The Diocese of Linz, Austria, invited homosexual couples to participate in the blessing of couples on St. Valentine’s Day. The move comes in the wake of the recent debate over the German bishops’ initiative to bless homosexual couples, as well as the controversy over Bishop Andreas Laun’s own criticism of it. The diocese’s own media report makes a reference to Amoris Laetitia, as well as to Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s recent initiative. The official diocesan newspaper, KirchenZeitung, announced on February 9 that in two different parishes in the Diocese of Linz homosexual couples were explicitly invited to receive a Church blessing on St. Valentine’s Day.