LGBTQ: Cardinal Marx heads latest assault on Catechism

“Love is love”, declared former president Barack Obama in June of 2015, after the Supreme Court opened to the possibility of recognising same-sex marriages. And “love is love” is now being repeated by the German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Friesing, in order to advance the LGBTQ agenda within the Church.  On the wave of claims which have clearly emerged during the German ‘synodal way’, even cardinal Marx has decided to cast caution to the wind and declare loudly changes to the Catechism with regards to homosexuality.

He did so in an interview published in the liberal weekly Das Stern, March 30, in which he affirms that the Catechism “is not written in stone” and that “it is licit to have doubts regarding its contents”. Marx speaks of “the ethics of inclusivity” based upon “respect for one another”, while “the value of love is demonstrated by the relationship: not reducing the other to an object, not using or humiliating the other person, whilst being faithful and dependent upon one another.” Marx, obviously pressed by the journalist‘s questions, goes even further, affirming that “homosexuality is not a sin. And it is Christian behaviour when two people, regardless of their gender, defend one another in joy and pain.”

In short, that which Cardinal Marx intends to affirm is “the primacy of love, especially in sexual encounters.” The archbishop of Munich continues hurriedly: ”In recent years I have felt freer to say what I think, and I want the teachings of the Church to progress. The Church is changing, together with the world: LGBTQ people are part of Creation and are loved by God, and we are challenged to fight against discrimination”. At the end of the interview, Cardinal Marx admits to having blessed a homosexual couple in the past “A few years ago, in Los Angeles, after a celebration in which I had preached upon the questions of unity and diversity, two people came to me asking me for my blessing. I gave it to them. All things considered; it was not a marriage.”

The Stern interview should not shock anyone. Not only has it been preceded by analogous texts regarding the German Synodal Way, and by the declarations of the president of the German Episcopal Conference, Monseigneur Georg Bätzing, who requests that “free sex” be recognised in the Catechism: the selfsame Marx had already thrown down the gauntlet by celebrating a Mass at the beginning of March in honour of 20 years of pastoral care for Queers in his bishopric of Munich. Obviously, with a rainbow flag in front of the altar and a homily calling for an “inclusive Church”. The value of this gesture was not sufficiently and universally publicised, for which reason Marx made another attempt at notoriety with an interview which would be impossible to ignore.

Cardinal Marx’s declarations do not simply represent the exclusive position of the German Church, and not simply because Marx is a member of the Council of Cardinals which assists Pope Francis in the governing of the Church. This should in fact suggest that his position on homosexuality has universal relevance. Also, his timing suggests that we are being placed before a coordinated attack whose intention it is to place a pro-LGBTQ stamp on the Synod on Synodality, so dear to Pope Francis’ heart. In February, for example, it was the Cardinal of Luxembourg Jean- Claude Hollerich, president of the European Bishops, who requested a change in doctrine favourable to homosexuality, which has not in any way jeopardised his nomination to the position of General Speaker at the Synod on Synodality.

Most importantly, on April 3, an unprecedented event took place: the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, Sister Nathalie Becquart, pronounced a lectio magistralis before the audience of New Ways Ministry, the American LGBTQ  organisation whose objective is to change the Church’s teaching upon homosexuality. The New Ways Ministry, an organisation disowned by the American Bishops and condemned by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith 23 years ago, has already been mentioned here in December of 2021, due to an argument caused by the presence of pro-LGBTQ material on the Synod website. Since that time, things have changed quickly for them. The fundamental passage has been the rehabilitation of the Sister and co-founder of New Ways Ministry, Jeannine Gramick, directly by Pope Francis, who, in a letter demonstrating great appreciation for her work with LGBTQ individuals, declares her work to be “in the style of God”. From that moment onward, there has been intense collaboration with the LGBTQ organisation in preparation for the Synod, up to the event of last Sunday, which reveals an official recognition of the LGBTQ movement.

The occasion was the annual lecture dedicated to father Robert Nugent, the other co-founder of New Ways Ministry, and the theme was “Synodality as a path to reconciliation”. Regardless of the words pronounced, there is no doubt that the event itself is of great relevance. The secretary of New Ways Ministry has reason to state that “this is an historical event”. At this point we can speak openly about the triumph of the LGBTQ lobby within the Church, and we can no longer deny that the Church not only does not offer resistance: it has become an active part of the process. It is not a coincidence that no measures have been taken against Cardinal Marx and his opinions, nor will there be, nor will his role as Papal advisor be in any way diminished.

On the contrary, after a period of nine years, we can say that the Synods have served to promote and realise the sexual revolution within the Church: the two Synods on the Family have - objectively speaking -  cleared the way for the possibility of divorce and second marriages within the Church, and now the Synod on Synodality  will be utilised to legitimise homosexuality and any type of sexual relation. And if the pretext in 2014 was pastoral, pretending to leave doctrine untouched, the masks are now off, and it is clear they have every intention of changing doctrine. Just as Cardinal Ratzinger feared, as far back as 1986.