes for a noticeable change in Catholic sexual morality. "The sticking point is that many people find the Catholic catch-all on sexuality discriminatory in many places."

He told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Dortmund on Friday. He said the church must learn "that sexuality is not a thing apart from being human, but a part of it". He does not want to adapt to the spirit of the times, he said, but to bring findings – also from the human sciences – into conversation with faith.

This was expressed on the fringes of a regional conference of the Catholic reform process Synodal Way. The bishop chairs the synodal forum on sexual morality, which presented an initial text for discussion at Friday's meeting.

The paper, which includes several proposals for a total of eleven votes, states, among other things: "We honor the diverse sexual orientations and gender identities of people, as well as the couple relationships of these people that are designed to be long-lasting, faithful and exclusive."According to official teaching, the Catholic Church rejects homosexual acts, even if the partners are in a permanent relationship.

Great diversity of sexual identities and orientations

The latter stressed that there is a greater diversity of sexual identities and orientations that are not interchangeable, and that people do not choose them. He said he hopes the paper will find a two-thirds majority of bishops as the reform process continues. "Then we would have at least one result of the Synodal Way, which in Germany leads to the fact that there is a clear intention to go on." This is an important signal also with regard to the universal church, he said.

The regional meetings in Berlin, Dortmund, Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt and Munich replace the second plenary meeting of the Synodal Way, originally scheduled for early September, at which bishops and lay representatives will discuss the future of church life in Germany. They are meant for exchange and discussion – no decisions are made at them. Assembly was postponed until February 2021 because of the Corona pandemic.

After abuse cases became known in South American Chile, lay people in the country are now demanding the resignation of the archbishop of the capital diocese of Santiago.

In Chile, the lay organization in the Osorno diocese has called for the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati (76) as archbishop of the capital diocese of Santiago. Such a controversial archbishop who has lost so much authority cannot continue to head a diocese with more than six million faithful, the daily La Tercera quoted Juan Carlos Claret, spokesman for the lay organization, as saying Monday. Claret added that Ezzati's resignation is now a priority.

Suspension after self-incrimination

Last week, the ex-chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago, Oscar Munoz Toledo (56), was arrested. As Chilean media report, he is accused of sexual abuse in several cases. The victims are said to be between 11 and 17 years old.

Munoz had been suspended from the archdiocese in early 2018 after he recused himself two weeks before Pope Francis' visit to Chile.

Santiago's archbishop signals willingness to shed light on matter

Santiago's Archbishop Ezzati said in a statement that justice now has the final say. He expressed solidarity with the victims and felt great pain for Munoz, his family and the victims, the cardinal said. He said the archdiocese wants to cooperate with the judiciary.

Laymen for the deposition of the bishop

Chile's church is rocked by an abuse scandal that has made headlines for months. In the spotlight is the now 87-year-old charismatic priest Fernando Karadima, who was convicted in 2011 of sexual offenses. Several bishops emerged from his circle, including Juan Barros of Osorno, who is accused by victims of Karadima of complicity. Osorno lay organization fought for several years to have bishop deposed.

Pope Francis seeking clarification

Pope Francis had specifically asked the entire Chilean bishops' conference to come to the Vatican to clarify the allegations.

Meanwhile, Francis accepted four other bishops' resignations in addition to Barros's.

The president of the papal commission for the protection of children has stressed that victims of abuse must always come first. Boston Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley made remarks at a seminar on child protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

This is the basic principle of the commission; otherwise you will fail, said O'Malley according to the press service SIR (Thursday) in Rome. After accusations of lack of cooperation by Vatican authorities, the Irish abuse victim Marie Collins recently left the Pontifical Commission for Child Protection. This means that the now 16-member body no longer includes a victim. The second victim member, Briton Peter Saunders, had announced time off in February 2016 to reflect on his involvement; this continues to this day.

"Only the survivors can help us. We must not be lenient in our work and we must learn from experience and from our mistakes," O'Malley stressed. At the same time, he emphasized that abuse is not a specifically Catholic or clerical problem. Sexual abuse by priests, however, leads to even deeper wounds, he said.

"Eradicate sexual abuse"

"The Catholic world demands that we, its shepherds, take all steps to protect the children entrusted to our care," O'Malley said. Pope Francis has also emphasized this several times and is working seriously to "eradicate sexual abuse in the church," he said.

The seminar was entitled "Protective measures at home and at school: learning from experiences worldwide". It was organized by the Gregorian-based Center for Child Protection in collaboration with the Pontifical Commission for Child Protection.

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