German Young People Witness for LGBTQ+ Inclusion at World Youth Day

Pope Leo XIV’s first World Youth Day program concluded this past weekend with an outdoor Mass of 1,000,000 people from around 150 nations.

With so many diverse young people from all over the world converging in Rome for the week of activities leading up to the Mass, no doubt some pro-LGBTQ+ perspectives were going to be expressed.  So far, the only pro-LGBTQ+ expression reported in the news came from Catholic youth in Germany who were pilgrims at the event.  Katholisch.de reported that at the closing Mass, representatives from the National Federation of Catholic Youth organization, a coalition of a variety of Catholic youth organizations from all over Germany, waved a rainbow flag with the words “Love is no sin” imprinted on it.  The news report quoted one of the group’s leaders:

” ‘We received a great deal of positive feedback,’ Pauline Erdmann, chairwoman of the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, told the Catholic News Agency (KNA). ‘Young people from many countries who passed by applauded and thanked us for displaying the flag. Many wanted to have their photo taken with it.’ “

Jakob Stadler, a spokesperson for the Queer Working Group at the BDKJ Munich-Freising said that his group did not see any other pro-LGBTQ+ symbols in the 230+ acre area. He also remarked, “We haven’t experienced anything negative here, but rather a great deal of support and openness.”

Even though they were the seemingly lone pro-LGBTQ+ witness, Stadler felt it was important to show their support: “We are keeping this issue high because queer people also have their place in the Catholic Church.”

German Catholic youth organizations are a key component of why the Catholic Church in Germany is so progressive concerning LGBTQ+ issues.  Earlier this summer, over 100 representatives from German Catholic youth organizations publicly showed their support for LGBTQ+ equality at Cologne’s Christopher Street Day, the main pride event for that city. In 2023, the BDKJ were one of two Catholic organizations to endorse the nation’s “Self-Determination Act,” a bill to simplify measures for gender transitions to allow trans and nonbinary people to attest to their name and gender marker when it comes to legal and governmental matters.

And in 2018, Thomas Andonie, who was then the president of the BDKJ, was an official delegate to the Vatican’s Synod on Youth.  During his four-minute talk to the 270 bishop and 34 youth auditors, Andonie said:

“A large number of young people rejects the sexual morals of the Church, especially its attitude towards same-sex partnerships and premarital sexual intercourse. They understand very well what the Church demands of them, but – as baptized and confirmed Christians – they simply hold a different view. Values such as faithfulness and responsibility for one another are particularly important to them. Only if the Church is prepared to acknowledge these realities of life will it be able to engage in a new dialogue with young people on these important questions.”

In an interview with Bondings 2.0 at the Youth Synod, Andonie offered further insights into how German Catholic youth view sexual morality, including LGBTQ+ topics. From the post describing the interview:

“As the quotation above suggests, Andonie sees LGBT issues in the larger context of the church’s sexual morality.  The problem, he thinks, lies with the doctrinal concern about sexual activity, not taking into account the relationship between the couple.  The church should ‘not be in the bedroom, but in the living room,’ he said, explaining the two different concerns.  What’s important is not ‘the two hours involved in sexual activity, but the seven days of the week’ in which people’s full lives and relationships play out.

“For Andonie, the question of same-sex relationships is the same as non-married heterosexual relationships. ‘They can be responsible, respectable, faithful, and equal relationships,”’ he said.  ‘The people involved take responsibility for each other, with faith, and so the relationship has value.’ In terms of cohabiting couples and same-sex couples, ‘the church must have respect for them, too.’ “

The Catholic Church in Germany is certainly leading the way for the church universal in how to respond pastorally and justly to LGBTQ+ people.  That fact in and of itself is amazing.  What’s more promising, though, is the fact that Catholic German youth are pushing the envelope even further.  That attests to the promise of an even more welcoming church in that nation in the future.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, August 5, 2025