MUNICH (LifeSiteNews) — The heretical provincial superior of the German Franciscans, who has openly declared that he is homosexual, attacked Catholic teaching on sexuality and blasphemously defended homosexuality and “gender fluidity” as “wonderful diversity” from God.
In an interview with the German bishops’ news outlet katholish.de, Friar Markus Fuhrmann rejected Catholic teaching on the grave sinfulness of homosexual acts, saying he finds the language of Church teaching and those who defend it from natural law to be “derogatory and discriminatory,” claiming the support of modern science for gender “diversity” and blasphemously attributing this “diversity” to God Himself as its source.
The homosexual friar said, “There are still people who say that homosexuality is a sin, a disease or an aberration. As a rule, these voices justify this with the natural law or the order of creation, whereby they then think they can define for themselves what is ‘natural’ or ‘according to the order of creation.’” Both Scripture (Rom 1:26-27) and Catholic teaching condemn homosexuality as contrary to the natural law.
Fuhrmann, however, criticized statements that denounce homosexuality as unnatural, calling them “derogatory and discriminatory” and claiming that they “do not do justice to the reality of life” of so-called “queer people.” He also alleged that they “do not correspond to the current state of the human-science, sex-ethical and exegetical expert discussion,” despite the Church’s authoritative teaching on the subject and widespread scientific evidence showing the extreme harms of homosexuality.
The friar further blasphemously suggested that God creates some people homosexual, “transgender,” or “non-binary.” “Many people are heterosexually gifted by God, and some people are homosexual or bisexual, transgender or non-binary, so they are queer,” he said. “This shows the wonderful diversity of God’s creation.”
READ: Cdl. Müller: ‘Nobody can change’ Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is ‘grave sin’
The false idea that modern science demands the acceptance of homosexuality is not new among the members of the Church’s hierarchy. In 2022, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, said that the Church’s teaching on sodomy is now “false” because “the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching is no longer correct.”
The late Cardinal George Pell said that Hollerich’s comments are “explicit heresy.”
Fuhrmann told katholish.de that he had “come out” as homosexual prior to his being elected provincial in 2022 and claimed that doing so was a matter of “honesty.”
He added that, in the wake of the German clerical sexual abuse scandals that surfaced in 2022, he decided to be more open about his rejection of Catholic teaching because he himself is “gay.” The friar also defended his participation in the 2022 manifesto of the heterodox group “Out in church,” a pro LGBT lobby campaigning within the Catholic Church in Germany for allowance to openly reject Catholic sexual morality without suffering potential termination of work contracts.
READ: German Franciscans elect dissident homosexual as provincial superior
Openly lending his voice and support to the heterodox demands of “Out in church,” Fuhrmann couched the rejection of the Church’s constant and universal teaching on homosexuality and other sexual issues as a call for “a renewal” of Catholic sexual morality.
In November 2022, Fuhrmann voiced the same heterodox position, defending his involvement in “Out in church” at the time, calling for a “change” of Church teaching and for a “queer” church.
Among other things, the pro-LGBT “Out in church” group demanded that the Catholic Church change both its doctrine and practice surrounding sexual morality, calling for the so-called “blessing of same sex couples who ask for such a blessing,” an agenda item and request Pope Francis would exactly grant in the controversial, heterodox document Fiducia Supplicans, following much of the logic of the dissident German lobbyists.
READ: Fr. Murray condemns Fiducia Supplicans: ‘Pope Francis has not upheld the Catholic faith’
In their manifesto, the LGBT activists also declared, “Sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as the confession thereof, as well as entering into a non-heterosexual relationship or marriage [sic], must never be considered a breach of loyalty and must therefore be an obstacle to employment or grounds for dismissal. LGBTIQ+ people [sic] must have free access to all pastoral professions.”
In November 2022, Friar Fuhrmann also publicly defended his acceptance of the office of Franciscan provincial despite his being homosexual, a role that sparked controversy within the order, with some objecting to the Superior General and others applauding him.
“If I am gay [sic] myself, then I want to show that I can also be part of the Church in this office,” Fuhrmann said at the time. “This is important because it is not supposed to be like that in the Church.”
READ: No room for ‘inclusion’: Homosexuality and transgenderism are sins against nature itself
Fuhrmann has also voiced support for many of the demands of the heterodox Synodal Path of the German bishops, including a lifting of the obligation of celibacy for priests and the ordination of women, contrary to Apostolic Tradition and Catholic teaching.
“I am in favor of a critical rethinking of celibacy in the priestly way of life and I am in favor of access for women to ordained ministries,” the homosexual friar has said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) definitively condemns homosexuality and calls people who suffer homosexual attraction to chastity:
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. 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.” (CCC 2357)
“Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.” (CCC 2359)
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