OSNABRÜCK, Germany (LifeSiteNews) – Germany’s Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, accused of knowingly promoting abusive priests, supports government plans to legalize cannabis consumption under the condition that it is “strictly regulated.”
According to a report by the German Catholic online news site katholisch.de, Bode said that “criminalization alone is not a solution” during an event held in his diocese of Osnabrück, where lawyers and doctors discussed cannabis regulation.
The proposed legislation of the left-wing German government would ensure that cannabis and its active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) would no longer be legally classified as narcotics. The purchase and possession of a maximum of 20 to 30 grams of “pleasure cannabis” for personal consumption would be exempt from punishment, regardless of the specific THC content. Private cultivation would also be allowed to a limited extent of “three female flowering plants per adult.”
Bode said that he shared the German government’s view “in principle” if the protection of minors, a ban on advertising, and help for people at risk were included in the regulations. This would require significantly better funding for prevention and counseling services, and the Church could contribute to this, Bode said.
However, the German bishop’s permissive attitude is at odds with Catholic teaching, for using drugs, if not for strictly medical reasons, is contrary to the moral law. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states the following:
The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of drugs and trafficking them are scandalous practies. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law. (CCC 2291)
When cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) condemned the new legislation and pointed out that marijuana use would still be a sin after it became legal.
“With the exception of cannabis use for medicinal purposes, consuming marijuana violates the virtue of temperance and should be avoided,” said Monsignor Frank Leo, the CCCB’s General Secretary.
READ: Our Christian obligation to heal the sick means we must oppose marijuana use and transgender surgery
When discussing the legalization of marijuana, the drug is often compared to alcohol, which is legal in most countries and not immoral if consumed in moderation.
While alcohol can be licitly consumed in moderation, drunkenness is condemned as a sin by the Church because it compromises our reason and is a violation of the virtue of temperance, according to such authorities as St. Thomas Aquinas.
Drugs like marijuana are aimed directly at compromising human reason, altering the consumer’s capacity to think clearly. The use of any drug can therefore be likened to alcohol abuse and not to the moderate consumption of alcohol, as Father Raymond de Souza explains in an article on catholiceducation.org.
Bode is the vice president of the heterodox Synodal Way in Germany and the Vice President of the German Bishops Conference. The German prelate has made numerous heterodox statements in past. He claimed that the Catholic Church could start giving Communion to non-Catholics in mixed marriages and publicly supported blessings for same-sex couples, as well as female ordinations. In February 2020, the German prelate made a scandalous statement, saying “For us, Christ became a human being, not a man.” This led to a public correction by his fellow Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who described the statement as “ridiculous & heretical.”
Furthermore, Bode has been accused by an official report published this September of knowingly promoting abusive priests. In response, he has refused to resign.