A Cardinal Is Compelling Priests to Bless Same-Sex Unions. This Cannot Stand.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, has issued a formal directive instructing every priest and full-time pastoral worker in his archdiocese to facilitate blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. Priests who refuse are not protected. They are required to refer such couples to a dean or another member of staff. Compliance is not optional.

This is abhorrent. And Rome must hear about it.

What Marx Has Actually Done

The directive centres on a pastoral handout titled “Blessing Gives Strength to Love,” which emerged from Germany’s Synodal Way, a controversial reform process that many faithful Catholics have watched with deep concern. The handout received 92% approval at the fifth Synodal Way meeting in March 2023, a figure that speaks plainly to the direction Germany’s Church establishment has chosen.

Starting June 2026, training sessions on how to conduct these blessing “celebrations” will roll out across all archdiocesan offices. A revised book of blessings, the Benediktionale, is also being prepared for German-speaking regions, with specific blessing formulas for same-sex couples included. Marx has described the handout as “the basis of pastoral care.”

The basis of pastoral care. In an archdiocese of the Catholic Church.

This Goes Far Beyond Fiducia Supplicans

Marx has pointed to Fiducia Supplicans, the December 2023 Vatican declaration, as the foundation for his directive. A careful reading of that document shows he has gone well beyond what it permits.

Fiducia Supplicans specifies that any blessing for couples in irregular situations must be spontaneous and non-liturgical. It must never resemble a sacramental ceremony. It must never confer moral legitimacy on the union. The Church, the document states plainly, “does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union.”

Marx’s directive runs contrary to that framework. It institutionalises these blessings across an entire archdiocese. It trains clergy to perform “blessing celebrations.” It penalises priests who decline. Formal blessing formulas are being written into a new liturgical book. A spontaneous pastoral gesture has been converted into an institutionalised rite, dressed in Catholic language, for unions that defined doctrine cannot accommodate.

Even Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne, who has his own controversies, rejected the handout. So did the Archdioceses of Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau, and Regensburg. African bishops’ conferences rejected Fiducia Supplicans outright. Bishops in the Netherlands, England, and Wales did the same. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has warned that Fiducia Supplicans “logically leads to heresy.” Cardinal Marx is charging through a red line, with his priests compelled to follow.

A Comparison: Catholic Teaching vs. What Marx Has Ordered

A Betrayal of the Faithful

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks with clarity. Marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman, ordered toward the good of the spouses and the generation of children (CCC 1601). Homosexual acts are described as "intrinsically disordered" (CCC 2357). The Church calls for genuine respect and compassion toward persons with same-sex attraction, and has always done so. On the nature of marriage, however, it has never wavered.

A bishop who orders his priests to facilitate ceremonies that clothe same-sex unions in sacred language is working against the Church he has sworn to serve. That is the honest description of what is happening in Munich.

Calling this a pastoral adjustment does a disservice to every Catholic who has taken the time to read the documents. What Cardinal Marx has built, brick by brick, is a parallel structure inside the Church, one that uses Catholic vocabulary while pulling against the weight of defined doctrine on the most fundamental question of human sexuality and the family.

Priests in Munich are now facing an impossible choice: comply with their cardinal, or face being sidelined in their own parishes. That is a scandal, and it should be named as one.

Pope Leo Has Responded

Since this story broke, Pope Leo XIV has addressed Cardinal Marx's directive directly, and his words deserve careful attention.

Asked about the blessing of same-sex couples in the wake of Marx's decision, the Holy Father said the Holy See had already made clear to the German bishops that it does not agree with the "formalized blessing of couples," whether homosexual couples or couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis had permitted.

That is a significant statement. Rome has told the German bishops privately what many Catholics have been saying publicly.

The Pope also offered a broader reflection. "I think it's very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters," he said. "We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual, and in reality, I believe there are much greater and more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, and freedom of religion."

He added: "To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity, and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches."

Invoking Pope Francis' "Tutti, tutti, tutti," Leo reminded the faithful that all are welcome, all are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to seek conversion.

The Pope's words are pastoral and measured. He has chosen reconciliation over confrontation. That is his prerogative as the Vicar of Christ, and we receive it with respect. But the core point stands: Rome does not agree with what Cardinal Marx has formalised in Munich. The question now is whether that private disagreement will find public expression in action.

---

Sources: [EWTN News](https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/europe/german-cardinal-instructs-priests-to-facilitate-same-sex-couple-blessings), [Catholic World Report](https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/04/22/german-cardinal-instructs-priests-to-facilitate-same-sex-couple-blessings/), [Catholic Herald](https://thecatholicherald.com/article/german-cardinal-moves-to-normalise-same-sex-blessings), [InfoVaticana](https://infovaticana.com/en/2026/04/21/cardinal-marx-promotes-blessings-for-irregular-and-same-sex-couples-in-munich/)