Overview
- Cardinal Reinhard Marx, in a Tuesday instruction, approved blessings for same‑sex and other couples in the Archdiocese of Munich‑Freising and named a DBK/ZdK guide as the basis for ministry.
- The archdiocese will begin clergy training in June and requires ministers who decline to lead a blessing to refer couples to a willing colleague.
- Several German dioceses already use the guide, including Limburg, Trier, and Rottenburg‑Stuttgart, while others have held back to wait on Rome or their local bishop.
- Conservative bishops resisted the step, with Regensburg’s Rudolf Voderholzer and Cologne’s Rainer Maria Woelki rejecting the guide and citing Vatican warnings against ritualized rites.
- The policy builds on a 2023 Vatican note that allowed brief, non‑liturgical blessings under Pope Francis, even as Pope Leo XIV and the doctrine office have since stressed tighter limits.