Until now, a same-sex partnership or a second marriage could cost you your job. Now the Catholic Church is changing its labor law. Employees should be “representatives of the unconditional love of God” regardless of their lifestyle and private life.
The Catholic Church in Germany is changing its labor law, thereby strengthening the rights of queer employees, among other things. The plenary assembly of the Association of German Dioceses (VDD) decided to amend the so-called “Basic Order of Church Service”. “Diversity in church institutions is explicitly recognized as an enrichment like never before,” said the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) in Bonn.
“All employees, regardless of their specific tasks, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their gender, their sexual identity and their way of life can be representatives of God’s unconditional love and thus of a church that serves people.” The only condition is “a positive attitude and openness towards the message of the gospel”. The revision of labor law had been discussed in the dioceses for several months.
So far, it could cost you your job if you committed to a same-sex partnership, for example. A second marriage after a divorce could also become a problem. Against their discrimination, queer employees had in January under the motto
The articles of the constitution form the cornerstones of the Church’s labor constitution. They apply to around 800,000 employees in the Catholic Church and Caritas. The Permanent Council of the DBK met in the Himmelpforten monastery in Würzburg.