Torn: On the one hand, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers welcomes the Pope's recent statements on homosexual unions. But he shows himself at the same time surprised about the subsequent classification from the Vatican.
With Pope Francis, he wants to be careful "to see all people first and foremost as loved and accepted by God," the Catholic Bishop of Dresden-Meiben told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Thursday: "I still think it is necessary to promise this to people, even in blessings."
Timmerevers recently became the first Catholic bishop in Germany to explicitly say in a KNA interview that he would welcome the Catholic Church allowing the blessing of homosexual couples.
Timmerevers went on to say that the quotes from Pope Francis in the film 'Francesco' by the Russian director Yevgeny Afineyevsky were the first to make clear to him "something essential and deeply worthy of imitation": "The Holy Father does not think in terms of abstracts or sets of rules, but starts from the personhood and dignity of the individual. We are not talking about anonymous or even sinful target groups, but always about very concrete people."
This grounding obviously shows the film and is thus in continuity with the Pope's text "Amoris laetitia", the bishop explained.
Needed the classification of the Vatican?
In view of this, however, he wondered, Timmerevers continued, "Does this necessarily require a post-synodal classification from the Secretariat of State with quotes from this post-synodal letter? What is the intention behind it?"The circular letter from the Secretariat of State to bishops worldwide states that the quotations in question in the documentary film were taken out of context.
Church doctrine remains unchanged. Specifically, it concerns the film passage in which the pope declares that homosexuals have "the right to be in a family". Immediately afterwards, Francis speaks out in favor of a state legal framework for civil partnerships.
Timmerevers said that if the letter from Rome "intends to be a help that encourages us to use the papal document 'Amoris laetitia' to better perceive the complex reality of today's families and to understand God's spirit, which also speaks in the events of history, more deeply, then I can welcome this."
The topic of homosexual relationships is obviously being discussed at many levels of the church. "We have to deal with it, and that is a good thing," the bishop emphasized.