Aachen bishop Helmut Dieser has called on the Catholic Church to adopt a new vision of homosexuality just prior to visiting Pope Francis in the Vatican.
“Feelings and love for persons of the same sex are not an aberration, but a variant of human sexuality,” Bishop Dieser told Deutsche Welle as a preview of a message he is bringing to the pope.
What is needed is a reevaluation of human sexuality to bring the Church’s vision up to date with modernity, the bishop declared.
“The current state of the Church’s teaching does not do justice to certain realities in the area of human sexuality. It is simply not complex enough,” he said. “This applies, for example, to the question of homosexuality. We cannot tell homosexual people that their feelings are unnatural and that they must live a celibate life.”
“As science shows, homosexuality is not a failure, it is not a disease, it is not the expression of a defect and moreover it is not even a consequence of original sin,” he continued.
“The world is colorful and creation is varied,” he stated. “And then I can also accept a diversity in the area of sexuality that is willed by God and does not violate the will of the Creator.”
The bishop contended that it is very important for the Church to both bless and accompany same-sex couples, reminding them that God loves them the way they are.
“This goes for queer persons as well as heterosexuals,” he said.
It is not “theologically convincing” to present homosexuality as a limitation of the male or female identity, he stated.
Moreover, he declared, those in the Church who criticize the gay lifestyle probably do so “out of fear or because they feel threatened.”
Together with the other German bishops, Bishop Dieser is visiting the Vatican from November 14 to 18, where he will have the opportunity to present his ideas to Pope Francis, who recently praised pro-LGBT priest Father James Martin as a “man of values.”