End clap for the German synodal path

Berlin (Germany)

From our correspondent

The relief was palpable on Saturday March 11 in Frankfurt. The fifth and final session of the synodal path – a reform process launched in December 2019 by the country’s lay people and Catholic authorities in response to the sexual abuse scandal – ended with a positive outcome. Admittedly, the debates were sometimes heated and, more surprisingly, the bishops were called to order by Mgr Georg Bätzing, the president of the episcopal conference, who asked them not to block, at the last minute, the result three years of work.

But ultimately, almost all of the texts presented were approved by the synodal assembly and by two-thirds of the episcopate. One of the key measures, supported by 81% of the bishops, concerns the blessings for “couples who love each other” – divorced remarried or same-sex couples. Disciplinary sanctions against pastoral agents organizing such celebrations can thus be lifted. If the practice is already current in certain dioceses and will remain at the discretion of the bishops, it could become a reality there throughout the country.

Another central measure, the Church intends to pay more attention to intersex and transgender people. Like the diocese of Freiburg im Breisgau, a pioneer in this field, it will be possible, when baptizing children whose gender identity is not clear, to omit the corresponding mention in the register. baptisms or to use the term “miscellaneous” there. Transgender Catholics should also be able to change their marital status and first names in the baptism register.

The synodal assembly finally approved texts requiring the approval of Pope Francis: it urges him in particular to authorize women to preach during Eucharistic celebrations, and to re-examine the link between ministerial functions and the obligation of celibacy. After an emotional debate, the participants came out in favor of the diaconate for women and called on the German bishops to engage on the subject in Rome. The question of their ordination has, on the other hand, been postponed, at the request of certain bishops. “The women’s diaconate is long overdue,” said Bishop Gebhard Fürst, Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, citing the Synod of Würzburg which requested it in 1974.

If the criticisms expressed in recent weeks by the pope and by certain cardinals on this process of reform – described as “elitist” by Francis – have certainly hovered over the debates, they have not stopped its dynamics. Thus the “synodal council”, approved in September but much criticized by Rome, should see the light of day. The members of the committee in charge of its creation were elected in Frankfurt. “The synodal path has worked. It is not a paper tiger,” said Bishop Bätzing at the end of a process which, in three years, adopted 15 reform texts. “It does not lead to a division of the Church or the creation of a national Church,” he added, calling the “headwinds” a “reaction to the spiritual force” of this path.

Less enthusiastic, Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of Catholics and co-president of this reform process, welcomes a “new culture of dialogue” but regrets that “a small group of bishops has prevented a structural change in the Church “. On all the texts debated over three years, resistance came almost systematically from Bavarian dioceses, such as those of Regensburg, Passau and Augsburg, as well as from the dioceses of Cologne and Münster.

It remains to implement the decisions applicable directly in the dioceses, such as the blessings of same-sex couples. For those requiring the approval of the pope, a new process begins which, according to Bishop Bätzing, “will take time”. The latter, however, called on the Vatican authorities to “not respond in a bureaucratic manner” but via an “open and synodal process”. “The themes that we have discussed here are not purely German but are taken up by the universal Church”, recalls the Bishop of Limburg, who wants more than ever to bring these questions to the level of the World Synod on the future of Church.

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