(LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic parish church in Germany came out in support of the pro-LGBT Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade in conjunction with the local Protestant parish.
According to a local news outlet, on June 13 the Protestant church in Pforzheim and the Catholic parish of the Sacred Heart will support the CSD, as Christiane Quincke, dean of the Protestant church in Pforzheim, and Father Steffen Schölch, parish priest of the Catholic parish of Pforzheim, said in a statement.
“A few weeks ago, we celebrated Pentecost. This feast shows that the Holy Spirit unites people and creates community,” the statement reads.
No one should have to hide their “identity” or background, the church leaders stressed.
“On the contrary: God created us in diversity and unites us. We are firmly convinced that every person – regardless of religion, background, social status, or sexual identity – is created by God and loved by God. We share this concern with CSD [Christopher Street Day], which advocates for the dignity of queer people, seeks to make visible the diversity of people in their sexual identities, and takes to the streets for their rights.”
The churches will have a joint booth during the CSD parade in Pforzheim and plan to administer “blessings” for the participants.
“We view with great concern the fact that queer people are increasingly subjected to hostility and threats – including in Pforzheim,” the joint church statement said, adding:
Right-wing extremists have also announced that on June 13 they will agitate with nationalist and defamatory slogans in the immediate vicinity of the CSD. We hope that the city of Pforzheim and the police authorities will fully protect CSD participants from the danger posed by right-wing extremists. We will be there and, through our presence, send a clear message in support of diversity and against hatred and misanthropy.
On its website, the Pforzheim parish has a section labeled “for queer people” that links to the website of the Archdiocese of Freiburg headed by Archbishop Stephan Burger. The archdiocese has an “offer for queer people,” which appears to be a form of “pastoral care” that does not call sinners to repentance but instead affirms them in their supposed “queer identity.”
“Queer gender identities can include, for example, non-binary, gender-fluid, genderqueer, or agender, which demonstrates that gender is diverse and need not be confined to rigid categories,” the website of the archdiocese states.
“In queer pastoral care, queer people are valued for their respective identities and ways of life, and a space is created that is as safe as possible, where they can live their spirituality in harmony with who they are,” the website continues. “The goal is to critically examine traditional religious structures and create more inclusive paths for all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“In this way, queer pastoral care empowers people to confidently bring their faith, life experiences, skills, questions, and spiritualities into the Church, and to live out and advocate for gender justice.”
Catholic teaching is incompatible with the idea of affirming someone with a “queer identity,” as if certain behaviors were innate and unchangeable in the nature of man.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that God created humans “male and female.” “Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out,” the Catechism continues.
The Catholic Church also has clearly condemned homosexual acts as “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” as well as “contrary to the natural law.” The CCC furthermore states that “They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” It adds that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.”