German Cardinal Walter Kasper has called for the role of women in the Church to be upgraded and for greater respect to be shown towards homosexuals.
“It is a duty today to give more room to women in the Church; they must be included in positions of responsibility,” Kasper, 90, told the Italian newspaper Il Piccolo in an interview published on Tuesday. Referring to homosexuals, he said: “People with this orientation must be respected and not discriminated against. There is room for all who want to come into the Church”.
Kasper was also open to allowing people in second marriages to receive the sacraments. Separations were sometimes complex, he said. “I have been a priest for over 65 years. I have never refused communion to anyone. I think it must be a decision of conscience for the individual.”
The former bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and former Vatican “ecumenical minister” also spoke about the Synod on Synodality currently taking place in Rome. “The Church is not a static organism,” Kasper said, adding that it must know how to grow and change. He had seen “good signs” at the Synod.
Originally reported by KNA Germany.
