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  • January 2022: Same-sex marriages and the role of the priests

In January, a discussion erupted on the role and liberty of the priests in the Danish state-church, the Folkekirke, as a new priest was to be installed as he had stated that he would not perform weddings of same-sex couples or divorcees. Since 2012 same-sex couples have the right to get married in the Folkekirke, but the individual priest has the right to refuse to perform the wedding on the grounds of conscience, in which case the local dean must find another priest for the approaching couple. This solution was widely supported in 2012, but in the current case parts of the left-wing and LGBT+ community was enraged that a ‘public servant’ as the priests of the Folkekirke essentially are, can refuse to serve parts of the population. This led to a discussion on the right to religious freedom of priests vs. the right to equality of homosexuals, but since there are other priests in the parish willing to wed approaching same-sex couples the debate died out after a couple of weeks.
In 2017, the Supreme Courts found no violation of freedom of religion in the legislation of the government on same sex marriage in the Folkekirke.

D 10 May 2022    AKaroline Dige ALene Kühle ANiels Valdemar Vinding

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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