VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV met with German Cardinal Reinhard Marx in a private audience, just weeks after the Pontiff publicly criticized the prelate’s guidelines for the “blessing” of homosexual, gender-confused, and other “couples” in sinful relationships in his archdiocese.
Marx, the radically pro-LGBT archbishop of Munich and Freising and supporter of Germany’s Synodal Way, met with the Pontiff on May 7, per the Vatican’s daily bulletin. While it has not been disclosed what was discussed as of this writing, the audience comes soon after Leo told reporters that the Vatican had objected to Marx’s implementing the “Segen gibt der Liebe Kraft,” guidelines that allow the “blessing” of homosexual “couples,” the divorced and “remarried,” and even “couples” “of all gender identities and sexual orientations” who cannot enter into sacramental marriage.
In April, Marx called on priests and full-time staff in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising to implement these guidelines, saying that they are to become the “foundation of pastoral care” in an internal letter seen by Die Tagespost. The German prelate ordered the guidelines to be published in parishes, saying the “theological meaning” of the controversial text is to be explained to all “who still struggle with this blessing.”
READ: Cardinal Marx implements Fiducia Supplicans ‘blessings’ for ‘couples of all gender identities’
According to Marx, the guidelines note “that the blessing is not a celebration of a sacramental marriage.” However, the cardinal said, this does not mean “that the blessing of a non-sacramental union – which in many cases is already a civil marriage solemnized by a civil registrar – pushes the couple to the margins of the parish and the Church.” Those in sinful relationships should be welcomed at the heart of the parish, he stressed. The cardinal expressly pointed out that no “couple” should be turned away.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity is mortally sinful and that homosexual inclinations are “objectively disordered.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’”
Catholic teaching also condemns all sexual activity outside of marriage and rejects transgender ideology.
The guidelines “Segen gibt der Liebe Kraft” were first published by the German Bishops Conference (DBK) last year and have since been implemented in several other dioceses across the country.
These guidelines state that the “blessings” can be carried out by clerics as well as by laypeople with an episcopal assignment. The ceremony for the “blessings” should be marked by “greater spontaneity and freedom with regard to the life situation of those who ask for the blessing,” according to the guidelines.
Pope Leo responded to Marx’s decision during an airplane interview, saying that the Vatican had objected to these “blessings.”
“The Holy See has already spoken to the German bishops. The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of homosexual couples or couples in irregular situations, beyond what was specifically allowed by Pope Francis, saying: all people receive blessings,” the pontiff said.
READ: Pope Leo XIV affirms informal ‘blessing’ for homosexual couples and downplays sexual sin
“We do not agree with formalized blessing,” the pope reiterated, adding: “All are welcomed, all are invited, all are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to seek conversion in their lives.”
While Leo said that the German “blessings” document goes beyond what Pope Francis’ 2023 declaration Fiducia Supplicans allows, he did seem to affirm the more “informal blessings” of homosexual “couples” as stipulated in Francis’ document.
Since its publication, several prominent Catholic clerics have denounced Fiducia Supplicans for even permitting the “blessing” of homosexual “couples” at all and have accused it of also causing scandal and confusion.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, previously noted in a 2024 letter to Polish Catholics that “Even if the document says that the doctrine of the Church has not changed,” including regarding “marriage, family and sexuality,” the document nevertheless “undermines this doctrine, and in practice even denies it,” by allowing Catholic priests to “bless” not merely “homosexuals” but “homosexual couples.”
“This is the crux of the problem,” the bishop said, because for those who “still us[e] reason and logic,” “the name, meaning and gesture of blessing … means a kind of approval – if not in theory, then in practice, because the word ‘blessing’ means to ‘speak well’ about a given reality.”
Bishop Schneider further emphasized that the common claim that such “blessings” don’t “bless the relationship itself” but only “a couple of people” are “verbal games” that “contradict elementary logic.”
“It is not worthy of bishops and cardinals to … deceive the whole world, saying that ‘the Church has not changed its doctrine, but the priest can give in such a situation a kind of blessing,’” he wrote.
Earlier this week, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) also published a 2024 letter that its prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández sent to Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier in Germany, saying that the DBK’s proposed guidelines for the “blessing” of homosexual “couples” contradict Fiducia Supplicans, reiterating that the document only allows for the spontaneous, “non-liturgical blessing” of homosexuals.
READ: Vatican rejected German bishops’ guidelines for ‘blessing’ homosexual ‘couples’ in 2024
In a statement published by Vatican News on Wednesday, Fernández confirmed that the Vatican had rejected the German bishops’ conference’s (DBK) proposed official guidelines for the formal “blessings” of homosexual and other irregular “couples” as well as the DBK’s official guidelines published last year.
“What was said in that letter … also applies to the text of the current Vademecum, which does not have the approval of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” Fernández said.
The statement also confirms an October 2025 report that revealed that the DDF did not approve these guidelines, despite claims by German bishops that it had.