In America right now, a number of teachers in Catholic schools have been fired for getting civilly married to someone of the same sex or for other issues related to publicly flouting Church teaching.

Many Catholic schools and bishops have stood strongly on these issues even in the face of a critical and harassing media. This decision by the German bishops will likely have some impact on their willingness to do so.

Catholic Culture reports:

The Catholic bishops of Germany have changed their personnel policies, to allow Church employees to keep their jobs even if they are divorced and remarried, or engaged in homosexual partnerships. The bishops had discussed a change in their personnel rules last November, but chose to delay a vote on the matter until their April meeting. The bishops’ conference said that the change would adapt the Church to “the multiple changes in legal practice, legislation and society.”

What is puzzling is that just last year a court in Germany had ruled that a Catholic hospital had the right to terminate the employment of a remarried doctor.

Cologne Cardinal Rainer Woelki was quoted as saying that this rule did not negate official Church teaching that marriage is indissoluble. "People who divorce and remarry are rarely fired," he reportedly said. "The point is to limit the consequences of remarriage or a same-sex union to the most serious cases (that would) compromise the Church's integrity and credibility."

Publicly advocating abortion, spouting racist verbiage, or publicly leaving the Church would still be seen as fire-able offenses.