The auxiliary bishop of Essen (Germany), Ludger Schepers, has lashed out against what he calls “patriarchy” and against traditional gender roles, while defending that sexual and gender identities are part of God’s plan, as reported by LifeSiteNews.
Schepers, responsible for “queer” issues in the German Episcopal Conference, has argued that the Church has not only tolerated but promoted patriarchal structures for centuries that, in his view, have nothing to do with Christian faith.
A speech against the Church’s anthropological tradition
The German prelate stated that the patriarchal vision responds solely to a “will to power” and not to Christian doctrine, going so far as to argue that those who defend these approaches today “betray their own message”.
In the same vein, he warned against a possible return to traditional male and female roles, which he described as a “wrong path” and a “threat to freedom and equality”.
Schepers also defended that the “diversity of human identities”, including homosexual, transgender, or intersexual realities, would not be a modern construct, but part of God’s creative design.
Claiming the “queer” agenda within the Church
The auxiliary bishop of Essen demanded that the Church adopt a clear stance in favor of including “queer” people and recognize “all genders”, in line with postulates of gender ideology.
Likewise, he criticized the trend known as “tradwives”, which he described as an artificial aesthetic without basis in reality, insisting that the reaffirmation of traditional roles poses a risk to society.
Clash with Catholic doctrine
Schepers’ statements contrast with the constant teaching of the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and contrary to the natural law, so they cannot be approved under any circumstances.
Similarly, Catholic doctrine holds that the sexual difference between man and woman is part of the natural order willed by God, rejecting theories that multiply “genders” beyond this reality.
In this line, various voices within the Church have warned about the incompatibility between gender ideology and Catholic faith. Cardinal Gerhard Müller has described these theories as a serious deviation, while recent Vatican documents have reiterated the condemnation of these approaches.