Vatican reaffirms sex-ed guidance for Hamburg Catholic schools, doesn’t block program

The Vatican has reaffirmed its existing teaching on sexuality in response to an appeal from Catholic parents in Hamburg, Germany, but has thus far declined to publicly order the archdiocese to halt a new sex education framework for Catholic schools set to take effect this week.

Monsignor Matthias Ambros, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, wrote to the parents that the dicastery's position "remains that expressed" in the 2019 document "Male and Female He Created Them," which defends parents' right to base their children's education on an understanding of human sexuality rooted in reason and God’s design for the sexes. Vatican correspondent Nico Spuntoni called it a "tentative response," just a few lines long.

The Archdiocese of Hamburg planned to roll out its 33-page framework, "Male, Female, Diverse," across its 15 Catholic schools starting Aug. 20. The document promotes "acceptance of diversity" in sexual orientation and gender identity, states that biological sex doesn't necessarily correspond to social identity, and has students learn about legal protections for gender identities and gender-transition procedures. It draws on the German Synodal Way, the years-long process German bishops have used to revisit Church teaching on sexuality, ordination, and governance.

Concerned parents formed the Parents Network for Child Protection and Prevention and sent a petition to Pope Leo XIV in February through the apostolic nuncio. They later filed a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße. A requested audience with the pope was not granted. Varinia Arauco Vera, a Peruvian immigrant and Hamburg mother leading the network, sent an Aug. 14 letter to Archbishop Heße in which she and her fellow parents said that they expect the Hamburg archdiocese to withdraw the curriculum by Aug. 17, given the Vatican’s reaffirmation of the Church’s “Male and Female He Created Them.”  The parent network also prepared a detailed comparison between “Male, Female, Diverse” and the Vatican’s "Male and Female He Created Them." The document lists 20 contradictions between the archdiocese’s text and the Church’s teaching on sexuality. 

After not receiving a response to their Aug. 17 deadline, the parent network sent an Aug. 18 letter to Archbishop Heße sharing the response from Rome and describing as “deeply painful” the experience of having to “defend the purity of our children and the faith in which we want to raise them” within the context of Catholic schools, according to a Google translation of their letter in German.  

The parent network urged Archbishop Heße: “Do not simply dismiss our concern as the protest of a group of parents. Read the response from Rome and compare it with the concept that is to be implemented in Catholic schools in Hamburg. Rome has reaffirmed the Church’s position on sexual morality. Should you also recognize the contradiction we have pointed out, we urge you: Do not remain silent! It is not only about defending our children and families, but also about standing up for the teachings of our Church and fidelity to what it proclaims.”

The Hamburg dispute follows a similar pattern elsewhere in Germany. In June, the Vatican's liturgy office rejected a German bishops' conference request to allow laypeople deliver homilies at Mass "in exceptional circumstances," ruling that preaching is "intrinsically linked" to ordained ministry. Lay groups tied to the Synodal Way, including the Central Committee of German Catholics and the Catholic Women's Association of Germany, said afterward they would keep pressing their bishops to take the fight back to Rome. The women's association called the ruling proof the Church adheres to structures that "exclude women from key tasks and services."

Archbishop Heße, who has led the Hamburg archdiocese since 2015, offered his resignation in 2021 after criticism over his handling of abuse cases as an Archdiocese of Cologne official. Pope Francis declined to accept it.