Pope Leo XIV received Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, in audience this Thursday, just a few days after the strong public correction issued from Rome against the controversial German project of ritualized blessings for homosexual couples.
The meeting was officially confirmed by the Holy See’s daily bulletin, which reported that the Pontiff received the German cardinal in audience, who is also coordinator of the Vatican Council for the Economy.
The Pope publicly corrected the ritualized blessings
At the end of April, Cardinal Marx announced the implementation in his diocese of a text that allows priests to bless homosexual couples and divorced remarried couples through structured formulas.
Read also: Cardinal Marx promotes blessings for irregular and same-sex couples in Munich
The decision sparked immediate international controversy, interpreted as a practical break with Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexual morality.
During the return flight from his apostolic trip to Africa, Leo XIV was directly asked about this issue and responded clearly.
“The Holy See has already spoken with the German bishops” and “has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of homosexual couples,” affirmed the Pontiff.
The backing of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recently published a letter signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and dated November 2024, in which it explicitly rejected a German project to ritualize blessings for same-sex couples.
As explained by the prefect of the dicastery to Vatican News, the letter constitutes “the only and final response” from Rome also regarding the definitive text approved in April 2025 in Germany.
Fernández insisted that the new German Vademécum continues to contradict the declaration Fiducia supplicans, because it introduces liturgical or paraliturgical elements expressly excluded by the Vatican.
“The Church has the right and duty to avoid any kind of rite that could lead to confusion regarding marriage,” recalled the Argentine cardinal.
However, the Dicastery’s intervention maintains the line of Francis’s controversial document, limiting itself to distinguishing between “spontaneous” blessings and structured or paraliturgical celebrations.
Silence in Munich
Despite the papal correction, the Archdiocese of Munich has shown no signs of rectification.
Asked by Religión Confidencial about a possible suspension of these ritualized blessings, the German archdiocese chose not to comment.
“We will not comment on this,” was the only response offered by the diocese.
The audience between Leo XIV and Cardinal Marx thus acquires special ecclesial relevance and is interpreted as a new episode in the growing tensions between Rome and some sectors of the German Church regarding the so-called Synodal Way and its reform proposals.