The cautious and nuanced reception of Begging for confidence by the Dutch bishops has been shared by various episcopal conferences and bishops around the world, but is strikingly different from how the text has been received by Catholic leaders in neighboring Germany and Belgium.
Church leaders in Germany have largely welcomed the Vatican directive as an affirmation of the controversial path they have already taken to offer formal blessings to same-sex couples and changes to Church doctrine on sexuality, even though Begging for confidence prohibit that.
For example, Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, a senior figure in the German Bishops’ Conference, declared on January 17 that his diocese will offer “celebrations of blessing” to same-sex couples and divorced and remarried couples. request them.
And on December 20, Birgit Mock, vice president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), stated that the Catholic Church in Germany would press ahead with plans to draft and disseminate a formal text of blessings, a resolution which had been approved in March 2023 by the controversial German Synodal Path.