ESSEN, Germany (LifeSiteNews) — A German bishop criticized Catholic teaching for “assuming there is only man and only woman” and demanded that the Church change its infallible doctrine on sexuality in the latest heterodox comments from the German hierarchy.
Bishop Ludger Schepers, an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Essen, who serves as the “representative for queer pastoral care” for the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), made the remarks in an interview with the German newspaper Rheinische Post published on May 8.
While Schepers and other openly heretical German bishops remain active in their dioceses, Pope Francis has punished or removed orthodox bishops who have criticized his heterodox statements and actions or adhered to Catholic teaching, most prominently Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, Cardinal Raymond Burke, and Puerto Rican Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres.
READ: Archbishop Aguer: Pope Francis targets good bishops because he is ‘uncomfortable with Tradition’
When Schepers was asked by Rheinische Post about disagreements within the German episcopate about how to pastorally approach so-called “homosexual and queer people,” he said, “Ultimately, it comes down to the question of bipolarity.”
“No one can say exactly what is entirely male and what is entirely female,” he claimed, in direct contradiction to biology as well as Catholic teaching. He further suggested that upholding the reality of the two sexes is “denying queer people their humanity,” which he called “unacceptable.”
“However, Church teaching still assumes that there is only man and only woman, in the language of the Old Testament: only male and only female,” he added. Jesus Christ Himself reiterates that humanity is created specifically male and female (Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6).
According to biology, sex is rooted in an individual’s chromosomes and reflected by hundreds of genetic characteristics.
“Something has to change in the Catholic Church as a whole when it comes to sexual morality,” Schepers declared. “And that also means, of course, that the Catechism must say different things than it does now.”
“On the one hand, it talks about irregular relationships, but on the other, it says that people should not be discriminated against. That would be a first step if people would at least adhere to the principle of not discriminating against people,” he said.
The Church criticizes “unjust discrimination” of homosexuals, though upholding the truth about human sexuality is not discrimination.
When asked whether the Church’s teaching on sexuality could be altered, he replied, “It can be changed if the Church gains a different understanding of sexuality. That sexuality is not only there to produce offspring.”
Contrary to Schepers’s claims, the Church’s teaching on human sexuality is unchangeable, as it is based on the constant teaching tradition of the Catholic Church as well as the natural law.
Since homosexual acts contradict the revealed Word of God and the natural law and are unable to produce new human life, the Church condemns these acts as disordered, gravely sinful, and contrary to nature. As homosexual acts violate divine revelation and the natural law, it is impossible for the Church to adapt its teaching on the matter.
The primary end of the sexual act is procreation and the primary end of marriage is begetting and raising children. The Church denounces as gravely sinful any act that attempts to separate the sexual act from its procreative nature (i.e., contraception).
Regarding homosexuality, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
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.
Likewise, the idea, based on gender ideology, that there are more “genders” than male and female is condemned by Church teaching and contrary to the natural law.
As Franciscan priest Father Terrance Chartier explained, “As an ideology, [transgenderism] contradicts natural law and divine revelation, so to affirm it would be sinful. It would be actually a sin against the First Commandment, so a sin against the virtue of faith, against the divinely revealed truth about human sexuality.”
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, echoed those remarks, describing transgender ideology as “self-mutilation of mind, soul, and body” and blasting its promotion as a “serious sin.”
Schepers: Fiducia Supplicans ‘only a first step’
When Schepers was asked about the Vatican’s heterodox declaration endorsing the “blessing” of homosexual and other “irregular couples,” Fiducia Supplicans, he said that he only sees it as “a first step.”
“I think that the issue is now being discussed worldwide,” he added. “I think that is the most important thing that has been set in motion by the ‘Fiducia supplicans’ declaration approved by the Pope.”
The German prelate advised Pope Francis “not to be discouraged in his efforts to provide pastoral care for all,” an apparent euphemism for homosexual “blessings.”
“The Church must seek dialogue and recognize the changes in society,” he said. “The Vatican must not hide behind its old rules.”
In April, Schepers commissioned 13 women who had completed a three-and-a-half-year training program with the “Women’s Diaconate Network” to be “deacons in the spirit,” despite the Church’s perennial teaching that only men can receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
READ: German laywomen demand ‘female deacons’ at cathedral liturgy with clown dance
Despite the Church’s clear condemnation of homosexuality and gender ideology, Schepers and other German bishops who subscribe to and promote versions of modern gender ideology and other heresies remain in their dioceses without punishment from Pope Francis and the Vatican.