Protestant bishop of Berlin apologizes for anti-LGBTQ Church history
Fri. July 23, 2021 3:41 PM by Gerald Farinas
marienkirche is the protestant cathedral in berlin
photo credit // jörg zägel
Dr. Stäblein denounced Church teaching that LGBTQ persons suppress themselves and live a life of celibacy.
Ahead of Berlin's Pride weekend, Most Rev. Dr. Christian Stäblein of the Evengelical Church of Germany asked for people's forgiveness for historic homophobia and transphobia in the Protestant religion.
Dressed in his black alb and white collar, Dr. Stäblein addressed congregants of the Marienkirche cathedral, educating them on the abuses of the Church against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons.
These grievances included the firing of LGBTQ persons working for the Church, Church investigations with disrespectful questioning that delved deep into personal lives, and the turning away of LGBTQ persons looking to use housing and other facilities the Church offered others.
Dr. Stäblein denounced Church teaching that LGBTQ persons suppress themselves and live a life of celibacy.
He also denounced the Church's defrocking of their own clergy found to be gay.
"We discriminated them and made them pariahs," he said. "We have to assume that more people were hurt by these practices that we know of or can document."
Asking forgiveness from God, Dr. Stäblein said, "We bear responsibility as a community for these wrongs."
While the denomination Dr. Stäblein belongs to has moved toward full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the Church, some congregations within are still hobbling at a slower pace.
Meanwhile, German Catholic bishops are turning a blind eye toward their priests offering blessings to same-sex couples, despite a Vatican declaration against it.
Dressed in his black alb and white collar, Dr. Stäblein addressed congregants of the Marienkirche cathedral, educating them on the abuses of the Church against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons.
These grievances included the firing of LGBTQ persons working for the Church, Church investigations with disrespectful questioning that delved deep into personal lives, and the turning away of LGBTQ persons looking to use housing and other facilities the Church offered others.
Dr. Stäblein denounced Church teaching that LGBTQ persons suppress themselves and live a life of celibacy.
He also denounced the Church's defrocking of their own clergy found to be gay.
"We discriminated them and made them pariahs," he said. "We have to assume that more people were hurt by these practices that we know of or can document."
Asking forgiveness from God, Dr. Stäblein said, "We bear responsibility as a community for these wrongs."
While the denomination Dr. Stäblein belongs to has moved toward full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the Church, some congregations within are still hobbling at a slower pace.
Meanwhile, German Catholic bishops are turning a blind eye toward their priests offering blessings to same-sex couples, despite a Vatican declaration against it.