Written by: Joachin Meisner Hertz
(ZENIT News / Germany, 11.06.2022).- “If I myself am gay, then I want to show that I am so,” said Friar Markus Fuhrmann, Franciscan Religious, who a few weeks ago came out — as the slang goes — “of the closet.” His statement resulted in no consequence in a Germany ever more permeated by gender ideology. Such is the case that the Franciscans’ Provincial Chapter elected him Provincial Superior. From this new place of public exposition and visibility the faith moves to a second place. Activism remains in the first place: the official news portal of the German Episcopate did not hesitate to test it, highlighting on its front page that “the new head of the German Province of the Franciscan Order advocates changes in Catholic sexual morality.” On Friday, June 10, Markus Fuhrmann said that the Church in Germany must be a Church “that has gender equality, that puts herself clearly on the side of the poor and oppressed, and a Church that is sensitive to issues of sexual morality. And in statements to a Munich portal, he added: “because the way in which this morality has been taught officially up to now does not serve life. It must change or develop more.”
Contrary to what the official documents of the Church state — for instance the “Instruction on the criteria of vocational discernment in regard to persons with homosexual tendencies before their admission to the Seminary and Holy Orders” (Congregation for Catholic Education, 2005) on homosexual persons and access to the priesthood, Friar Markus Fuhrmann claims not only his own homosexuality but his intention of activism so that homosexuals access the priesthood in the Catholic Church: there is something that in reality shouldn’t be there, but everyone knows it is there. I would like to promote it, as an opportunity to see that, as Church, we are colored, that the Church is (also) queer, that this is what God wills, that this corresponds to the diversity of creation and, therefore, is quite normal.” And, in regard to celibacy, he adds: “I am in favour of a critical rethinking of celibacy in the way of priestly life, and I am favour of women having access to Ordained offices.”
But what does the Church say officially? Number 2 of the official document quoted above states:
In regard to profoundly rooted homosexual tendencies, which are found in a certain number of men and women, these are also objectively disordered and are frequently also a test for them. Such persons must be received with respect and delicacy; to be avoided in regard to them is any stigma that indicates an unjust discrimination. They are called to carry out God’s will in their lives and to unite to the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross the difficulties they might meet.
In light of these teachings, this Dicastery, in accordance with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, considers it necessary to affirm clearly that the Church, respecting profoundly the persons in question, cannot admit to the Seminary and to Holy Orders those that practice homosexuality, present profoundly rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture.
Such persons are, in fact, in a situation that gravely hinders a correct relationship with men and women. In no way can the negative consequences be ignored, which can stem from the Ordination of persons with profoundly rooted homosexual tendencies.
If, instead, it is a question of homosexual tendencies that are only the expression of a transitory problem, such as, for example, that of an adolescence that is not yet ended, they should be clearly overcome at least three years before Diaconal Ordination.
Friar Markus Fuhrmann was elected Provincial Superior of the Franciscans, who knew that he “came out of the closet” last Wednesday, June 8. Sixty Brothers took part in that election of the German Franciscan Province of Ohrbeck. The Franciscan Province is made up of some 300 Franciscans.
