German Catholic Franciscans Elect New Leader Who is an Open Homosexual

Although Pope Benedict XVI explained — as have other Popes and many saints in the Catholic Church — that “homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation,” a 300-member Franciscan order in Germany recently elected an open homosexual as its new leader.

Brother Markus Fuhrmann publicly announced in May that he was a homosexual; his fellow Franciscans elected him as provincial superior in mid-June. Fuhrmann reportedly lives a celibate life as a Franciscan. He was ordained a priest in 2005. 

In a June 10 interview with MK-Online, Fuhrmann explained why he publicly declared himself homosexual. “I would also like to be able to make it clear who I am and what I stand for,” he said. “If I’m gay myself, then I want to show that I can also be part of the church in this ministry.”

“I would like to promote seeing this as an opportunity, that we as a church are colorful, that the church is (also) queer, that this is what God wants, that this corresponds to the diversity of creation and is therefore quite normal,” he added. 

In the interview, Fuhrmann made it clear that he opposes some of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church. “I am in favor of a critical rethinking of celibacy in the priestly way of life and I am in favor of women having access to ordained ministries,” he said.  

The Church has made it clear, countless times, that it does not have the authority to ordain women as priests. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches,  “‘Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.’ The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. … The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.”

Also, in his letter of May 22, 1994, then-Pope John Paul II wrote, “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

As for being a homosexual in the Catholic priesthood or religious life, Pope Benedict XVI in his book Light of the World, said, “Homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation. Otherwise, celibacy itself would lose its meaning as a renunciation. It would be extremely dangerous if celibacy became a sort of pretext for bringing people into the priesthood who don’t want to get married anyway. For, in the end, their attitude toward man or woman is somehow distorted, off-center, and, in any case, is not within the direction of creation of which we have spoken.”

“The Congregation for Education issued a decision a few years ago to the effect that homosexual candidates cannot become priests because their sexual orientation estranges them from the proper sense of paternity, from the intrinsic nature of priestly being,” said the now-retired Pope.

“The selection of candidates to the priesthood must therefore be very careful,” he added. “The greatest attention is needed here in order to prevent the intrusion of this kind of ambiguity and to head off a situation where the celibacy of priests would practically end up being identified with the tendency to homosexuality.”

In a Feb. 2, 1961 letter on the “Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders,” Pope John XXIII wrote, “Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.”

In addition to Fuhrmann and his fellow Franciscans, many German bishops and priests openly support homosexuality and the LGBT agenda. 

On Jan. 24, 2022,  the German Bishops Conference issued a statement praising the LGBT #Outin Church campaign. Bishop Helmut Dieser of Aachen, Germany, said he welcomed “the LGBT campaign on behalf of the German Bishops’ Conference as a sign that we are working so that this climate of fearlessness can and must develop in our Church.” 

In a separate interview that day, Dieser accused the church of “ criminaliz[ing]” homosexuals, and suggesting that a disordered homosexual orientation is a “gift from God,” reported LifeSiteNews.  “Now we say: Sexual orientation is a gift from God. It is not to be questioned, but it must be led into the discipleship of God.”

As reported by The Washington Post, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabruck also expressed support for changing 2,000 years of church teaching, saying, “Do we want to be a closed church or one that embraces life and culture?” 

“The German bishops continue to move toward schism from the universal Church,” Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver stated on Twitter.

Also, Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American, said of the pro-LGBT German bishops, ““To hold what they are saying is heretical. They’re leading people into heresy, to their great harm.”

The Pope “must challenge these bishops and ask them to renounce the heresies and even the positions that run counter to Church discipline,” said Burke. “And if they do not renounce their errors and correct themselves, then he would have to remove them from office. This is the situation at which we have arrived.”

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