Germany’s main lay Catholic organisation has called for a raft of new pastoral practices concerning marriage and sexuality.
The Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (Central Committee of the German Catholics) called for the admittance of civilly remarried divorcees to Communion, acceptance of all forms of cohabitation, the blessing of same-sex couples and the reconsideration of the Church’s teaching on contraception.
A document from the ZdK stated that non-marital forms of lived partnerships “make a great contribution” to social cohesion and have to be “treated justly”.
It also stated that “values” are found in other forms of communal living, which “have to be honoured, even if they are not to be found in the form of the sacramental marriage”.
But Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau called the ZdK’s document “incomprehensible”.