(LifeSiteNews) — German Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers has called for Catholic schools to become “spaces of recognition for people of all sexual identities.”
According to Katholische Nachrichtenagentur (KNA), Timmerevers told the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) in Leipzig on Wednesday that “In the future, Church-run schools should be able to be recognized by the fact that they give room to deal with the topic of sexuality.”
KNA summarized Timmerevers’ statements as a call “for greater sensitivity in dealing with sexual diversity in schools.”
The Church should do everything in its power to “make Church institutions into places of recognition for people of all sexual identities,” said the bishop of Dresden-Meissen.
Timmerevers is the chairman of the Commission for Education and Schools of the DBK and a proponent of the heretical Synodal Way. He was among the 71 percent of German bishops who voted in favor of a document that called for changing Church teaching and asserted that homosexual acts are “not a sin” and not “intrinsically evil.”
READ: German bishop asks priests to ‘bless’ homosexual unions, citing Pope Francis and Synodal Way
In 2020, the pro-LGBT prelate called on the Church to “further develop and strengthen acceptance and tolerance for homosexuals in our communities and in the whole Church.” He has also publicly supported the “blessing” of homosexual couples.
Timmerevers’ statements contradict the definitive teaching of the Catholic Church that all sexual acts outside of a valid marriage between one man and one woman are gravely sinful.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent states that the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” also includes the prohibition against “every species of immodesty and impurity,” including fornication, i.e., sexual intercourse outside of marriage.
St. Paul teaches that “Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites shall possess the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9) The Catechism of Trent cites our Lord Jesus Christ, Who said: “From the heart come forth adulteries and fornications, which defile a man.” (Matt. 15:19)
READ: Cdl. Müller: ‘Nobody can change’ Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is ‘grave sin’
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) definitively condemns homosexual acts and calls people who experience same-sex attraction to chastity:
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” (CCC 2357)
“Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.” (CCC 2359)
Timmerevers’ statements suggest that he seeks to introduce heretical teaching that condones sinful acts into Catholic school curriculums. Jesus Christ issued a firm warning to those who cause children to sin:
“But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matt. 18:6)
READ: No room for ‘inclusion’: Homosexuality and transgenderism are sins against nature itself