Threat of schism

"I pray that there will be no schism," the Pope told the Vatican press corps, "but I am not afraid."

Since then, the threat of a formal split of dissident Catholics from the Church or the creation of a separate sect has grown to be a major theme of Francis' pontificate.

Conservative and progressive Catholics alike have publicly challenged the authority of the Pope and the Vatican, openly or implicitly hinting at an irreparable fracture in the Church.

Recently the Pope has moved against his critics on the right, excommunicating former U.S. papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò for the crime of schism.

He forced Cardinal Raymond Burke, the informal dean of the dissident right, from his Vatican post and removed Bishop Joseph Strickland from his seat in Tyler, Texas, for his anti-Francis agitation, mostly on social media.

For these and other conservatives, the Pope has done too much to reconcile the Church with modern social trends: opening its doors to women who want leadership roles and the LGBTQ+ faithful, restricting the saying of the Old Latin Mass and accommodating Beijing's influence on the Church in China.

Liberal Catholics, meanwhile, claim Francis has done too little to promote inclusivity and accountability in the Church, calling on him to allow women to become deacons and blessings for same-sex couples and to do more to solve the issue of clergy sexual abuse.

These issues have motivated the German church's Synodal Path, a years-long movement to answer popular drift away from the Church with progressive, and largely unsanctioned, reforms.

Schisms are part of Church history

Schism is nothing new in the Church, starting with the Great Schism of 1054, which created the divide between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism before the Protestant Reformation fragmented the Western Church in the 16th century.

The most recent faction to fall into schism was the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, founded in 1970 by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who rejected the changes of the Second Vatican Council and consecrated his own bishops, for which he was excommunicated

Viganò is thought to come the closest to provoking a similar split.

In 2019, as Francis addressed the disastrous aftermath of the clerical abuse crisis in Ireland, Viganò published a fiery document accusing the Pope of covering up the abuse of minors by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and calling for him to resign.

Since then, he has called Francis "a heretic" and a "tyrant" and condemned the reforms of the Second Vatican Council while drawing closer to conspiratorial and radical wings of the Church.

Setting himself up at the hermitage of St. Antonio alla Palanzana, about an hour from Rome, Viganò drew a crowd of discontented Catholics: evicted nuns, wealthy Italian aristocrats and reactionary priests.

He created an organisation, Exsurge Domine, with the goal of offering help and financial support to clergy who claim to have been persecuted for their traditionalist views.

What now?

Experts say Francis has skillfully dealt with critics on both sides by waiting for the right moment to act and by issuing documents clarifying his most controversial pronouncements.

Massimo Borghesi, a philosopher and author of the 2022 book "Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis," Viganò can no longer be considered a representative voice of the conservative opposition to the Pope.

"I don't think that Viganò's excommunication implies a schism," Borghesi told Religion News Service on Monday (July 15).

"It might still concern an absolute minority of traditionalists who believe that the Church in Rome has betrayed the tradition of the Church following the Second Vatican Council," he said, but he has reached the apex of his following in the United States, where he had seen the most support.

"I don't think this interests the majority of the American Church," said Borghese.

According to an April 2022 survey by the Pew Research Center, a three-quarter majority of Catholics in the U.S. view the Pope favorably.

Even though the country's political polarisation is a factor in their opinion — almost nine in 10 Catholic Democrats support Francis, compared to 63 percent of Republican faithful — conservative Catholics recognise that the Pope's election was legitimate, even if they dislike his policies, Borghesi said.

"The conditions for the schism are not there. They are simply awaiting the next Pope," he said.

If Francis had gone after the archbishop in 2019 or 2020, Borghesi believes, he might have created a deeper split.

Instead, he allowed time for tensions to pass and for many of his reforms to be assimilated into Church life.

In the meantime, Viganó's increasingly radical positions have served to alienate his staunchest American supporters, who have stayed mostly quiet since the Vatican's sentence in early July.

"These processes have cooled spirits and allowed more clarity within the Church," he said.

German Synodal Path

Similarly, Vatican chroniclers say, Francis has come through the direst threat from the left, as the German church's Synodal Path has retreated from its most radical positions.

In 2022, German theologian Katharina Westerhorstmann announced she was resigning from the synodal commission that was studying relationships and sexuality because the Synodal Path's rejection of official Catholic doctrine had drifted dangerously toward schism.

"For me there were some discussions that crossed the line, especially the notion where they seemed to have already decided where this was going and that those opinions that didn't fit into that direction, shouldn't really count," Westerhorstmann said.

She and a group of theologians believed that while reforms were necessary to ensure safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults in the Church, certain doctrinal aspects should remain unchanged.

Westerhorstmann told RNS that while a schism was a definite possibility between 2020 and 2021, that is no longer the case today, despite a flare-up last year, when priests in Germany began blessing same-sex couples in violation of Rome's ban on the practice.

"Right now, it seems that the negotiations with the Vatican are going well; there is more openness maybe on both sides," she said.

"In fact, I would say that there is no risk of a schism in the German church anymore at all."

Both extremes now await the next conclave and the future Pope, where the future of the Catholic Church will once again be decided.

Do we care?

Some observers say the greatest threat to the Church today is not passionate dissent but disinterest.

Aurelio Porfiri, author of "The Right Hand of the Lord Is Exalted: A History of Catholic Traditionalism from Vatican II to Traditionis Custodes," warned that while a full-blown schism is unlikely, a different kind of split is already underway.

"Some Catholic circles, not just conservatives, are drawing away from the Church" said Porfiri.

"I would describe this as a schism of indifference, where some Catholics are leaving the Church, not because they object to one particular aspect or issue, but because they are no longer engaged."

• First published in RNS
• Claire Giangravé is an author at Religion News Service.

In a recent interview with Croatian radio station HRT, Zulehner shared insights on the ongoing Synodal Path and Rome's approach to church reforms.

Professor Zulehner claims Rome's approach stems from its desire to showcase synodality, establish new structures and adapt church law before reforms can be implemented elsewhere.

The Synodal Path in Germany faced challenges due to its early start and Rome's shortage of theological experts.

"Rome doesn't like to take the second step. They say ‘We are taking the first step'" Zulehner explained.

Good model for democracies

The theologian wants to see more theology at the next Synod on Synodality.

"We need to do more theology and recognise what we hear: Is the Holy Spirit speaking to us? And then we need to find a good way to make the final decisions" Zulehner stated.

In this context, Zulehner picked up on thoughts from Synod on Synodality advisor and Linz theologian Klara Csiszar. Csiszar emphasised that church synodality "can also be a good model for democracies".

Otherwise the church would ask itself what it could learn from democracy about participation.

"This is a very good task for the future, the task of the church in today's world" Zulehner said.

Zulehner, speaking from a conference in Zagreb, Croatia, organised by the Pastoral Forum and the PosT network, reiterated the importance of theology in guiding the church's future. Both organisations, founded by Zulehner, focus on supporting and researching churches in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Pastoral Forum, established 35 years ago, aids young theologians in developing pastoral theology through scholarships. The PosT network, a 20-year-old initiative, connects pastoral theologians across Central and Eastern Europe, fostering collaboration and research in the region.

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has written an official note to the German Bishops' Conference secretary general, Beate Gilles to clarify the Vatican's stance on the German Synodal Path reform proposals.

Non-negotiable issues

Some issues are "non-negotiable", Parolin told Gilles, who shared Parolin'sofficial note with the German diocesan bishops.

These issues include the German Synodal Path project and its debates about the ordination of women and homosexuality.

The Vatican is not considering negotiating the Church's teaching on homosexuality, Parolin wrote.

Nor is it open to debating the letter"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis". That's the letter Pope John Paul II reaffirmed that women were excluded from ordination to the priesthood.

The 23 October letter also reminded the bishops of potential disciplinary consequences for anyone defying Church teaching.

Visit to Rome

In July, German bishops went to Rome to discuss the Synodayl Path with the heads of several Vatican dicasteries.

They tried again after October's Rome-based Synod on Synodality. Among them were German bishops' conference, president Bishop Georg Bätzing and Gilles.

Talks they began with several heads of dicasteries will be continued in 2024, the bishops conference says.

News reports say the heads of the dicasteries for doctrine, ecumenical relations, bishops, liturgy and sacraments, and for legal texts want to meet representatives of the German bishops next January, April and June.

During those meetings, they will discuss what can and cannot be changed in regard to Church doctrine and discipline.

The themes up for discussion include ecclesiology, anthropology, moral teaching and liturgy and the relevant texts of the Synodal Path.

Global reform underway

Although meetings between the German bishops and the Vatican have been arranged, Parolin's letter points out that a global synodal process is underway.

"It is therefore necessary to respect this path of the Universal Church and to avoid the impression that parallel initiatives are underway that are indifferent to the endeavor to 'journey together,'" Parolin wrote.

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) says there had been pre-Synod movement on reform in the Vatican - within the curia and also between the curia and the pope.

ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp notes, for example, that Cardinal Parolin had said it was impossible to give women voting rights in the synod because that would contradict canon law.

"And what did our pope do? Suddenly it was legal and was put into practice," she says.

Pope Francis recently expressed his concern about concrete initiatives some German dioceses and the Catholic Church in Germany as a whole are taking.

These include establishing a German synodal council, which Francis said threatens to steer the Catholic Church in Germany away from the universal church.

Source

• Katholisch.de
• CNA
• UCA News

On Tuesday this week German news outlet Die Welt published a copy of the letter which was addressed to four recipients.

Those four are German women who resigned from the Synodal Path in February 2022.

Theologians Professor Katharina Westerhorstmann and Professor Marianne Schlosser, philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and journalist Dorothea Schmidt said they objected to some of the Synodal Path's conclusions and methods.

The letter begins:

"I extend my gratitude for your kind letter dated November 6. Your concerns regarding the current developments within the Church in Germany have reached me, and I share your concerns.

"There are indeed numerous steps being taken by significant segments of this local Church that threaten to steer it increasingly away from the universal Church's common path.

"This doubtlessly includes the establishment of the synodal committee you referenced" Francis wrote.

The Synodal Path proposals

The noncanonical Synodal Path process concluded its initial stage in March.

Its proposals are the culmination of a series of meetings between local bishops and lay people since 2019 and embrace progressive positions in the church, Francis's letter states.

Blessing same-sex couples in the Catholic Church is one such example.

Even though the Vatican officially denied the proposal in a doctrinal decree in 2021, some clergy in Germany are continuing the practice.

Another Synodal Path proposal promotes reconsidering the Church's teaching on homosexuality.

Another pushes for allowing women to be ordained as priests.

Further down the path

The Synodal Path is now creating a permanent synodal council. It will continue to address the German synodal assemblies' questions.

On 10 November when Francis was composing his letter, Synodal Path participants agreed a synodal committee should be created to establish a permanent synodal council by 2026.

The committee will be composed of bishops and lay delegates, which critics fear might challenge the authority of those bishops.

In January the Vatican made it clear that the church in Germany may not create an institution that could exceed the bishops' conference authority.

The letter

Francis expresses himself plainly in the letter.

The synodal committee "as outlined in the corresponding resolution is not in alignment with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church.

"I sought not to find ‘salvation' in constantly evolving committees, nor to persist in self-absorbed dialogues rehashing the same themes" Francis wrote.

"Rather, I aimed to re-emphasise the importance of prayer, penance and adoration" he wrote, adding that the church should meet people on the streets, in hospitals and the public square.

"I am convinced the Lord will show us the way" Francis finished, thanking the theologians and experts for their work.

Source

• Religion News Service
• CNA
• CNA

Previously for a vote to pass, two-thirds of bishops were required to vote in favour of a decision; now, it requires only two-thirds of all members (bishops and laypeople) for a vote to pass.

Convened to navigate changes following a crisis within the Catholic Church, the synodal way witnessed discussions on various topics. These included women deacons, priestly celibacy and greater lay involvement in selecting bishops.

Among the Synodal Way's most controversial proposals was the creation of a synodal committee to ensure that resolutions are enacted in German dioceses to prepare the way for a permanent body called the "synodal council" in 2026.

Conversely, Vatican officials deemed it a structure surpassing the German bishops' authority.

Despite objections, German Church leaders persist in advocating for this council. They assert it has features distinct from those critiqued by the Vatican.

However, disagreements persisted regarding the voting process, particularly concerning the bishops' role and influence within the committee.

Advocates for change cited a need to modify the rules following a resolution addressing the Church's approach to sexual ethics. This issue failed to garner the required two-thirds bishop majority.

Bishops can easily be outvoted

Notably, altering the voting regulations led to varied reactions. Some welcomed the adjustment, foreseeing increased efficiency and progress within the committee.

ZdK (Central Committee of German Catholics) leader Irme Stetter-Karp, who called for a change in the voting procedure after the synodal way ended in March, expressed her satisfaction after the two-thirds of Bishops rule was dropped.

"This committee, which I would like to respectfully call a real team, will be able to achieve a great deal for the future of the Church in Germany."

On the other hand, critics expressed concerns about the potential marginalisation of the bishops' authority. They claim it undermines their influence in decision-making.

Writing for the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost, the journalist Peter Winnemöller said: "A little basic arithmetic is enough to realise that with a maximum of 20 participating bishops, they can easily be outvoted even if all bishops disagree with a decision."

However, German bishops' conference Bishop Georg Bätzing sees the change as positive, commenting "The synodal committee has gained momentum. I am grateful that we have now entered a new phase" he said on 11 November.

"I am therefore happy to take up a phrase from the synod on synodality: Church on the move — we experienced this in Rome and also now in Essen."

Sources

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

The Rev. Martin Lintner was selected by its faculty to become dean of the prestigious Theological University of Bressanone, located in the traditionally German-speaking region near the Austrian border.

The appointment of Lintner, a professor of moral and spiritual theology at the seminary, was also met with approval by the local bishop.

But the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education refused to issue the permission required for Lintner to take on the role, the university announced on June 26.

The Congregation released no explanation for its decision and has not replied to a request by Religion News Service for comment.

Confused and dismayed

Theologians and academics around the world responded with confusion and dismay at the Vatican's decision to prevent the appointment of the theologian.

The local bishop, Ivo Muser, said he was informed that the Vatican had denied the appointment due to Lintner's previous "publications on questions relating to the sexual morality of the church."

In a recent statement, Muser said the current dean, Professor Alexander Notdurfter, will keep his position until August 2024. "This time will allow for the calm necessary to further reflect together on the issues that arose and that involved other Vatican departments," Muser said.

Lintner has spoken in support of reconsidering the Catholic Church's controversial ban on artificial birth control enshrined in the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" by Pope Paul VI.

Lintner has also written in support of blessing same-sex couples, a position promoted by members of the synodal path in Germany despite the Vatican's veto on the subject.

Lintner upheld the dignity of same-sex relationships in an article published in 2020 on the website of Catholic LBGTQ+ advocacy group New Ways Ministry and has offered reflections in favor of ceremonies to bless same-sex couples.

Who decided?

While the decision is officially up to the Congregation for Education, some believe it was the Vatican Department overseeing doctrine that made the ruling on Lintner.

The Congregation for Education and Culture was born from the union of two other departments under the leadership of Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, who is considered a close friend of Pope Francis. Francis' involvement in halting Lintner's appointment remains unclear.

The decision regarding Lintner's appointment highlights the tensions between the Vatican and the synodal path in Germany and elsewhere.

Meant to promote a vision for a less hierarchical church and to empower lay Catholics, the multiyear synodality process has resulted in appeals from many Catholic faithful and clergy around the world for female ordination, LGBTQ+ inclusion and clergy accountability.

Lintner's rejection underlines Pope Francis' struggles in enacting the synodal vision and the reform of the Vatican Curia.

"The Vatican's decision regarding me didn't just cause surprise but also frustration among many faithful," Lintner wrote in a statement published on the university's website on Monday (July 3). "It raises doubts on the good outcome of synodality," he added.

Upcoming synod

Bishops and lay individuals will gather in Rome in October for the Synod on Synodality, where they are poised to discuss the major questions facing Catholicism today, from the role of women to power structures in the church.

The synod is Pope Francis' brainchild and born from a three-year consultation of Catholics at the parish, diocesan, national and continental levels.

It aims to revolutionize the way decisions are made in the church and to create a more open and inclusive way of communicating and engaging with the faithful.

According to the Catholic Theological Faculty Association, the decision on Lintner "contradicts the synodal spirit invoked by Pope Francis" but also shows how Catholic academics remain under the yoke of the Vatican offices and departments known as the Vatican Curia.

"It runs counter to the concern for academic freedom and undermines the self-government of Catholic faculties and Catholic universities," the group said in a June 27 statement in support of Lintner.

Lintner also spoke of an "institutional problem" with regard to the imposition by the Vatican departments for doctrine and education over universities and theologians.

"I hope and desire that my case will contribute to creating a constructive relationship of trust and dialogue between the Magisterium and academic theologians, among dicasteries and theological associations, faculties and theological studies," he said.

"It's very important that there be dialogue" between the Vatican and theologians, said theologian Dawn Eden Goldstein in an interview with RNS on Thursday. He added "there have been many cases in the past where people claimed there had not been dialogue and they had not been heard."

This Vatican imposition has been interpreted as a power play, especially by some members of the German church, who have experienced their fair share of Vatican interference.

The International Society for the Study of Moral Theology in Germany called out the Congregation for Education's decision for being "inadequate and unjustified," while criticizing the lack of transparency as a "demonstration of curial power."

German synodal way

The church in Germany, with its credibility undermined by sexual abuse scandals, began its own synodal path in 2019.

The series of conferences aired a desire by faithful in the country for a church that reflected the values of society today to foster inclusivity and accountability.

As the church became more vocal with its call for modernization, Pope Francis sent a letter urging caution and discernment.

When German priests began to bless same-sex couples, the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, or DDF, answered with a resounding no, stating the church "cannot bless sin."

Vatican experts at the time were told Pope Francis had not been happy with the decision by the doctrinal department and were promised the pope would soon take action.

Reform

On Saturday, Pope Francis completed his reform of the DDF by appointing a close collaborator to head its theological section, Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández.

According to Goldstein, Fernández's appointment is "good timing because it does indicate something hopeful: that there is now someone in leadership who does favor dialogue."

In a recently published interview, Fernández said he intends to lead "in my own way."

He said he is open to discussion regarding the ordination of women or the blessing of same-sex couples "given the pope's call for synodality."

But the decision to appoint Fernández can also be interpreted as a warning signal to papal opposers in the Vatican Curia.

In a 2016 interview with Italian Vatican journalist Massimo Franco, Fernández said the "Roman curia is not an essential structure" of the church and the pope could just as well lead the church with only the college of bishops at the service of the people of God.

"Fernandez might not find it easy to change entrenched attitudes," Goldstein said, "but thankfully the pope has his back."

• Claire Giangravé is an author at Religion News Service.
• First published in Religion News Service. Republished with permission.

The move, made by the influential and wealthy German Church, does not align with official Catholic doctrine, which forbids such blessings.

"A local, particular church cannot make a decision like that which involves the discipline of the Universal Church," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's Secretary of State said on Monday.

"There must certainly be a discussion with Rome and the rest of the Churches in the world … to clarify what are the decisions to make," Parolin said.

In Germany, several congregations and pastors regularly offer blessings to same-sex couples, but the Catholic Church prohibits such blessings, a stance reaffirmed by the Vatican in 2021.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement against such blessings on grounds that God "cannot bless sin" and that it would be "illicit" for a priest to lend any legitimacy to same-sex unions.

The German multi-year consultation, the "Synodal Path" reform process, was launched in 2019 and aimed at giving lay people a stronger voice following the country's clerical sexual abuse crisis.

Despite the Vatican's position, 176 participants in the concluding Synodal Path meeting voted in favour of same-sex blessings, with 14 voting against and 12 abstaining.

Speaking to journalists, Parolin resisted the notion that the German vote was an act of rebellion, saying, "In the Church, there have always been tensions and differing positions."

However, he reiterated the Vatican's position on same-sex couples, saying "the position of Rome is that" referring to the 2021 Vatican statement.

Parolin also noted that the German bishops' vote must be inserted into Pope Francis's broader Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which will conclude in 2024.

Same-sex blessings delayed until 2026

The Vatican has been in discussions with German bishops regarding the Synodal Way for several years,.

Last summer, Pope Francis penned a letter to the German Church cautioning against stoking division over issues such as priestly celibacy, women's priestly ordination and same-sex blessings.

In November, the Vatican attempted to shut down the process altogether during a meeting with several department heads as part of the German bishops' ad limina visit to Rome.

The process went forward regardless.

Cardinal Parolin called it a good sign that the German Church opted to hold off on offering blessings to same-sex couples until 2026.

However, he concluded, "This decision should fit inside the synodal path of the universal church. There it will be decided what developments there will be".

Sources

Crux Now

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

The bishops met on 18 November with the heads of Vatican dicasteries to discuss the Synodal Path.

The German bishops' conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics launched the path in 2019 in response to the clerical abuse scandal.

The meeting, at the end of the bishops' "ad limina" visits to Rome, was chaired by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Formal presentations were made by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Ladaria focused his remarks on Pope Francis' letter to German Catholics in 2019 about the Synodal Path and on how the local church and the universal church flourish together.

"If they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence the need always to ensure that communion with the whole body of the church is alive and effective," the pope had written.

Ladaria acknowledged how, because of the abuse crisis, many Catholics "feel deeply betrayed by men and women of the Catholic Church" and "no longer have any trust in us bishops.

"It goes without saying that everything that can be done to prevent further abuse by clerics against minors must be done, but this must not lead to reducing the mystery of the church to a mere institution of power or to a prior consideration of the church as a structurally abusive organisation that must be brought under the control of super controllers as soon as possible."

Ladaria also objected to the Synodal Path's treatment of sexuality, which gives the "general impression" that in church teaching on sexuality "there is almost nothing that can be salvaged, that it all must be changed.

"How can one not think of the impact this has on many faithful who listen to the voice of the church and try to follow its indications in their lives," he asked the bishops.

Both Ladaria and Ouellet expressed concern that the entire Synodal Path process has eclipsed the role of the bishops as successors of the apostles, called to guide the local churches and "authenticate the witness of the other disciples of the Lord".

Ouellet also praised the seriousness with which the church in Germany was trying to confront the abuse crisis and its attendant crisis of trust, and he lauded the involvement of the laity in the Synodal Path, although he said they seemed to "have played an equal if not preponderant role".

While saying he knows the bishops do not want to create a schism and are committed to making the preaching of the Gospel more credible in Germany, he said much of the Synodal Path seems to have responded more to "very strong cultural and media pressure" than to the Gospel.

Ouellet also told the bishops he found "surprising" the attitude taken by the Synodal Path "toward the definitive decision of St John Paul II concerning the impossibility for the Catholic Church to proceed with the ordination of women priests".

Questioning that decision, he said, "reveals a problem of faith with regard to the magisterium and a certain intrusive rationalism" that has more to do with personal opinions rather than faith.

And, he said, along with other questionable positions adopted by the members of the Synodal Path, the position on women's ordination "undermines the responsibility of the bishops" to guide the church and "appears to be strongly influenced by pressure groups".

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

Summarising the German position, the head of the German bishops' conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said the German church would not make decisions that were the Vatican's to make.

"We are Catholic," Bätzing said at a news conference. "but we want to be Catholic in a different way."

Bätzing's statement comes at the close of the German bishops' ad limina visit to Rome. During the visit, they had face time with the pope and met various Vatican departments to provide an update on local church affairs.

As part of the meetings, the 62 German bishops who participated met with various Vatican departments and had a private meeting with Pope Francis.

They also had what was described as an "open" and "frank" discussion on concerns regarding their "Synodal Path" with several Vatican department heads.

In that meeting, Vatican officials suggested issuing a "moratorium" on the Synodal Path process. However, that proposal was not accepted.

The church hierarchy in Germany and the country's influential lay Catholic group launched the reforms after a 2018 report. They found that thousands of abuse crimes were systematically covered up by German church leaders.

Preliminary assemblies of the reform process have sought to address how power and authority are exercised in the church.

During these meetings, lay representatives and German bishops have approved calls to allow blessings for same-sex couples, married priests and the ordination of women as deacons. However, the proposals must be debated further and approved for them to be enacted.

Bätzing assured the Vatican that the German church would "not make any decisions that would only be possible in the context of the universal church," such as changes to the church's core doctrine.

"However, the church in Germany wants to and must provide answers to the questions being asked by the faithful," he said.

The main lay Catholic group involved in the reforms, the Central Committee of German Catholics, said the meeting made it clear that the German church was right to pursue the dialogue in Germany because "it is not a solution to see the responsibility for the reform process solely in Rome".

The president of the group, Irme Stetter-Karp, took issue with the joint statement issued by the Vatican and German bishops, which urged the faithful to be patient.

A "patient people of God" no longer exists, she said.

Sources

• Reuters
• CruxNow
• SCNOW

"Same-sex feelings and love are not an aberration, but a variant of human sexuality," he says. Homosexuals have a right to church support and blessing.

Dieser (pictured), who is the spokesman on abuse issues for the German bishops' conference, says the current state of Church teaching does not do justice to certain realities when it comes to sexuality.

"The thinking is too simple."

The Church can no longer signal to homosexual people that their feelings are unnatural and that they have to be celibate, he says.

"Homosexuality is — as science shows — not a glitch, not an illness, not an expression of any kind of deficit, and by the way it's not a consequence of original sin, either," the bishop said.

If two lesbians approached him to have a child baptised, he would do it, he says.

"Where is the problem?" he wonders.

Dieser also defended the Synodal Path taken by the church in Germany and its demands for reform.

"The Synodal Path is, after all, a consequence of the uncovering of sexual abuse scandals. And reliable scientific studies show that these scandals have systemic causes in the church," he says.

This week, he and other German bishops will be at the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis and other Vatican officials for their "ad limina" visits. These are periodic visits to report on the status of their dioceses.

He says the bishops also hope to present Francis with the papers that received too little approval from the bishops at the last plenary assembly of the Synodal Path.

He says the aim is to ask Francis for a further development of the Church's teaching.

Rome needs to respond to the proposals and suggestions of the Catholic Church in Germany, because the Vatican had ignored reform proposals from Catholic dioceses of West Germany in the 1970s, says Dieser.

To not respond "would be a failure of authority in the church. We must not ignore the voice of the people of God", he explains.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter

Bätzing had demanded an apology from the Vatican's Koch (pictured) over comments that brought up Germany's Nazi past.

He lamented what he called Koch's "untenable statements" about the German "synodal way".

Koch, charged with promoting Christian unity, is reported to have compared the German bishops' Synodal Path process with a mistaken Christian ideology that underpinned the rise of Nazism.

In an interview with the Catholic weekly "Die Tagespost," Koch said that he was shocked that the German Synodal Way was talking about new sources of revelation.

"This phenomenon already existed during the National Socialist dictatorship, when the so-called ‘German Christians' saw God's new revelation in blood and soil and in the rise of Hitler," Koch said.

At the end of the German bishops' plenary assembly on September 29, Bätzing said that, with his remarks, Koch had "disqualified himself from the theological debate" about the Synodal Path.

"If a public apology does not happen immediately, I will file an official complaint with the Holy Father," Bätzing said.

That evening, Koch published a statement rejecting the accusations. He said he had in no way compared the Synodal Path reform project with Nazi ideology, "and I will never do so".

Koch said he has been misunderstood: "I simply assumed that we can still learn from history today, even from a very difficult period. As the vehement reaction of Bishop Bätzing and others show, I have to realise in retrospect that I failed in this attempt. And I also have to realise that memories of phenomena in the National Socialist period are obviously taboo in Germany."

The following day, Bishop Bätzing intensified his criticism. He said he could not accept the cardinal's response "since Cardinal Koch, in essence, does not apologise for the indefensible statements, but — on the contrary — aggravates them".

Bätzing added he still expects a "clear dissociation from these statements."

Bätzing said the cardinal must have "consciously chosen" the comparison to the Nazi era, thus placing the participants of the Synodal Path "in the horizon of the regime that brought unimaginable suffering, especially to the Jewish people".

Following demands for an apology and a threat he might "file an official complaint with the Holy Father," the German Bishops' Conference president met with a Vatican cardinal in Rome this week.

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

Catholic Review

"Perhaps the communication on the reform project could have been better," Grech said in an interview with Anna Mertens, editor of the German Catholic news agency KNA, published on 29 August. But he said he trusted the German bishops "know what they are doing."

The cardinal was critical of other bishops for issuing open letters criticising the German church's Synodal Path. "Fraternal correction and dialogue" were something very positive, he said, but a "public denunciation" was not helpful and led only to further polarisation.

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Francis also wants the German church to come to recommendations for a change in the church's actions says Bishops Conference president Georg Bätzing.

In return Francis received personal assurances from the German bishops' conference that the Catholic Church in Germany does not want "to go its own way."

Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing met Francis privately at the Vatican to pass on his assurances.

"Our conversation focused first on the situation of the church in Germany in light of the processing of sexual abuse cases and the difficult situation in several dioceses," which have recently or are about to publish reports on the handling of abuse allegations, Bätzing says.

"Pope Francis is well aware of the situation of the church in Germany. He hopes that tensions can be overcome."

Bätzing also said he "informed the pope in detail" about the status of the German church's "Synodal Path."

He says he "made it clear that the rumors that the church in Germany wants to go its own way are not true."

A number of changes agreed to by the German bishops' and a national council of laity's decisions have led some people to comment that German Catholics were ignoring church procedures and were, perhaps, even headed for schism.

Some of the issues they were concerned about include a decision to design an ad hoc synodal process, different from a national synod or plenary council. They were also concerned about the bishops' and national council's decision to discuss issues of power, sexual morality, priestly life and the role of women in the church.

"At the same time, he called for the church in Germany to help shape the path of synodality."

He asked Catholics in every nation to contribute to in preparation for the world Synod of Bishops in 2023.

"I feel strengthened by Pope Francis in my office as bishop of Limburg and in my task as president of the German bishops' conference," Bätzing says.

"I am impressed by the balanced knowledge with which he perceives the situation of the church in Germany and puts the problems into words. Pope Francis will accompany the church in our country on the way out of the crisis."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: America Magazine