Cardinal Parolin says talks with German bishops continue, calls sanctions talk premature

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said on Wednesday it would be premature to discuss sanctions against the German bishops for blessings of same-sex couples.

Parolin, however, did not rule out an intervention by the Holy See but expressed hope that it would be avoided.

“It is premature now to speak of sanctions. Let us hope we never have to get to sanctions, and that problems can be resolved peacefully, as they should be in the Church,” Parolin told reporters on the sidelines at a book launch at the Patristic Institute in Rome on Wednesday.

Several members of the German Bishops' Conference, citing the Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans, have formalized blessings for same-sex couples in their dioceses in Germany. Recently, a 2024 letter was circulated from the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith prohibiting this practice.

Pope Leo XIV has also weighed in on the issue, recently stating that the Holy See does not agree with the German bishops with the “formalized blessing of couples" beyond the allowances of Fiducia Supplicans.

Rubio to meet with Pope Leo

Parolin also weighed in on the May 7 meeting scheduled between Leo and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. President Donald Trumpʼs recent criticisms of the pope. Parolin said the United States remains an interlocutor with the Holy See and described the latest verbal attacks against Leo as “strange.”

“We will listen to [Rubio]. We will listen to him. The initiative came from [the Trump administration]. I imagine we will talk about everything that has happened in recent days; we cannot avoid touching on these issues,” Parolin said.

Leo recently spoke to journalists at Castel Gandolfo and rejected Trumpʼs claim that the Church supports nuclear weapons. Parolin echoed those sentiments on Thursday, stating that the “Holy See has always worked, and continues to work, precisely on nuclear disarmament.”