After a long Corona break, the reform process in the Catholic Church in Germany is picking up speed again. The synodal assembly in Frankfurt discusses proposals for renewal.
Before the second synodal assembly of the reform process in Frankfurt, Catholic reform groups described the Synodal Path of the Catholic Church in Germany as “urgently needed”.
This applies in particular to overcoming sexual violence, emphasized Christian Weisner from “We are Church” on Thursday in Frankfurt. The reform and women’s groups wanted to accompany the Synodal Way. “The church is too important to be left to the clergy,” said Weisner.
Despite the fact that the reform process has been blocked for far too long, there are also positive signals, for example from the chairman of the Bishops’ Conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing. “The awareness of the problem has arrived.”
Towards each other or away from each other?
The theologian Agnes Wuckelt from the Catholic women’s community spoke of a “difficult challenge of togetherness” before the beginning of the second synodal assembly after critical words from conservative bishops about the reform process. “Will it be possible to maintain the forms of politeness, or is the situation so tense that we are avoiding each other?” Asked Wuckelt.
The Synodal Assembly is the central body of the current reform process. It had been postponed twice because of the corona pandemic. The aim of the process is to renew the church in essential points. The synodal assembly has 230 members. In addition to the 69 German bishops and 69 representatives of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) as representatives of the laity, 92 representatives from various Catholic professional groups also take part.
The meeting deals with four topics: the position of women in the church, the use of power, Catholic sexual morality and priestly celibacy. The four topics are each assigned to a forum that deals with the complex. Each forum has drawn up reform proposals for its area.
“It’s about setting the first course”
“We will be discussing the texts of the forums,” said the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, of the German press agency. «There are many requests for changes. This will be voted on and then the texts will be returned to the forums for further work. So it’s about setting the course, not about final decisions yet. “
Conservative critics of the Synodal Way such as the Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and the Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer accuse the reformers that the whole process is doomed to failure because the Vatican will not endorse any major changes. ZdK President Thomas Sternberg said of the dpa: “There are questions that can only be answered together with Rome. We rely on the knowledge, which has long been there, that the signs of the times are recognized. In the Vatican they recognized very well that something has to change. “
“Power structures can be changed”
In addition, there are also reforms that German Catholics could implement independently without violating canon law. “Power structures can be changed,” said Sternberg. In the future, committed believers should not only act in an advisory capacity in the congregations, but should also be more involved in leadership. “Women must be promoted more and get leadership positions in the church,” demanded Sternberg. «The diversity of life forms must be seen and recognized. The blessing for same-sex couples, which has existed for a long time, should become a matter of course. ” But that is precisely what the Vatican had recently expressly forbidden.
The trigger for the Synodal Way was the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. “If you want to prevent abuse in the future, you have to change structures,” said Sternberg. “You can’t stay on the surface of things.”
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