Crisis brews among German Catholics over  reforms

 

BAVARIA – Four conservative German Catholic bishops have sharply criticized the German reform process for going against that of the Vatican in a statement published on Monday.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and three bishops from the southern German state of Bavaria, Rudolf Voderholzer, Gregor Maria Hanke and Stefan Oster, who took part in the World Synod in Rome, issued the joint statement.

The meeting in Rome had ended with a vague declaration, rather than concrete reform steps. German Catholics are now focusing on preparing a Synodal Council in which bishops and lay people can consult and make decisions together.

Woelki and the three Bavarian bishops criticized the Synodal Council, saying that it goes against the resolutions of the World Synod.

In their statement, the clergymen said that recent German committee meetings used a “parliamentary-style process of pure majority procurement.”

“In this way, a large majority in the hall, liberal on church-political issues, wanted to push through their issues using massive public pressure,” they wrote.

“However, in doing so, they have caused no small amount of irritation among the entire people of God and risk causing offence.”

The Synodal Committee meetings had focused on four topics: the position of women in the church, priestly celibacy, Catholic sexual morality and the church’s handling of power. The four clergymen said the goals of these meetings do not align with the overall reform process in the Catholic Church.

The topics of celibacy and sexual morality were not addressed at all in the final document of the World Synod, they said. Similarly, the World Synod did not make progress on the debate of opening up church offices to women.

As for dealing with power, the World Synod proposed a spiritual path of renewal, while the German approach envisages concrete control mechanisms and new institutions for a broader distribution of power, they wrote.