The two churches — Mar Toma, Syriac Orthodox, and Al Tahira, Chaldean Catholic — reopened on October 15 after years of painstaking restoration. Photo: L’Oeuvre d’Orient

Vatican contradicts German bishops: text for blessing same-sex couples was not approved

Bishop Georg Bätzing, head of the DBK, has repeatedly defended the initiative. At the September assembly, he told journalists the document had been produced “in transparent consultation with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith” (DDF), portraying it as a contextual application of the Vatican’s 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans