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OE Companion Discussion Group

In a synod-assembly on the 11th of April 2016 the Church of Norway formally allowed identical-sex marriages of their churches and announced the commencement of work on a liturgy for similar-intercourse marriages. In February 2021, bishop Peter Kohlgraf from the Diocese of Mainz additionally expressed assist for the blessing of same-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 same sex partnerships with liturgical advice, how a rite for blessings of similar-sex partnerships might be carried out. On eleven March 2023, the Synodal Path with support of over 80% of Catholic bishops called for blessing ceremonies for similar-sex couples in the German Catholic dioceses. On 25 September 2023, in another responsum to conservative cardinals earlier than the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis signalled the Church's openness to blessings for gay couples so long as they did not misrepresent the Church's view of marriage as between one man and one woman. In September 2020, bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen supported blessing of same-intercourse marriages.