German Catholic bishops’ new document on sexual identities in schools abandons traditional teachings, echoing historical resistance to papal authority.
Newsroom (16/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In the annals of Catholic intellectual history, few documents have ignited as much controversy as Pope St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), which sought to reform Catholic moral theology by emphasizing a profoundly humanist vision of the path to happiness and blessedness. At the time, it struck a resounding blow to the self-assured pride of many German theologians, who had long positioned themselves as the vanguard of the Church’s intellectual life. The backlash was swift and pointed: less than a year after its release, a collection of essays lambasting John Paul II’s teachings emerged in Germany. The editor justified the volume by asserting Germany’s unique duty to safeguard the Church’s theological domain—a claim that left unspoken the question of who had bestowed such authority upon them. Underlying this resistance seemed to be an unspoken presumption: that German theologians possessed superior insight compared to a Polish pontiff.
This pattern of German dissent from papal authority is not new. It traces back at least to 1968, when Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, his encyclical affirming the Church’s stance on morally appropriate methods of regulating fertility. Finding a prominent German theologian or bishop who publicly defended it would prove challenging. Over the decades, however, the epicenter of progressive Catholic revisionism in moral theology has evolved. What began with debates over contraception has now pivoted toward issues of homosexuality, and more recently, it has expanded to encompass the tenets of gender ideology and the transgender movement. Today, this resistance—once confined to academic critiques of Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor—appears to have evolved into a broader acceptance of these ideologies by a majority of Germany’s bishops.
The latest flashpoint arrived on October 30, when the secretariat of the German Bishops’ Conference unveiled a new document on its website. Titled Created, Redeemed, and Loved: Visibility and Recognition of the Diversity of Sexual Identities in Schools, the text was produced by the Bishops’ Commission for Schools and Education. Far from referencing the binary diversity of human creation as described in Genesis 1:27—”male and female he created them”—the document instead endorses the expansive array of “identities” championed by rainbow ideologues and LGBTQ+ activists. As detailed in reports from Cologne’s domradio.de, it instructs educators to promote visibility for individuals with diverse sexual identities through inclusive language. Teachers, it argues, should cultivate classroom environments where children and adolescents feel acknowledged and supported as they navigate their sexual orientation and gender identity.
The document ventures further into contentious territory, urging religion instructors to present the Catholic Church’s sexual morality in a “differentiated” manner. This involves openly discussing controversial aspects of Church doctrine and theology, enabling students to develop their own reasoned opinions. Strikingly absent from this framework is any robust affirmation of biblical anthropology—the foundational understanding of humanity as imaged in God’s creation. There is no emphatic declaration that the Church’s sexual ethic, honed over two millennia, has nurtured human flourishing and sanctity. Nor does it issue a call to conversion, advocate for moral discernment grounded in tradition, or reference empirical evidence showing that gender transitions often fail to yield lasting mental health benefits. Absent, too, is any recommendation that youth grappling with gender dysphoria or sexual confusion consult religious figures—such as educators, priests, or consecrated religious—who uphold and embody the Church’s teachings on moral truth.
To its credit, the document does advocate against bullying, a timely imperative in an era marked by the vitriol of social media exchanges and outdated online forums. It rightly insists that schools should serve as havens where the challenges of adolescence are not intensified by discrimination or personal denigration. Yet, this emphasis on respect is hardly revolutionary; it aligns with the timeless mandate of Christian charity and basic human decency, principles that predate the 21st-century advocacy of gender ideology, rainbow activists, and transgender proponents by centuries.
The timing of this development adds a layer of poignancy, coinciding as it does with the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s conclusion. That council, in which German bishops and theologians—including the future Pope Benedict XVI—played pivotal roles, recalibrated the Church’s ecclesiology. It affirmed that bishops are authentic teachers, governors, and sanctifiers in their dioceses, not mere administrators of a centralized institution. Thus, for a bishops’ commission to endorse a “differentiated” presentation of Catholic doctrine—treating established truths as mere options amid a buffet of perspectives—represents a profound irony. It amounts to a betrayal of Vatican II’s spirit, one likely to exacerbate human suffering rather than facilitate healing through divine grace and genuinely compassionate ministry.
As this theological and pastoral drift unfolds in Germany, the silence from Rome grows increasingly untenable. The situation demands a response, lest the Church’s universal witness to truth be further eroded.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Infocatholica and The Catholic Times
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