(NEW YORK) — Germany’s powerful Catholic progressives are offering to bless same sex unions in about 100 different churches all over Germany this week. The move is in direct defiance of a recent Holy See pronouncement that priests cannot bless gay unions.
The Vatican pronouncement was released in March and argued the decision was made because God “cannot bless sin.”
Germany legalized same-sex marriage in 2017, and the country also banned the use of gay conversion therapy practices on people under age 18, according to the BBC.
Pope Francis, who has championed a more decentralized church structure, has already reminded the German hierarchy that it must remain in communion with Rome.
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