Bilgri was ordained in 1980 by Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and served as head of the Roman Catholic Church until February 2013. He served as a Benedictine monk for decades. Bilgri, now 68, left the Catholic Church in 2020 because he was frustrated over the church’s failure to keep with the times because of its stance on same-sex marriage. He was also among several figures to leave the Catholic Church in Germany over abuse scandals. Bilgri married his partner Markus Achter, 41, in a gorgeous ceremony in a Munich church on (8 October) by an Old Catholic Church priest. The Old Catholic Church allows priests to marry and approves of same-sex relationships.