Church teaching must change on sexual morality, says German bishop
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany, a representative of the German bishops' commission for the investigation of allegations of sexual abuse of minors, gestures during a Jan. 17, 2013 press conference in Trier. (CNS/Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay)
by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Mar. 4, 2014
The responses to the Vatican questionnaire on the family are a clear signal that certain changes concerning the churchs teaching on sexual morality are imperative, according to Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany.
Interviewed by the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, Ackermann, 50, said the responses showed quite clearly that for the majority of the faithful the churchs teaching on moral sexuality was repressive and remote from life. Declaring a second marriage after a divorce a perpetual mortal sin, and under no circumstances allowing remarried divorced people ever to receive the Sacraments, was not helpful, he said and added, We bishops will have to make suggestions here. We must strengthen peoples sense of responsibility and then respect their decisions of conscience.
It was also no longer tenable to declare that every kind of cohabitation before marriage was a grievous sin, and the difference between natural and artificial birth control is somehow artificial. No one understands it I fear, Ackermann said.
As far as homosexual relationships were concerned, the church would have to appeal to peoples sense of responsibility, he continued. The Christian concept of the human being emanates from the polarity of the sexes but we cannot simply say homosexuality is unnatural, he explained. While the church must hold fast to the uniqueness of marriage between a man and a woman, it could not just ignore registered same-sex unions where the couples had promised to be faithful to and responsible for one another.
http://ncronline.org/news/people/church-teaching-must-change-sexual-morality-says-german-bishop
Good story, unfortunate picture.