In a synod-meeting on the 11th of April 2016 the Church of Norway formally allowed same-sex marriages in their churches and announced the graduation of labor on a liturgy for same-intercourse marriages. In February 2021, bishop Peter Kohlgraf from the Diocese of Mainz also expressed assist for the blessing of same-intercourse marriages in Catholic churches. In May 2020, Austrian Catholic theologian Ewald Volgger printed, with the support of Catholic bishop Franz Lackner, a guide The benediction of identical intercourse partnerships with liturgical recommendation, how a rite for blessings of similar-intercourse partnerships is perhaps carried out. On eleven March 2023, the Synodal Path with help of over 80% of Catholic bishops known as for blessing ceremonies for similar-sex couples in the German Catholic dioceses. On 25 September 2023, in one other responsum to conservative cardinals earlier than the World Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis signalled the Church's openness to blessings for gay couples as long as they did not misrepresent the Church's view of marriage as between one man and one girl. In September 2020, bishop Heinrich Timmerevers of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen supported blessing of identical-intercourse marriages.
