Top cardinal calls for drastic overhaul of Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg (Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
The archbishop of Luxembourg has called for a “fundamental revision” of Catholic teaching on homosexuality and said it is wrong to fire church workers for being gay.
In an interview with German Catholic news agency KNA, cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality: “I think it’s time we make a fundamental revision of the doctrine.”
When asked about a campaign in which 125 German Catholic priests and officials jointly came out as LGBT+ and called on the church to do better by queer Catholics, Hollerich asserted that Church employees should not lose their jobs due to their sexuality.
“I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching is no longer true,” he said in interview that was published on Tuesday (1 February).
He added: “They know they have a home in the church. With us [his own church] no one is dismissed because they are homosexual.”
While the Catholic Church has typically seen homosexual acts as a sin, Pope Francis has recently endorsed same-sex marriage and urged parents to accept and support their LGBT+ children.
The 83-year-old leader has said that while “marriage is a sacrament”, and the Catholic Church cannot accept same-sex marriage, it can support civil union laws aimed at giving gay partners joint rights in areas of pensions, health care and inheritance.
In an interview for the documentary Francesco, the Pope said: “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.”
He added: “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.”
In 2013, the pontiff argued that LGBT+ people should not be marginalised by society, famously saying: “Who am I to judge?”
