(LifeSiteNews) – Pro-LGBT Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of Essen, Germany, who serves as the queer representative of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), blasted Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s recent comments about the need for the next pontiff to combat homosexual “marriage” and gender ideology, calling instead for the Church to show compassion to LGBT persons.
In a May 2 interview, Schepers responded to Cardinal Müller’s April 28 interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa in which the prelate emphasized the need for the next pope to defend the Church’s teaching against same-sex “marriage” and gender ideology, per German outlet katholisch.de. The bishop criticized Müller’s adherence to these “rigid dogmas” and called on the Church to instead show compassion, love, and mercy toward LGBT persons.
Schepers has a long history of heterodoxy.
In the La Stampa interview, Müller stressed that the next pontiff should root out the influence of the “gay lobbies” in the Church and defend the unchangeable Catholic teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.
“If Jesus says that marriage is between a man and a woman and is indissoluble, no pope can change this doctrine,” the cardinal said. “Homosexual lobbies want to equate same-sex unions with marriage, but this totally contradicts the doctrine of the Bible.”
BREAKING: Cardinal Mueller’s fiery sermon TODAY at St. Agnes, Rome: “Cardinals must not elect a pope who chases personal agendas or mimics his predecessor. The Pope is the foundation of Church unity in divine truth. Pray the Holy Spirit reveals the next Peter!” 🙏 #Conclave… pic.twitter.com/fnGkolnK3x
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) May 4, 2025
Schepers lamented that Müller is focusing on this “narrow” view of Catholic teaching. Instead, the bishop underscored his belief that the Church should steer away from “rigid dogmas,” and instead focus on mercy.
“For me, the power of the Church does not lie in condemnation or in rigid dogmas, but in turning to people–in love, compassion and acceptance,” he said.
While it’s true that Catholic prelates and laity alike are called to show compassion toward individuals with same-sex attraction, the bishop appears to be suggesting that Catholic teaching on same-sex “marriage” should be disregarded and their sins accepted. The Catholic Church infallibly condemns all homosexual activity as mortally sinful and “intrinsically disordered,” as well as a sin that “cries to heaven for vengeance,” and denounces homosexual tendencies as “objectively disordered.”
READ: Cardinal Müller: We need a ‘successor of Peter’ not of one man’s ‘private ideas’
Müller further stressed in the La Stampa interview the need to provide pastoral care toward LGBT individuals while rejecting gender ideology. The phrase “gender ideology” is commonly used by Catholics and conservatives to describe the push for same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism throughout society.
“We can discuss concrete, individual pastoral care towards individual people, to guide them to Christian life, but not accept gender ideology, which is contrary to the doctrine of the Church,” the prelate said.
Schepers responded to Müller by defending gender ideology and suggested that Catholics should show compassion to those of all “gender identities.”
“(Gender ideology is) not a monolithic concept to be combated but rather describes the diversity of human sensations and experiences. People love, feel and want to be loved – regardless of their gender identity,” the bishop said.
As with persons with same-sex attraction, the Church calls on the faithful to show compassion to those who identify as “transgender.” However, Schepers seems to be suggesting that the faithful disregard the Church’s teaching on gender ideology.
Several prominent Catholic clerics have spoken out against gender ideology and transgenderism, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, who in a 2024 commencement speech at Thomas Aquinas College condemned it as an “attack on reason and nature.”
READ: Cardinal Burke condemns gender ideology as an ‘attack on reason and nature’
Finally, the bishop emphasized that Müller should ask himself whether his words affirming Church teaching are “really in the spirit of Jesus, who focused on love and acceptance and did not discriminate against anyone.”
Schepers is no stranger to promoting the LGBT movement. In February 2021, he wrote a foreword to Bishop Peter Kohlgraf’s book containing blessings and rites for same-sex unions. The next year, Schepers became the first German bishop to attend a same-sex “blessing” while they were still banned by the Vatican.
In 2024, the bishop commissioned 13 women who had completed a 3 1/2-year training program with the “Women’s Diaconate Network” to be “deacons in the spirit,” despite the Church’s perennial teaching that only men can receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Only a month later, Schepers criticized Catholic teaching for “assuming there is only man and only woman,” and demanded that the Church change its infallible doctrine.
READ: German bishop attacks Church teaching on there being only two sexes
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