Raise awareness among politicians and the church

Raise awareness among politicians and the church

Archbishop Koch with refugees at the Center for Migrants, Lesbians and Gays © Soeren Stache

Berlin Catholic Archbishop Heiner Koch urges special protection for homosexual refugees. "I have taken it upon myself to draw the attention of politicians and the church to the special problems of such refugees," Koch said.

"Our Caritas wants to work to ensure that shelter operators, as well as security companies, take into account the problems of homosexual and transgender refugees.", Koch said in an online interview published Friday by Berlin's Protestant Rogate convent community

Praise from Green Party politician Beck

Green Party politician Volker Beck praised Koch's remarks and spoke of a "growing sensitivity" of the Catholic Church toward homosexual and transsexual refugees. "I hope that this will also lead the universal Catholic Church and Rome to oppose the persecution of homosexuals and transsexuals in the name of religion," he said in Berlin. Even if the Catholic Magisterium regards homosexual acts as "objectively disordered," it would be a step forward if it would at least consistently distinguish between subjective religious attitudes and objective respect for the human rights of people with a different sexual orientation.

Christians respect human dignity

Koch said he was moved when people told him "that they are verbally and physically attacked by fellow refugees because of their sexual orientation and that they often find little understanding for their special emergency situation, even among our authorities and security forces.". The dignity of every human being is inviolable, "regardless of his sexual character," he stressed. "We Christians stand by this, precisely because we see Christ in every human being."

It is undeniable that "Christians and the Church have also been guilty with regard to transgender and homosexual people," the archbishop acknowledged. At the same time, he said his remarks should not be misunderstood in the sense that "we value all people's ways of shaping their sexuality equally". Here, he says, there will continue to be "clear disputes" in the future, which must be conducted in mutual "respect".

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Christina Cherry
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