By John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine - Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, VP of the German Bishops Conference admits that the Church’s understanding of marriage “differs” from the civil—Germany’s Bundestag legalized same-sex “marriage for all” (Ehe für alle) as of October 1, 2017—but insists that the latter is a political reality and that the Church needs to read “the signs of the times.”