ROME (AP) — Cardinal George Pell has called on the Vatican doctrine office to issue a reprimand to two European Catholic clerics who called for changes in the Church's teaching on sexuality and homosexuality.
Pell, who was convicted and later acquitted of charges of sexual abuse in his native Australia, said he understood that secular pressures in Germany forced a debate on homosexuality and other controversial issues. But in an interview with KTV, the German Catholic television agency, the prelate said that the church cannot follow “the changing dictates of contemporary secular culture” and must remain true to its faith.
Pell referred to recent statements by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, chairman of the European Union Committee on Episcopal Conferences, and the head of the conference of German bishops that have emerged as part of the German church's “synodal path” of debate and dialogue with the laity.
Hollerich is of the opinion that the current church's teaching on homosexuality is “no longer correct” nor is it based on science. In an interview with German news agency KNA, he called for a “fundamental review of doctrine,” noting that Pope Francis' attitude towards gays could pave the way for change.
On the other hand, the head of the conference of German bishops, Georg Baetzing, told the German magazine Bunte that the Catholic teaching must change in the area of sexuality and premarital sexual relations since no one applies it. Asked whether same-sex relations were lawful, the German prelate replied: “Yes, it's okay if it's done faithfully and responsibly. It does not affect the relationship with God.”
He said he was in favour of abolishing priestly celibacy and ordering women, two things that the Vatican has rejected outright, but which the German synodal process has supported.
Pell called for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to speak out on the “widespread and explicit rejection” of the church's teaching on homosexuality and monogamous marriage in an unusual scolding of a fellow cardinal and bishop.