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In a synod-meeting on the 11th of April 2016 the Church of Norway formally allowed same-intercourse marriages of their churches and announced the graduation of labor on a liturgy for similar-intercourse marriages. In February 2021, bishop Peter Kohlgraf from the Diocese of Mainz also expressed support for the blessing of identical-intercourse marriages in Catholic churches. In May 2020, Austrian Catholic theologian Ewald Volgger published, with the assist of Catholic bishop Franz Lackner, a e book The benediction of similar intercourse partnerships with liturgical advice, how a rite for blessings of identical-sex partnerships is perhaps conducted. On 11 March 2023, the Synodal Path with assist of over 80% of Catholic bishops called for blessing ceremonies for identical-intercourse couples in the German Catholic dioceses. On 25 September 2023, in another responsum to conservative cardinals before the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis signalled the Church's openness to blessings for gay couples as long as they did not misrepresent the Church's view of marriage as between one man and one girl. In September 2020, bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen supported blessing of identical-sex marriages. |
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