The German Katholikentag is an event organized every two years by the German Catholic lay organization Central Committee of German Catholics (Zentralkomitee der Deutschen Katholiken – ZdK) which has close ties with the German Bishops’ Conference. This year, this event will take place 25-29 May in Leipzig, hosted by the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen, and there will be a variety of events such as talks, prayer meetings, and Masses. Many German bishops are involved in the event either as speakers or as celebrants of Holy Masses – prominently among them, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx. Also present will be Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin.
The German Catholic journalist and pro-life activist Mathias von Gersdorff has written two reports on his blog about this upcoming event, entitled “Star Guest at the Katholikentag in Leipzig: Homosexuals” and “ZdK Leads the Sexual Revolution in Germany” respectively. In these two posts, Von Gersdorff notes that themes, events, and groups which favor homosexuality will have a strong presence at the festival this year.
One workshop concerning the writing of one’s own religious “Psalms” will be organized by the “Network of Catholic Lesbians.” This network, together with a practicing homosexual and representative of the Christian Democratic Party, Stefan Kaufmann, will also discuss at another event the question of “Marriage for All? Concerning the Equality of Homo- and Heterosexual Couples.” Another participating group, the association “Homosexuals and Church” (HUK), will host a workshop bearing the title: “Lesbians and Male Homosexuals Also Grow Older. What is Important, What is Important to Me?” Additionally, von Gersdorff names eleven more events at this 5-day, allegedly Catholic event, where homosexuals and transsexuals are given wide scope to express their ideas. Von Gersdorff comments upon these facts, as follows:
It is not necessary to further explain that this case is an insanity and that such an event is not only superfluous but even dangerous for the Faith. The image which the Catholic Church in Germany thereby presents is a desolate one. This is a Church which is about to completely lose its Catholic identity. Once more, one can see: the Central Committee of German Catholics, the organizer of the Katholikentag, is contributing to the destruction of the Catholic Faith in Germany.
The German journalist reminds his audience that for quite some time now, the ZdK has been promoting moral licentiousness which stands in opposition to the Catholic Church’s moral teaching. He says that the ZdK was even “so bold” as to request from the Synod on the Family in Rome in 2015 to allow and promote Holy Communion for “remarried” divorcees, contraception, as well as homosexual relationships. Von Gersdorff points out that the ZdK seems “not to care about what the Catholic Magisterium says, nor what the Universal Church thinks.” The “narcissism of the ZdK goes so far, that its representatives seriously believe that the Universal Church should follow the ideas of the Church in Germany which is itself wasting away,” he adds.
Von Gersdorff also calls the ZdK the most important member of the “Fifth Column of the Sexual Revolution within the Catholic Church,” and which thus also takes the risk of causing a split in the Church. He tells the Catholics in Germany to realize that there is a plan afoot with which one group clearly aims at “destroying the Church in our country.”
The full program of the German Katholikentag can be viewed here (PDF file).
