Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured) said, "After only one year, this Synodal Process has generated a dynamic that has led to a new understanding of the dignity of all the baptised, to a broader co-responsibility of the faithful for the mission of the Church, and to a clearer perception of the challenges we face in the worldwide Church.

"Thus, the Synodal Process has already changed the Church."

Bätzing, the Bishop of Limburg, is the co-president of Germany's controversial "synodal way": a multi-year gathering of bishops and laypeople to discuss four main topics: power, the priesthood, women in the Church, and sexuality.

Bishop Bätzing also welcomed the publication of a new Vatican document guiding the synod on synodality's continental phase. The document incorporated the wishes and experiences of many local churches.

He said the new Vatican text "makes it clear that the synodal way of the Church in Germany is to be understood as part of a synodal dynamic that has taken hold of the entire Church."

"The issues we deal with in the four forums and at the synodal assemblies are also being discussed in other parts of the Church," he commented.

Bätzing added: "The working document can therefore also be read as an encouragement to the Church in Germany to seek dialogue with the other particular churches even more strongly than before, especially with regard to synodality. It is an invitation to listen to one another on the worldwide synodal journey and to walk the next stage together."

According to the bishop, in many parts of the Church an active role for women in leadership structures, their ministry and a women's diaconate are advocated.

The document expressly refers to the situation of LGBTQ people and people in same-sex partnerships. "The issues that we deal with at the synodal assemblies are also discussed in other parts of the church," said Bätzing.

Germany's bishops are preparing for an ad limina visit to Rome in November. It will be their first in seven years and include a meeting with Pope Francis and prefects of Vatican dicasteries scheduled for 18 November.

Cardinal Mario Grech, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, has lamented public criticism of the synodal way by bishops outside Germany.

"I have trust in the Catholic Church in Germany, in the bishops, I trust they know what they are doing," Grech said earlier this year.

Sources

The Pillar

News in Germany

They '"let rip" at the Germans.

The Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland Church leaders' letter is an excellent example of one group of bishops seeing the synodal process as another country's "problem."

The Synodal Path "must be seen against the backdrop of the concrete situation in Germany", the Scandinavian bishops argue, because it gives the reason for the "felt demand/need for change".

How else could this be?

Should the German bishops reply to their episcopal confreres about the problems in the Nordic countries?

The Scandinavian bishops want to put themselves on the map and distance themselves from the "German problem".

Their letter begins in a condescending manner that continues throughout as if they bring a depth of learning and insight that is lacking in the German Church.

At the outset, they acknowledge their historical reliance on Germany from the Post-Reformation period, neatly forgetting their much earlier reliance on Germanic Christians.

They also acknowledge their financial dependence on the German Church, which they continue to enjoy.

An attempt to avoid the real challenges and issues

The "immense challenges" facing the Church, according to the Scandinavian bishops, are global and "overpowering" — challenges they wish to "negotiate" or "approach" in faithfulness to Christ.

"Avoid" might have been a more accurate sentiment. The implication of negotiating rather than confronting or addressing is clear, and it sets the overall tone of the bishops' letter.

Although they see the "felt demand for change" in Germany as the hub of the German problem, the issues raised by the Synodal Path are not "purely" or exclusively German.

The Scandinavians acknowledge that the issues raised by the Germans are "overpowering, global challenges for the Church", but as the bishops of the Nordic countries, they take issue with them. They only acknowledge ecclesial sexual abuse as a matter of justice and a Christian imperative.

The implication is that the other issues of priestly life-forms, such as celibacy and formation, the place of women in the Church (ordination and governance), and a broader understanding of sexuality are not matters of justice or Christian imperative for them.

The Scandinavians address sexual abuse with the now hackneyed episcopal condemnations.

They address this issue from the point of justice and Christian imperative because it is the "safe" issue. Safe, because everyone agrees that something should be done, and every bishop wants to be seen to be doing something.

The primary reason for their condemnation is not the ecclesial sin committed against believers but their concern for the continuing believability of the Church.

"Dangerous topics"

Again, they put the institution and the structures that created the sin first. But later in their letter, they seem to want to protect the same structures.

The other issues such as clerical life and formation, women in the Church and teaching on sexuality are treated differently, probably because they demand proactive change rather than reactive apologies.

The problem with these issues — for the Scandinavians — is they touch on the immutability of teaching and, at the same time, reflect the Zeitgeist or spirit of the age. They are "dangerous topics" that should be avoided.

Consequently, the search for answers to these issues needs to be pulled aside and reviewed by the unchangeable elements.

Clearly, the Nordic bishops have not found a dogmatic or Zeitgeist objection to ecclesial sexual abuse.

Given this context, they conclude that the "direction, methodology and content" of the Synodal Path are worrisome.

They accuse the Germans of being driven by "process thinking" and the desire for structural Church change without clearly outlining Prozessdenken and why structural change is problematic.

As a result, both process thinking and structural change are presented negatively because they reduce reform in the Church to a project.

Implicit is the notion that reform is neither structural nor human by design when applied to the Church.

The argument is that Church does change differently from every other human institution. Where the Church becomes an object of human change, it is no longer the subject of God's salvific will.

"Process thinking" and a richer theological debate

Process-thinking is an end-to-end process, that is non-hierarchical in its structure.

According to the Nordic bishops, non-hierarchical thinking threatens the non-changeable sources of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, and must therefore be eliminated.

The danger of process-thinking is that it can break down sacred theological silos and open discrete theological categories to investigation and scrutiny.

But on the positive side, process-thinking can enable a richer theological debate, better theology and Church structures, thus optimizing Church life.

Concretely, this means having laypeople sitting beside bishops making decisions in a fundamental "equality of equals."

Some would argue that this is a model of the early Church, while others would disagree.

By contrast, the Scandinavian bishops appear to want to disempower the image or metaphor of the People of God. They write that this is "only one of the images with which the living Tradition describes the Church".

That's true, but it is a crucial image or metaphor of the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

A Church with passive members

The Scandinavian bishops suggest three other images should be used to describe the Church

• Corpus mysterium
• Bride of Christ and
• Mediatrix of graces.

These are more passive and receptive than they are active and dynamic.

The curious metaphor of the Church as the "mediatrix of graces" is a reference I have not found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

They might be meaning that the Church "is like a sacrament" (CCC 775) and "as a sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument" (CCC 776). If so, their theology is unclear and needs greater precision.

Having not paid sufficient attention to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the bishops have missed other vital images of the Church that Pope Francis has used explicitly and implicitly.

These include the Church as sheepfold and Christ as the shepherd; the Church as God's farm or field and God the heavenly farmer; the Church as building; the Church as Pilgrim People; and the Church as Body, for whom the "one mediator is Christ" (Lumen Gentium 6-8).

I believe the Scandinavians are correct to say that the Church "cannot be merely defined by the visible community".

But neither can it be defined without it.

For some, addressing the day's issues might be a capitulation to the current Zeitgeist. Still, for others, this is "reading the signs of the times".

The type of Catholic the Scandinavian bishops appeal to—and want the German bishops to hear—are those who sit quietly in their parishes with a strong sense of sacramental mystery.

These people "carry and set" the life of parishes and communities. They are not people who engage in questionnaires and debates, the bishops say, to defend them.

There is a "quietest" element to this type of person and a sense that the person who keeps his or her head firmly in the snow is the true type of Catholic.

Radical conversion and a radical image of God

But are these the people with whom Pope Francis wants us to communicate? His message is more outward-focused, asking us to engage with the sheep who have left the farm.

Consequently, the reference to Lumen Gentium 9 is double-edged.

How does the Church, in Christ's name, "approach the world and be its sure hope and source of salvation" if it does not also engage with the questions and push-back of the people of this age? Is it sufficient to live the ad intra life of the Church in peace and serenity by ignoring the ad extra "mess" we call human society?

The Scandinavian bishops then return to the "German problem" and the crisis of the German Church and its potential for renewal.

Condescendingly, they remember the dead saints, the past German theologians, and the humble and obscure German missionaries as examples of the life-giving patrimony of rich blessing for the Church in Germany.

Although they write of the need for radical conversion, they seem to want to avoid radical conversion that isn't spiritualised.

They misunderstand that the image of the People of God is a radical image of God, not of the people!

In this image, God is not the property of the people, but the people are the chosen of God.

Regarding the mission of the Church, the Scandinavians have forgotten that the Church — the People of God — are called to be salt and light for the world through living immersed in the world.

People sitting safely at home not participating in the life of the Church cannot be the synodal image of Scandinavian Catholicism the bishops wish to promote, can they?

The Scandinavian bishops should send another letter apologizing to the German Church.

They could explain why they are so frightened of facing the world's reality and why they want to hide from key contemporary questions.

Joe Grayland is a theologian and a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North. His latest book is: Liturgical Lockdown. Covid and the Absence of the Laity. (Te Hepara Pai, 2021).

In their March 9 letter to the German bishops' conference, the Nordic bishops said they appreciated that there was a "palpable need for change" in Germany. However, the issues addressed were not a "purely German" concern, they added.

They are especially concerned about "the direction, the methodology and the substance" of the Synodal Way reform consultations in Germany.

While they acknowledge Germany's desire to address the wounds caused by clergy sexual abuse and to call for a "radical conversion" of the church, they can't alter the aspects of the faith "that contain unchangeable parts of the Church's teaching," they said.

The "unchangeable parts" they refer to concern the Synodal Way participants' call for the abolition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church, the ordination of women priests, same-sex blessings, and changes to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

True church reform had always consisted of "defending, explaining and putting into credible practice Catholic teaching based on divine revelation and authentic tradition," the Scandinavian bishops wrote.

These unchangeable parts are not about "following the spirit of the times.

"Throughout the world, a number of Catholics ask questions about the lifestyle and formation of priests, the role of women in the Church, the range of views on human sexuality etc," the Nordic bishops wrote.

"In the legitimate search for answers to the questions of our time, we must nonetheless respect boundaries set by topics that stand for unchangeable aspects of the Church's teaching."

"It has ever been the case that true reforms in the Church have set out from Catholic teaching founded on divine Revelation and authentic Tradition, to defend it, expound it and translate it credibly into lived life — not from capitulation to the Zeitgeist. How fickle the Zeitgeist is, is something we verify on a daily basis."

The Scandinavians also warned their German confreres against "turning the church into a project, into an object of our actions through process-oriented thinking and structural change."

All Catholics' views should also be listened to carefully, they added - not just those that answer questionnaires.

"The global synodal process has aroused great expectations. We all hope for a revitalisation of Catholic life and of the Church's mission. However, there is a risk that we, in so far as we stay enclosed within paradigms of process thinking and structural change, end up conceiving of the Church as a project, the object of our agency."

They said that the image of the Church as the People of God on pilgrimage should be complemented by other images drawn from Catholic tradition, especially the Church as "a mystery of communion."

Bishop Georg Baetzing, president of the German Bishops' Conference, said on the criticism of the Synodal Way: "Such things like open letters irritate me, but of course we respond - in an objective way."

Source

• CNA
• NCR
• Image: Vatican News

Opening the assembly, conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing called on all bishops to embrace radical change.

Visible changes are needed soon in the German Catholic church reform project, he said. These could become a "door opener" for the pope's worldwide synodal process which begins next month.

At the start of the Sept. 20-23 assembly, Catholic reform groups and women's associations held demonstrations demanding rapid and fundamental reforms. This is the only way for the church to restore its credibility, they warned.

Bätzing called on his fellow bishops to agree radical changes are needed in the way they work and in their understanding of their ministry.

In his sermon at the opening service, he criticized the preparations some bishops made for the Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Synodal Assembly.

That Assembly contributes to the Synodal Path, which is attempting to revitalize the church and restore trust following the church investigation and exposure of six decades and thousands of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Bätzing said for the upcoming controversial reform debates, "the spirit and courage for a turnaround" were needed.

He reportedly went on to say said that without a genuine turnaround, the bishops would fail to do justice to the impact of the abuse scandal and the drama of Germany's increasing secularization.

For many people in a liberal society, the bishops' behavior so far was a reason to reject the church's offer of redemption "as presumptuous and encroaching and obsolete in view of the abuse."

Bätzing also told the bishops they bear considerable responsibility that the message of the Gospel they proclaim is no longer understood.

Also at the plenary assembly is Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the pope's ambassador to Germany.

He repeatedly urged the bishops to preserve church unity and to follow the pope's directives.

While Bätzing called for speedy reform, Eterovic stepped on the brakes.

He recalled the pope saying it was not bad will that drove many German bishops, but "a pastoral desire" that did not take into account some necessary papal directives.

A church community that tries to solve its problems on its own, relying only on its own strengths, its own methods and its own intelligence, could end up worsening the situation, he warned.

This does not mean "not moving forward, not changing anything and maybe not even debating and disagreeing," so long as German Catholics remain "firmly united in the unity of the Catholic Church" without compromising "the truths of Christian doctrine."

Eterovic's remarks reportedly allude to the Synodal Path, in which bishops and laypeople are debating controversial issues such as Catholic sexual morality or the role of women in the church.

Bätzing said despite there being significant differences between some bishops views on reform, the reform dialogue must quickly deliver visible change. This way the church in Germany could contribute its experience to the forthcoming worldwide synodal process.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Kolgraf says that answer has led him to think the Catholic Church needs a new pastoral approach to homosexual couples.

After becoming a bishop in 2017, Kolgraf says he was soon made aware that many different forms of blessings for homosexual couples already existed "and would continue to exist".

The purpose of these blessings was to "Bless what is good in their lives," he found.

"They [the blessings] are not modelled on Catholic liturgical wedding ceremonies, nor do they aim to achieve one standardized liturgy. Instead, the priests who accompanied such couples bless what is good in their lives," Kohlgraf explains.

This was why he supported the publication of a collection of blessing ceremonials for gay couples titled "Couples, Rites, Church" published last November.

Although he acknowledges most of the blessing ceremonials are "against Church law", Kohlgraf says they will continue to be used.

The focus on blessings for homosexual couples had increased markedly in the German Church in recent years.

In Kohlgraf's view, it would make little sense if he, as the bishop responsible, were to nullify the blessings.

"Do I really want to break that much china for people who are believers?" he asks.

Kohlgraf's perspective on homosexuals altered after the German Bishops' Conference held a series of discussions on homosexuality in 2019.

At this, the Conference read a report from medical experts that said:"the percentage of people who feel they are homosexually oriented in society is by no means small and homosexuality is a relevant phenomenon in the animal world."

The report led Kohlgraf to ask himself: "Are people who feel homosexually oriented imperfectly created? Did God slip up?"

He says he finds it difficult to imagine that something had gone wrong in the order of creation.

However, the Church's stance is hard on homosexuals, he points out.

Few homosexuals find the Catechism of the Catholic Church's stipulation that they practice chastity as "tactful and respectful," he says.

It also states homosexuals' inclination is not of their own choosing and asks for compassion for them - a stance Kohlgraf thinks could sound condescending.

"... I am amazed by how greatly the issue of homosexuality has gained ferocity in Church debates," he says.

Other German bishops' in favor of blessing homosexual couples include Franz-Josef Bode, who was the first German bishop to speak out openly in favor of the practice. That was in 2018.

"Remaining silent or tabooing the subject gets us nowhere," he said at the time, while demanding more discussion on the issue.

That same year, Cardinal Reinhard Marx came out in favor of blessing homosexual couples in individual cases after they had been accompanied by a priest.

In 2020, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers said he would welcome blessings for homosexual couples.

He said he was against excluding people and could understand why gay couples would want a blessing.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Speaking from his own experience, Bishop Georg Bätzing says he has noticed when he preaches "dialogically" (ie in a dialogue-like way), he gets a lot of feedback from laity.

"When I talk about my faith, my struggle to believe, then I get super feedback," he says.

"Attention to the quality of sermons and services has seldom been as high as now… People immediately tell you what they liked and what they didn't like. I see that as a challenge."

"The faithful will not allow us simply to fall back into old patterns."

Bätzing says he is now more supportive than ever of the German Synodal Path (or Procedure) for Church Reform.

He also has more concrete ideas about what changes are possible and how they can be achieved.

Focusing on what God means for today's world, the Procedure has set up forums on four pivotal questions: power and checks and balances; sexual morality; priestly life; and the place of women in the Church.

These are the pivotal questions that determine whether people feel they belonged to the Church or not.

Bätzing says there's a longstanding rift between the reality of people's lives and Church teaching, especially as far as the question of sexuality and partnership is concerned.

Nonetheless, the Church has a great deal to offer Catholic laity here based on its image of God and what it means to be human," he points out.

"But for many people the message we proclaim comes over as a type of moralizing that only forbids. People feel alienated."

"...I sincerely hope that we will be able to further develop certain wordings on the Church's teaching in the present Catechism."

All resolutions the Procedure passes must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of the bishops' conference.

Asked if that doesn't prove that there's still an imbalance of power between priests and the laity, therefore how might Church reform move forward? Bätzing says he's not sure.

When the Synod's two years of discussions are over, he hopes bishops favouring reform will form coalitions on reform resolutions.

He also hopes that dioceses that have already begun implementing certain reforms will form networks.

These could include dioceses that allow other Christians to receive the Eucharist at Catholic liturgies or look for solutions to help Catholics whose relationships are not fully recognized by the Church.

"At the moment, we can only see the first tender sprouts of the new social form of the Church, but it is on these ... we must focus. God's self-revelation never stops, but the deposit of the faith remains the same... ...the maturation of faith is a process that can never be declared completed."

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Kirche+Leben

These include priestly celibacy, the Church's teaching on sexual morality and a reduction of clerical power.

Marx, who is the president of the German bishops' conference, says the bishops unanimously decided these three topics would be subject to a process of "synodal progression" that could lead to a binding, but as yet undetermined, outcome.

In his opinion the Church needs synodal advancement, which Pope Francis endorses.

The sexual abuse scandal and demands for reform have changed the German church, he says.

"We will create formats for open debates and bind ourselves to proceedings that facilitate a responsible participation of women and men from our dioceses.

"We know about the cases of clerical abuses of power. It betrays the trust of people searching for firm footing and religious orientation. What must be done to achieve the necessary reduction of power and to construct a fairer and legally bound order will be to clarify a synodal path."

In this respect, the German church has undertaken a number of projects which are now nearing completion. These include:

• Working out how to move forward following the sexual abuse scandal, taking into account advice and information from a range of experts.
• Debates on celibacy, which require further study.
• Developing Catholic sexual morality.

Source

• America Magazine
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: America Magazine

Marx is the president of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Marx says church leaders in the field of pastoral care work and pastoral care should consider the situation of the individual.

This means they must "try harder to accompany them in their circumstances of life".

Gay people are included in this, so priests and pastoral workers must be encouraged to accompany people according to their individual situuations.

There are no general solutions, he says.

Instead, priests should be allowed to bless gay couples on a case-by-case basis.

Marx says the decision should be made by "the pastor on the ground, and the individual under pastoral care".

"It's about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies in other areas as well, which we can not regulate, where we have no sets of rules."

While he stopped short of fully endorsing blessings for same-sex couples, his positive comments made it clear he was open to approving such benedictions in private ceremonies.

"The issue is how the church can do justice to the challenges that new living conditions and new insights bring," Marx says.

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, who is the vice-president of the German Catholic bishops' conference, also asked for deeper discussion on church blessings for homosexual partnerships.

He says it is unhelpful to remain silent about such taboo subjects concerning the "political reality" of same-sex marriage.

"We must therefore ask ourselves how we should encounter and respond to those who enter into such partnerships and remain committed to the Church," Bode says.

"We must ask ourselves how we should accompany them pastorally and liturgically and how we can meet their needs."

• Religion News Service
• Catholic Herald
• La Croix
• Image: Christian Today