"I have never heard him speak like that before and have often spoken to him personally about these issues" said the Limburg bishop.

"Let me say: for me, what is doctrinal is not what the Pope says in interviews - but what he decides to do and puts it down in official documents."

In an interview with CBS during Pentecost, Pope Francis was asked if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and thus part of the clergy. His response was a clear "No".

He elaborated that women cannot be ordained as deacons but have always taken on diaconal roles without ordination.

"Women are great in their service as women - but not in service with ordination" the Pope said.

Bätzing highlighted that the issue of women's ordination has been a significant topic in discussions during the World Synod.

Pope Francis had set up a working group to explore the matter and had never given the impression that the issue was settled.

However, Bätzing expressed concern that the Pope might avoid a direct resolution by referring such crucial matters to working groups and excluding them from the second phase of the World Synod.

"You cannot just talk abstractly about synodality; it must be addressed with concrete examples" Bätzing said.

Significant reform pressure

Despite this, Bätzing observed that the Synod had developed a dynamic momentum. He stated "The questions are there, and the drive is there, and it cannot be stopped."

He acknowledged there is significant reform pressure within the Church, not only in Germany.

Presenting his book "Rome is Not an Opponent - Why the Church Needs Reforms", Bätzing reiterated his stance on women's ordination. He believes it could fit well within today's cultural context.

He also envisioned the possibility of married priests.

While Bätzing himself embraces celibacy, he questioned whether maintaining such prerequisites might jeopardise essential elements of the Church.

"Is celibacy more important or is the sacramentality of the Church more important?" he asked.

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

The study, published May 17, asked priests ordained between 2010 and 2021 how they believed the Catholic Church should be reformed. The majority did not select answers championed by synodal participants.

The 308-page document "Who Becomes a Priest?" - presented jointly by the German Bishops' Conference and Bochum's Center for Applied Pastoral Research - found that 25.7% of priests thought women should be ordained priests.

A further 29.6% supported the abolition of priestly celibacy, 30.3% called for greater democratisation of the Church, and 36.8% agreed with the statement that "the participation of lay people should be increased, lay people should be given more power."

Read More

Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing says under half of Germany's citizens still belong to Christian denominations.

Evangelisation in Germany has been a central theme since the time of Pope St John Paul II he says.

"But the other half [who aren't Christian] are not simply faithless or don't ask any questions and, in this respect, I believe we need to do much more" Bätzing says.

"We should get in touch with these people, talk to them without being intrusive. The times of a mission with a negative tone are over, but speaking and answering questions about the hope that fills us, as the letter to the Hebrews says, is part of Christianity."

Losses by the number

Bätzing's own Diocese of Limburg exemplifies the reduction in the Catholic faithful of Germany.

In 2016, over 630,000 Catholics resided in Limburg. By 2022, there were fewer than 540,000.

The overall Catholic population in Germany has likewise significantly decreased.

In 2020, there were approximately 22.19 million Catholics among the country's 83 million population. By 2022, this number had fallen to 20.94 million.

Projecting the future

In 2019, scientists at the University of Freiburg predicted the number of Christians paying church tax (a requirement for practising Christians) in Germany would halve by 2060.

The Bishops' Conference says that within three years over 500,000 baptised Catholics had left the Church.

At that time, Bätzing wrote on his diocese's website that the "alarming" figures showed the necessity of continued "cultural change" and for the German Synodal Way resolutions to be implemented.

However the German Synodal Way, which has advocated for significant changes, has not changed the haemorrhaging Church numbers.

In 2021 CNA Deutsch reported that a third of Catholics in Germany were considering leaving the Church.

Older people cited the Church's handling of the abuse crisis. An earlier study had said that younger people didn't want to pay church tax.

Excommunication and evangelisation

The German Bishops' Conference says leaving the Church results in automatic excommunication.

Many theologians and canon lawyers disagree with this view.

Pope Francis prefers to focus on evangelisation.

He wrote to German Catholics in 2019, urging them to focus on evangelisation amid a "growing erosion and deterioration of faith".

Relying solely on internal strengths doesn't work, he wrote.

"Every time an ecclesial community has tried to get out of its problems alone, relying solely on its own strengths, methods and intelligence, it has ended up multiplying and nurturing the evils it wanted to overcome."

In September 2021, a motion to emphasise evangelisation was narrowly passed.

Exactly a year later, Bätzing said the shortest definition of religion was "interruption".

Some forms of continuity which people seek from religion are "frankly suspect" he said.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

This letter, and the broader debate it represents, is emblematic of a Church at a crossroads.

It's a Church grappling with the need to maintain unity and doctrinal integrity while also engaging with the diverse realities of the global Catholic community.

The contention centres on the proposal by the German Church to establish a Synodal Council that would effectively share decision-making power between the bishops and the laity.

This proposal challenges the traditional hierarchy, where decision-making power has been predominantly vested in the ordained clergy, particularly the bishops.

Vatican response

The Vatican's response, citing Canon Law to argue against the proposed power-sharing arrangement, underscores a fundamental ecclesiological tension.

This is how the Church interprets and applies its laws in the face of evolving demands for inclusivity and participation from its members.

The resistance from Rome can be seen as a protective measure for the traditional culture of power through ordination.

With its rich tapestry of implicit and explicit theologies, Catholicism relies on semiotic codes like liturgy, hierarchy, and management to facilitate a global yet locally nuanced faith experience.

These codes, especially the symbolic code of ordained power, are crucial in maintaining the Church's unity and doctrinal consistency across diverse cultural contexts.

Contemporary concerns

The debate over the German proposal is not merely about ecclesiastical governance but touches on deeper questions of identity, authority, and the nature of the Church itself.

It highlights the challenge of balancing Catholicism's universal and local dimensions, a tension that is not new but has taken on new urgency in the contemporary context.

The letter to the German bishops and the discussions it has generated reflect broader themes within the Church, such as the struggle to articulate a vision of catholic unity that respects and incorporates diversity.

This struggle is not limited to the relationship between the clergy and laity but extends to theological and pastoral practices, liturgical rites, and ecclesial management.

Therefore, the German push for a synodal model of the church can be seen as part of a wider intra-church dialogue about adapting and evolving in a rapidly changing world while remaining faithful to the core tenets of the faith.

...vs African bishops

There is opposition from certain quarters of the Church, notably some African bishops, in response to the document on same-sex and irregular blessings, Fiducia Supplicans.

The document underscores the diverse ways in which different parts of the global Church interpret and prioritise the challenges they face.

The African bishops' rejection, framed in terms of an "African exceptionalism" that resists perceived Western moral relativism, contrasts with the German bishops' attempt to address the demands of their local context through structural reform.

Some clergy in Africa have even gone as far as to accuse the West of new colonialism through LGBTQ activism.

Culture, theology, governance, synodality

This juxtaposition of responses to the Church's challenges today illuminates the complex interplay between cultural context, theological interpretation, and ecclesial governance.

It raises important questions about how the Church can remain a unified body while respecting and incorporating the rich diversity of its global community.

A synodal Church as envisioned by the German proposal and broader ecclesial discussions, offers a potential pathway through this complex terrain.

By fostering a culture of listening and dialogue, a synodal approach promises to enable the Church to navigate better the tensions between unity and diversity, tradition and innovation.

Synodal Church - a new identity

The response to the German bishops' proposal demonstrates that the path toward a more synodal Church is fraught with challenges.

The critical question facing the Church today is not whether it will change but how it will change.

The current debates over synodality, ecclesial governance, and the role of the laity are not mere administrative concerns but are fundamentally about the identity and mission of the Church in the 21st century.

As the Church navigates these waters, it must find ways to honour its traditions while also responding to the legitimate aspirations of its members for greater participation and representation.

In conclusion, the curial letter to the German Bishops' Conference and the subsequent discussions it has generated represent a pivotal moment in the life of the Church.

The letter and ensuing discussions reflect a Church in dialogue with itself, struggling to reconcile its foundational beliefs with the pressing demands of a diverse and changing world.

The outcome of this dialogue will shape the future of the Church's governance and its ability to witness the Gospel in an increasingly pluralistic and interconnected global community.

• Dr Joe Grayland is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tübingen (Germany). For nearly 30 years, he has been a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North in New Zealand.

The meeting was light on bishops though. Eight of Germany's 27 diocesan bishops were marked absent.

Four chose to boycott the meeting: Cologne's Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Eichstätt's Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke, Passau's Bishop Stefan Oster, and Regenburg's Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer.

They signaled their intention in June when they vetoed plans for the committee to be paid for using a fund which Germany's diocesan bishops control.

Four others had engagements elsewhere.

The synodal way

Germany's synodal way meetings ended formally in March.

Its committee intended a permanent "synodal council" of 74 bishops and lay people to be established in 2026.

However Rome objected to synodal council plans back in January.

It would undermine the role of bishops, according to the Second Vatican Council teachings.

No bishop was obliged to take part in the committee's deliberations, the Vatican said.

Meeting went ahead

The inaugural synodal committee meeting was "scheduled deliberately" to follow the synod on synodality's first Vatican session.

President of the German bishops' conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing and most other invitees attended the planned meeting.

Addressing the four boycotters' absence, Bätzing said: "We have known for a long time that even among us bishops our images of the Church and the future are very different. I want to expressly say that this is good.

"We have to fight for the future of the Church and the question of the right path has accompanied the Church since its beginnings; the letters from the New Testament are full of these disputes..."

The meeting expected to feature sensitive discussions about the body's statutes and rules of procedure.

Debate was anticipated, focusing on whether synodal committee meetings should be open to the public like the synodal way's plenary assemblies.

Discussion time was earmarked to decide whether the committee should continue insisting two-thirds of bishops must approve resolutions.

The Central Commission of German Catholics (ZdK) favours public meetings. It wants decisions to require only a two-thirds majority of all committee members.

Change needed

ZdK leader Irme Stetter-Karp alluded to the record numbers of German Catholics formally leaving the Church. Change needs to happen soon, she warned.

"Given the challenges we have also faced in recent months, I can only note with regret that in the eyes of those who are leaving the Church we are moving too slowly."

Referring to Pope Francis' 1 November motu proprio calling for a "paradigm shift" in theology, she said:

"We need the turning point that Pope Francis calls for ... starting from theology for the entire Church...it is time to ‘interpret the present prophetically and seek new paths for the future.' That's what we're here for."

The four bishops' decision to block funds for the synodal committee "shows how urgently we need changes in the decision-making structures" she commented.

Bätzing, who attended the Rome assembly, said: "There must be and can be different ways of structuring synodality at different levels and in different regions of the world.

"Different traditions and cultural differences lead to different forms of synodality. We can also learn from each other. And yet we must live and continue to search for a form of synodality that is suitable for us."

Source

• The Pillar

According to the German Bishops' Conference in Bonn, 522,821 people left the church last year.

The number was way more than the forecasts made by the institution. In 2021, the number of people who left was under 360,000.

Thoman Schuller, a canon lawyer, told the German media the church was "dying a painful death" and would grapple to recover from the fallout.

According to the 2022 figures, the church has 21 million members, 24.8 per cent of the entire population. The departures happened after a series of child abuse scandals and accusations of a widespread cover-up.

Read More

In the letter— dated February 23 and published March 1 — Bishop Georg Bätzing writes that the German bishops take the Vatican's "concerns" about a German synodal council seriously.

The message is addressed to Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and to the prefects of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, and the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, PSS.

The German bishop tells the cardinals a German "synodal committee" would prepare a synodal council over three years. This move, Bätzing writes, is "a sign that there is still a great need for clarification regarding future synodal cooperation."

Read More

Some forms of continuity people seek from religion are "frankly suspect," the president of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference asserts.

Bätzing made the comments during the bishops' plenary assembly in a live-streamed Mass on Tuesday.

In his homily he said "all too surely asserted continuities, ... according to the motto ‘that has always been so; that has always been believed so; what was wrong yesterday cannot be right today' ... are frankly suspect".

The "great images in which God's people spelled out their historical experiences with faith and recognised God's guidance in them," he said.

It is indeed "in our human nature to seek bridges between yesterday and tomorrow, to draw temporal lines and discover meaningful connections — which is often only possible in retrospect," he explained.

"We seek continuity. But the shortest definition of religion is and remains ‘interruption,' as Johann Baptist Metz put it."

Metz was an influential German priest and theologian who died in 2019.

The German bishops' plenary meeting has been overshadowed by two events. One is the recent turbulent meeting of the Synodal Way. The other is the abuse report in the Osnabrück diocese.

The report includes strongly incriminating statements about Bishop Franz-Josef Bode.

Bode has refused to resign, although a report published last week says he mishandled abuse cases.

He has been vice president of the German bishops' conference since 2017 and is the vice president of the German Synodal Way.

Bode has publicly supported women deacons and the idea of developing a Church ceremony for blessing same-sex unions.

At the latest meeting of the Synodal Way, participants voted to change the Church's teaching on a number of related topics, including homosexuality and the ordination of women.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

The pope recalled his remark to Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German bishops' conference, during a conversation with the editors of Jesuit journals.

The dialogue, which also touched on the war in Ukraine and opposition to Vatican II, was published in La Civiltà Cattolica on June 14 but was conducted on May 19.

The pope was asked what he thought of the German "Synodal Way," a controversial multi-year gathering of bishops and lay people to discuss four main topics: the way power is exercised in the Church, the priesthood, the role of women and sexual morality.

Read More

German bishops' conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured) and Archbishop Ludwig Schick have added their support to Cardinal Reinhard Marx who spoke strongly in favour of voluntary celibacy at the beginning of February.

Schick is advocating ordaining ‘viri probati' - "men who are tried and tested in marriage" while also giving increased support to priests who choose to remain celibate.

He wrote in the German daily Fuldaer Zeitung that a good mixture of married and celibate priests could prevent clericalism and abuse of power.

The requirement that most priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church be celibate has theological and spiritual foundations and not only practical motivations, an international conference on priesthood was told on Monday.

Canon lawyer Gianfranco Ghirlanda SJ said the church has never claimed that celibacy is 'intrinsic' to the priesthood.

He noted the Eastern catholic churches have maintained the discipline of having both celibate and married clergy, and the Latin church has welcomed married priests coming from other denominations.

Celibacy "is not a divine law, because otherwise the discipline of the Eastern churches would not be possible, and it would not have been possible to have married priests in the early church, even if they were called to continence" he said.

A married priesthood "is not a second-class priesthood," because married priests also proclaim the Gospel, lead the Christian people and celebrate the sacraments, Ghirlanda explained.

Celibacy or marriage "does not touch the priesthood in itself".

In the Code of Canon Law for the Latin church, celibacy is seen as a gift from God that enables priests "to adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and dedicate themselves more easily to the service of God and his people" he said.

Catholic theology, spirituality and church law on priesthood aim to promote a 'self-giving love'.

In this, celibacy is not lived "in a repressive way as mortification and denial" but as an expression of the biblical call to a "purity of heart".

Another speaker, Father Emilio Justo who is a professor of theology, agrees with Ghirlanda.

In the first millennium, married priests were common, he said.

He believes however, there were "predominant tendencies" favouring celibacy and requiring married priests to forgo sexual relations with their wives.

The requirement to live marriage in this 'abnormal way' was primarily theological, he said, and was based on a priest's role as mediator between God and the faithful, a role that required 'purity'.

This is not a ritual purity, 'but it is related to holiness' and conformity to Christ, who offered his whole self to God for the salvation of the world, he said.

It is a call to communion: "The church is the space where the ordained minister loves and is loved".

Source

• NCR Online
• The Tablet
• Image:National Catholic Reporter

"For many Vatican officials, the German Catholic Church smells Protestant," Bishop Georg Bätzing said in an online round table discussion.

This did not apply "to top level Vatican officials like prefects [of congregations]", he clarified.

Rather, he said concerns were for Roman officials who had no experience of the German Church. "It makes their hair stand on end or they get goose bumps," he suggested.

Bätzing said the underlying reason for the officials' fear of the German Church's reform was their awareness of how difficult it was to maintain unity between the many different cultures in the Catholic Church.

"However, one can also endanger church unity by fostering certain elements that are ill-suited for a multi-cultural world in a culturally diverse era," Bätzing warned.

He recalled that Pope Francis had repeatedly said decisions concerning doctrine and canon law must be arrived at from the periphery and that the Church could not be governed centrally.

"That is the route we are trying take," he explained.

Three weeks before Germany's third Ecumenical Kirchentag, Bätzing said he wanted to promote further unity with the German Protestant Church.

"We want to take further steps towards unity", he explained at the online round table. Others participating in the discussion included the chairman of the German Protestant Church (EKD), Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm.

The Kirchentag would clarify this he said, during the Protestant celebrations of the Lord's Supper and the Catholic celebrations of the Eucharist.

"Protestants who come up to [Catholic] communion will be able to receive communion," he said.

Anyone whose conscience told them that it was Jesus Christ who was inviting them to partake of the Eucharist, would not be "turned away," he explained.

This understanding of the Eucharist "is being practised all over the country" and is "actually nothing new", Bätzing said.

The new part of this is that it is now being spoken about. Bätzing said he does "not expect Rome to object."

He has repeatedly said he would give individual Protestants the Eucharist if they sought it.

While a general invitation to receive the Catholic Eucharist is not permitted, it is important to show respect for the personal decision of conscience of a person who seeks communion, he said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image:Angelus News
  

"One has to be permitted to think about and discuss the issue."

Hesse says "Ordinatio sacerdotalis," John Paul II's 1994 letter stating the church cannot ordain women as priests, was positioned as a response to those who considered women's ordination "open to debate."

John Paul affirmed the male-only priesthood so "all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance."

Hesse, (pictured), said new arguments had emerged in the conversation around women's ordination that needed to be addressed.

"The historical perspective is one thing—but it isn't everything," he says.

Hesse is a member of the forum on "Women in Ministries and Offices in the Church" in the German Catholic Church's "synodal journey" reform project.

The project places laypeople — represented by the Central Committee of German Catholics — in dialogue with that country's bishops on a range of topics relevant to the church today.

These topics include sexuality, priestly celibacy and women's roles. The lay committee openly supports ordaining women both as deacons and priests.

The archbishop said he hoped the reform talks would examine controversial issues and that the bishops would convey the results to Rome. "But I also hold the realistic view that this will not answer or resolve the issues," he said.

The move to promote discussion around the ordination of women in the Catholic Church follows a small but vocal protest earlier this year on the steps of St Patrick's Cathedral, 5th Avenue, Manhatten, New York.

The protest was organised by the Women's Ordination Conference, (WOC) and called for "Equal Rites and Equal Rights."

According to WOC the Catholic Church's unwillingness to expand the priesthood to women has led to a decades-in-the-making clearing out of its pews.

"We tried to make that very obvious that we have enjoyed many privileges and human rights but as soon as a woman crosses the threshold of the church, those rights become restricted and she enters a place where gender discrimination is allowed," Kate McElwee, Executive Director of WO, told Crux.

While maintaining their protest, the group is uncertain Pope Francis will hear, saying that he seems more inclined to first open up the priesthood to married men.

Source

• America Magazine
  
• Crux

Released last week by the Congregation for the Clergy, the instruction has seen many bishops react with anger and contempt.

Only Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne is defending the instruction, while Cardinal Walter Kasper is steering a middle way. The German Bishops' Conference has remained silent.

The instruction emphasises the joint responsibility of the whole People of God and of the parish community for missionary pastoral work. It also stresses the parish priest is responsible for the whole parish.

The instruction has arrived amid an ongoing debate about the role of lay people in the German Church and followed the Vatican's decision in June to refuse the German Diocese of Trier's plan to reduce the number of its parishes from 800 to 35.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne says he is "grateful" for the Vatican instruction and has thanked Pope Francis for the "many suggestions for a missionary awakening of the Church."

"At the same time it [the document] reminds us of the fundamental truths of our faith, which especially in Germany we may sometimes lose sight of when we are too preoccupied with ourselves."

"It is not we who ‘make' the Church, and it is also not ‘our' Church, but the Church of Jesus Christ. The Lord himself founded it and with it the sacraments and the ministerial priesthood."

"Pope Francis puts things right here, but not as a reprimand or disciplinary measure, but as an encouragement to rely entirely on Christ to become a missionary Church again."

Of all the German prelates Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich is one of its most outspoken critics, saying it is "not a fruitful way forward".

"You cannot have one authority announcing something, which all the others have to obey. We must listen to one another, learn together and take up the experiences of the local Church - all of which I miss in the Vatican document."

"A synodal Church is something quite different to what we have just experienced [in the Vatican instruction]."

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, sees the instruction as a "strong brake on the motivation and appreciation of the services of lay people " and the text indicates a "conversion to clericalisation."

He says the instruction has taken the bishops "completely by surprise," and he is sorry Rome had not made "prior contact with the realities on the ground" or shown more consideration of the "much-invoked" concept of synodality.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier says the instruction had not been quite such a surprise for his diocese as for other dioceses, as he had recently been summoned to the Vatican to discuss his parish clustering plans which Rome had rejected.

Ackermann says it is "particularly irritating" that while especially highlighting the role of the parish priest, the instruction is silent on clerical sexual abuse.

Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz said he could not "simply accept this Vatican intervention" in his diocese.

Source

• Catholic news Agency
• The Tablet
• Image: DW

Women's rights advocates presented the German Bishops Conference with a petition with over 130,000 signatures calling for more women in leadership roles.

Dozens of women also gathered outside Mainz Cathedral, where the conference is taking place, to show their support for the "Maria 2.0" ("Mary 2.0") movement.

Bishops and other officials from Germany's 27 Catholic archdioceses had gathered to discuss key church issues and to elect outgoing conference chairman cardinal Reinhard Marx's successor.

Marx's successor must "lead into the modern world, into the equality that is lived in Europe and in many countries around the world," Mechthild Heil, federal chairwoman of the Catholic Women's Community of Germany, said.

If the new spokesperson for the Catholic bishops is not willing to reform, "that would be the worst thing for us," Heil said.

She explained the protesters do not "want to divide, but are the core of those who carry the Catholic Church".

"We have not made any progress at all in terms of gaining leadership roles within the church," Heil said.

"We carry the local congregations. I think it's quite natural that we want to take on responsibility and thus also power," she added.

Responding to the petition, Marx said he would do his "utmost to make sure that this issue doesn't get sidelined".

The Bishop of Mainz Peter Kohlgraf has suggested that a woman could be appointed nationally to lead the conference's administerial department.

"We could also have a woman leading the secretariat of the German Bishops Conference. That would be an important sign that women could get into management positions," Kohlgraf suggested.

Traditionally, a priest occupies the role.

Besides electing a new chairman of the Bishops' Conference, a leader for the administration office was also on the Conference agenda.

Source

• Deutsche Welle
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Bätzing replaces the outgoing chairman, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Münich and Freising, and will lead the conference for a six year term.

The election of Bishop Bätzing was confirmed Tuesday, following a vote by the German bishops at their spring assembly, which is currently underway in Mainz.

CNA Duetsch reported March 3 that, after no candidate received the necessary two-thirds majority during the first two rounds of voting, Bätzing was elected on the third ballot with a simple majority of votes cast. Read more

The bishops' conference launched a two-year "synodal procedure" for church reform last weekend, on the first Sunday of Advent.

Working together with the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), special synodal candles were lit before Mass in all 27 German cathedrals and the four co-cathedrals.

Conference president Cardinal Reinhard Marx and ZdK vice-president of the ZdK, Karin Kortmann, lit the synodal candle together in Munich Cathedral during Mass.

Marx's homily stressed the importance of listening to one another and reaching consensus, despite differences of opinion.

"After the ghastly experience of discovering that clerical sexual abuse occurred in the Church, it is now crucial to examine systemic dangers like bad governance".

"In order once again to become credible witnesses of joy and hope, we will have to remove certain obstacles."

In a video message after Mass, Marx and ZdK president Thomas Sternberg said: "Credibility is an absolute must and we want to regain it through self-critical discussion."

The next two years will see the synodal procedure focusing on resolving two specific systemic problems in particular.

These problems have resulted in the Church fostering abuse and standing in the way of credibly proclaiming the Gospel message.

In a combined letter to the German Faithful weekend, Cardinal Marx and Sternberg said it was time to admit "self-critically" that the Gospel message had been "obscured and even terribly damaged", particularly by the clerical sexual abuse of minors.

"We must take the consequences and make sure the Church is a safe place," they said.

Four days before the synodal procedure was officially launched, a group of diocesan press spokesmen from 12 dioceses called on the media's critical cooperation.

"Particularly as far as scandals, crises and conflicts are concerned, the only thing that helps is as much transparency as possible.

"We would be grateful if the media were to accompany this crucial debate on the future of the Catholic Church in Germany," they said.

Several bishops have spoken out about their hopes and fears regarding the procedure in sermons and interviews.

Among these was Cardinal Walter Kasper, emeritus President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

He said he hoped the participants in the four synodal procedure forums on "power and checks and balances", "sexual morality", "the priestly lifestyle" and "women's place in the Church" would "earnestly listen to one another and not just exchange maximum demands, otherwise the whole project will go wrong".

He himself was still "somewhat sceptical", he said.

In Bishop Heiner Wilmer's opinion, the discussions won't be easy and the German Church will be a different Church afterwards.

"It will certainly be more participatory and more feminine," he said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic World Report

The letter signed by Congregation's prefect, Cardinal-designate Luis Ladaria, says Pope Francis has concluded that their statement "has not matured enough to be published."

Instead, it suggested, the bishops should continue the practice of judging specific situations.

Early last month he hosted a meeting with a group of German bishops.

Those present included supporters and opponents of the document.

Officials from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts also attended the meeting.

A Vatican statement was issued at the end of the meeting.

It said:"Pope Francis appreciates the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops and asks them to find, in a spirit of ecclesial communion, a result as unanimously as possible."

Ladaria's letter, which was published on an Italian blog "Settimo Cielo," lists three main issues:

• The question of the admission to Communion of Lutheran Christians in interconfessional marriages is a theme that touches on the faith of the Church and has relevance for the universal Church."
• "Such a question has effects on ecumenical relations with other churches and other ecclesial communities that cannot be undervalued."
• The matter also involves Church law, particularly the interpretation of canon 844 of the Code of Canon Law.

The text of the German guidelines has never been made public.

However, it has been widely assumed to foresee situations where a Lutheran married to a Catholic and regularly attending Mass with the Catholic spouse, could receive the Eucharist on a regular basis.

In many countries, bishops allow this on special occasions, such as to a parent during their child's baptism or first Communion.

Ladaria's letter said because of varying interpretations of the canon, "the competent dicasteries of the Holy See already have been charged with producing a timely clarification of such questions on the level of the universal Church.

"In particular," he said, "it appears opportune to leave to the diocesan bishop the judgment about the existence of a ‘grave necessity'" that would permit Christians of other denominations to receive the Eucharist at a Catholic Mass.

Source

• CruxNow
• America Magazine
• National Catholic Register
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Our Lady of Dover