After the near failure of the synodal path in Frankfurt, the German bishops are struggling at their autumn plenary meeting in Fulda about the further reform process of the Catholic Church.
The voting debacle in Frankfurt made the rifts open: with their no to a policy paper on Catholic sexual morality, opponents of reform among the Catholic bishops at the synodal assembly not only alienated representatives of lay organizations, but also many fellow bishops. The shock is still having an impact and should also dominate the deliberations at the autumn plenary assembly of the German bishops, which begins this Monday (September 26) in Fulda. While supporters warn not to be dissuaded from the path of reform, conservative bishops oppose it.
“Our church urgently needs fundamental reforms in order to remain connected to our time and to the reality of people’s lives,” explains Benedictine Philippa Rath, one of the most prominent members of the synodal assembly. She is convinced that the Catholic Church needs more participation and responsibility for everyone, more transparency and separation of powers, de-clericalization at all levels, renewed sexual morality and, above all, gender justice.
“I firmly believe that many bishops are increasingly seeing things that way and want to counteract a further loss of credibility,” says the nun. This was also shown by the last fourth synodal assembly, despite the setback in the vote on the first day. “In any case, the culture of debate and discussion has clearly gained in honesty and openness.” Important draft texts were also passed with large majorities. It is now important to include this in the autumn general assembly.
“Decisions with signal effect”
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, was similarly confident. “Decisions with a signal effect” were made in Frankfurt, explained the Limburg bishop, who is considered the driving force behind the reform process, at the end of the meeting – although he made no secret of his disappointment at the false start.
Overall, the synodal path deals with four areas: dealing with power, the position of women, sexual morality and celibacy, i.e. the obligatory celibacy of priests. Can Bätzing in Fulda build support for the reforms among the 67 bishops of the German dioceses? Or are the trenches even deepening? The DBK chairman does not want to comment on his expectations for the meeting in advance. In Frankfurt, however, he had already made it clear that he would not let resistance get him down and did not want to leave the field to those “who do not want to move”.
One thing is clear: time is pressing and Bätzing can use every comrade-in-arms, as not only the record number of people leaving the church in the past year makes clear – in November he also wants to report to Pope Francis on his visit to Rome about the situation in Germany. Not only the Vatican has viewed the reform efforts in Germany with great suspicion from the very beginning, but also conservatives from Germany such as Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer are considered opponents. Open criticism also came a few weeks ago from Passau Bishop Stefan Oster, who expressed concern that the synodal path would exacerbate the crisis of faith.
It is important to win back lost trust
But Bätzing not only has to keep in touch with the opponents of reform – it is also important to win back the trust of lay organizations that was lost after the scandal in Frankfurt. The Central Committee of German Catholics, which organizes the Synodal Path together with the DBK, has already made it clear that it does not want to let the bishops get away with it: “A clarification” on respect for queer people is expected, as the committee recently explained. The fact that the basic text on sexual morality failed due to the vote of 21 senior shepherds, who voted against it, not only hurt those who are involved in the synodal path. “The top of the Catholic lay movement is deeply convinced that the Roman Catholic Church must not be a place of discrimination,” said the ZdK presidium.
The trigger for the synodal path, which has been running since 2019, was the massive crisis of trust caused by the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church – and the Catholic Church is also still heavily criticized on this topic: Just a few days ago, a study revealed a number of violations in dealing with those affected by sexualised violence in the diocese of Osnabrück. These were treated bureaucratically and dismissively, although many of them were affected by their experiences for their entire lives, as the law professor Hans Schulte-Nölke found out.
At the autumn plenary assembly, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier will comment on these and other allegations for the last time as the abuse commissioner of the German Bishops’ Conference. His successors have to deal with what happened – Ackermann is resigning from office after twelve years, the processing of the scandal surrounding the multiple sexual abuse of children, young people and adults in the Catholic Church is being reorganized. It is not yet clear who will be responsible for these tasks in the future – the bishop of Trier himself had spoken out in favor of “a new and broader structure of responsibility” in order to do justice to the complexity and dimension of the issue.
Source: Stern
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