Not worthy of blessing?

adminonDecember 1, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

After blessing a homosexual couple, the Catholic priest Peter Kollas from Wetzlar has been recalled from the office of district dean. The responsible bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, had decided to take this step after Kollas had helped to celebrate a registered civil partnership in Wetzlar Cathedral last Friday, the diocese of Limburg announced on Wednesday. In an interview with this site, press spokesman Robert Eberle explains the process.

A blessing of registered civil partnerships by Catholic chaplains is not possible, the statement said. Otherwise, the false impression could arise that the church equates homosexual unions with marriage. He said that the Catholic Church was committed to seeking appropriate forms of pastoral care for homosexual persons. According to the teachings of the church, however, this can in no way lead to the legal recognition or blessing of homosexual unions. The diocese pointed out that the Wetzlar pastor had shown himself to be reasonable in a conversation with the bishop. The priest has never blessed registered partnerships before and will not do so in the future. According to the diocese, a provisional district dean for the Wetzlar district will be appointed in the next few days, who would enjoy the necessary confidence of the bishop. District deans act as representatives of the bishop in the districts. The gay couple blessed by Kollas had married in the registry office before the ceremony last Friday in Wetzlar Cathedral. Afterwards the festive party had moved into the cathedral, as diocesan spokesman Eberle explained. The ceremony in the cathedral would have been attended by about 150 people, including a Protestant clergyman.After the ceremony, there were "protests and irritations" from Catholics, but also Protestant Christians. In order to avert "further damage", the district dean was recalled. Kollas will keep his office as pastor. The 55-year-old had shown himself "insightful".

Criticism from homosexual associations The Alliance Greens and the Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) criticized the bishop's measure. The parliamentary director of the Green Party, Volker Beck, spoke of an "intellectual indictment". He said the decision was "a document of pharisaic bigotry and of ruthlessness toward homosexual Christians". LSVD spokesman Axel Hochrein accused the Catholic Church of trying by all means to suppress the lesbians and gays in their parishes. The federal chairman of the Lesbians and Gays in the Union (LSU), Reinhard Thole, declared that the church does not have the right to deny its blessing to two loving people. "We bless horses, cars, devotional objects. Then why shouldn't we also bless the love of two people," he said. The blessing, also of two homosexual lovers, is not a sacramental act and does not mean thereby also the equality with the sacrament of the marriage.

The list of crises for leaders to discuss at the UN General Assembly starting this Tuesday is long. Much will depend on how U.S. President Trump behaves. His speech is eagerly awaited.

With demonstrative unity, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday spoke out in favor of reforms at the United Nations. In recent years, the UN has failed to reach its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement, Trump criticized Monday at a reform summit in New York hosted by the U.S. on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. This is now changing under Guterres, who is doing a fantastic job. The UN Secretary General, for his part, reaffirmed his commitment to comprehensive changes.

The UN has an obligation to deliver less bureaucracy and more results, Guterres stressed. As a result, peacekeeping operations and development work would be more efficient in the future. Guterres also stressed that the UN was now taking more consistent action against sexual abuse by UN personnel. He also referred to the planned establishment of a council of high-level conflict mediators to prevent the escalation of smoldering crises.

Reform plans

The U.S. had urged U.N. member states to support a ten-point plan for reform before the meeting, to which Germany was a co-host. So far, 128 of the 193 nations at the UN have signed the declaration, said U.S. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Differences remain, however, over the funding of the UN.

Trump reiterated that no nation should shoulder a disproportionate burden at the United Nations. UN diplomats fear U.S. could massively cut payments to world organizations.

The U.S. government's austerity plans threaten United Nations refugee aid, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, warned Sunday before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Without money from the U.S., the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would no longer be able to function, they said. At UNHCR, the U.S. contributed more than $1.5 billion of the $4 billion annual budget last year. The European Union and Germany were behind with about $360 million each.

Crises at the heart of the meeting

"Focus on Humanity": this is the heading under which heads of state and government from around the world will meet in New York starting this Tuesday. Dignity for all, sustainability and peace in the world to be the focus of annual debate at UN headquarters on East River.

But in fact, the focus is on wars and crises. Immediately before the meeting, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, warned of military escalation in North Korea and deplored increasing numbers of displaced people in Central Africa. Among other things.

Eye on Donald Trump

So there are enough ies that urgently need to be addressed, at least in the margins of the general debate. The focus of interest, however, is a man whom hardly anyone trusts to solve even one of these crises: U.S. President Donald Trump.

His first speech to the United Nations on Tuesday is eagerly awaited. "I firmly believe that involvement in international organizations like the UN is the best way to protect American interests," Guterres said in advance. At the same time, he announced that he himself would choose clear words in his opening speech.

Some politicians come, others do not

In addition to Trump, France's President Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu have also announced their attendance. The 72. For the first time, an Israeli will preside over the General Assembly as vice president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has canceled – just days before the federal election.

China's leader Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are also making representations. Myanmar's de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi's failure to come to New York has earned her fierce criticism. North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, has never appeared at the UN before.

Despite some rejections, Guterres hopes general debate will contribute to global rapprochement. Improving relations between the U.S. and Russia is expressly close to his heart. "When these relations are bad, the entire international community suffers," he said, referring among other things to the ongoing war in Syria. To defuse future conflicts in advance, Guterres plans to introduce a panel of 18 high-level mediators in New York. First they should try to talk to the hostile camps in Libya.

The government wants to support artificial insemination more than before. Health insurance companies should make it easier to provide financial aid for it. The University of Bochum warns that couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children are often not sufficiently informed about the negative aspects of artificial insemination. Catholic Church rejects artificial insemination as a way of human reproduction.

Calls for more support for couples who want to have children came from the CSU in particular on Wednesday. The possibility of making more services available is part of a comprehensive "care structure law" passed by the federal cabinet in Berlin. The measure would help "more families to fulfill their desire to have a child," the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs said. In addition, the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Kristina Schroder (CDU), is seeking further relief for people who want to have children.

Part of the Care Structure Act
The new law drafted by Federal Health Minister Daniel Bahr (FDP) provides for a bundle of measures aimed at improving medical care. This includes the expansion of services offered by health insurance companies, but also, for example, the desire to ensure the rural supply of physicians.

CSU social expert Joachim Unterlander also called for higher subsidies for fertility treatment from the federal government and health insurers. Around 1.5 million people in Germany who lived in a partnership were without children for medical reasons, it said. Every year, 800 people seek.000 couples seek medical advice, said the Bavarian member of the state parliament in Munich. But the current financing of such treatments is a great burden for couples with average incomes, he said.

Bochum University warns of inadequate care
According to a study, couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children are often not sufficiently informed about the negative aspects of artificial insemination. This is the conclusion of a study by the Ruhr University in Bochum, which was published on Wednesday.
Afterwards Reproduktionsmediziner clear patients clearly better about chances of success than about risks and loads. Multiple pregnancies or emotional stress are cited as examples.

Three quarters of those surveyed stated that the desire to have children pushed other life goals into the background. One in two expressed the feeling of losing control of the situation. Experts say patients often have limited ability to decide whether to end treatment with little chance of success. The physicians would not terminate the treatment for their part usually. The Bochum researchers had 1.500 patients and 230 reproductive physicians and 60 psychosocial counselors interviewed.

Catholic Church rejects artificial insemination
The Catholic Church rejects artificial insemination as a way of human reproduction. The Vatican had rejected as unethical all practices involving the destruction of embryos or decoupling procreation from the marital sex act. A couple's desire to have a child is not above the dignity of the life conceived, the faith authority stressed.

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