“Milestone”: The decision of the Catholic bishops to relax church labor law made headlines – and also earned criticism. However, the new law will only come into effect when the bishops implement it in their dioceses. Do that?

Munich/Würzburg (dpa/lby) – After the relaxation of labor law in the Catholic Church, the first Bavarian dioceses announced that they would implement the decision quickly. In the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, this should be the case “promptly”, as a spokesman said on Wednesday on request. In the archdiocese of Bamberg, which currently has no head shepherd, the introduction of the new basic order is to be prepared, said a spokesman – “to clear the way for the new archbishop to put it into effect”.

The Diocese of Würzburg wants to implement the new basis for labor law in the Catholic Church at the beginning of the new year. The step is planned for the first quarter of 2023 after appropriate preparation by the Association of German Dioceses, a spokesman said on Wednesday when asked. Bishop Franz Jung had already declared in February that he would not take any church or disciplinary measures against employees with regard to their sexual orientation.

The diocese of Augsburg is also aiming for implementation in the first quarter of 2023, as a spokesman said. At the moment, however, one is still waiting for concrete formulation proposals from the Association of German Diocese (VDD), in the context of which the bishops decided to relax church labor law on Tuesday in Würzburg.

In Cologne, Archbishop Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, who is considered to be particularly conservative, also wanted to implement the new order. “Cologne was actively involved in the reform of church labor law. Cardinal Woelki was involved in the decision of the Permanent Council and wants to implement it,” said a spokeswoman.

So far, employees of the Catholic Church have been threatened with dismissal if they marry same-sex people, for example, but also if they marry a second time after a divorce. That should change now. The new basic order of church service is intended to reform the labor law for 800,000 employees of the Catholic Church and Caritas. In order for it to become legally binding, Germany’s 27 dioceses still have to officially adopt it.

Even if the bishops’ decision was described by various quarters as a “milestone” or “paradigm shift”, there is still clear criticism. The Federal Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Ferda Ataman now even wants to restrict special regulations for church employers. The so-called “church clause” in the General Equal Treatment Act must be changed, she said on Wednesday in Berlin. “In the future, there should only be requirements for the religious affiliation or the way of life of employees in the narrowest area of ??proclamation.”

Ataman believes that the relaxation of Catholic labor law that has been decided upon does not go far enough. It is long overdue for the churches to stop interfering in the private lives of their employees, she said. “However, the new constitution contains too many exceptions. Unfortunately, church employees are not yet fully protected against discrimination.”

Ataman called the new basic order “a first, too hesitant step” for better protection against discrimination. “For example, a nurse who works in a church hospital can still lose her job if she leaves the church for personal reasons,” she said. “I see this as an encroachment on the rights of employees and as a gateway for discrimination.”

The churches are among the largest employers in Germany, she said. “The protection of employees from any form of discrimination must be self-evident and the same for all employees in Germany.”

The Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and the Church also criticized the new constitution as inadequate. It remains a mystery why the bishops did not explicitly promise trans and interhumans the promised protection, said spokesman Thomas Pöschl of the German Press Agency. He spoke of a “serious deficit”. Overall, however, he called it a “paradigm shift” that private life should no longer be evaluated by the church in terms of labor law.