Tensions between the Holy See and most German bishops rose again after Vatican Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin told German bishops in an official note that the ordination of men as priests and the teachings of the Church on homosexuality were non-negotiable. This was reported by the German Catholic weekly Die Tagespost on November 24.
German Bishops’ Conference spokesman Matthias Kopp confirmed that the bishops read the letter at their Permanent Council earlier in the week.
In a letter dated October 23, addressed to Beate Gilles, secretary general of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Parolin drew red lines for continuing the dialogue with the German bishops.
He stressed that the Vatican does not consider it possible to discuss the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, as it did in the 1994 document “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,” in which St. Pope John Paul II confirmed the impossibility of ordaining women as priests.
In July, several heads of Vatican dicasteries met with German bishops to discuss the Synodal Path, a project to reform the Catholic Church in Germany. At the end of October, the German participants in the Synod on Synodality, including the president of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop of Limburg Georg Bätzing and Secretary General Gilles, held a new meeting with several heads of dicasteries. These negotiations are scheduled to continue in 2024.
As Die Tagespost reports, the heads of the dicasteries of doctrine, ecumenical relations, bishoprics, liturgy and sacraments, as well as legal texts, want to meet with representatives of the German bishops in January, April and June 2024 to discuss what has not changed in the doctrinal teaching of the church and what can be changed.
Topics to be discussed include ecclesiology, anthropology, moral teaching and liturgy, as well as relevant texts from the Synodal Path.
The latest letter from the Vatican also indicates that a global synodal process is currently underway. “Therefore, it is necessary to respect this path of the universal Church and avoid the impression that parallel initiatives are being carried out, indifferent to the desire to “go together.”
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) reacted calmly to the latest document from Rome on the ecclesiastical reforms planned in Germany.
The president of the ZdK, Irme Stetter-Karp, stated on November 24 in Berlin that there is a reform movement in the Vatican, both within the Curia and between the Curia and the Pope.
He said that even before the Synod on synodality in the Vatican, Cardinal Parolin had said that it was impossible to give women the right to vote in the Synod, as this would be contrary to canon law. “And what did our Pope do? “Suddenly it became legal and put into practice,” Stetter-Karp said.
Thomas Söding, a member of the ZdK Presidium, stated that there were repeated attempts to “pass off partial statements, taken out of context, as definitive statements from Rome.” ZdK will not be intimidated by this, he said. On the contrary, he considered it positive that “there is and must be a process of dialogue between Germany and Rome.”
Recall that Pope Francis recently expressed concern about specific initiatives being taken by individual dioceses and the Catholic Church in Germany as a whole, including the creation of a synodal council, which, according to him, threatens to distance it from the universal Church.
“Instead of seeking ‘salvation’ in ever new committees and always debating the same issues with some dedication,” Catholics must turn to prayer, repentance and worship, and reach out to marginalized and abandoned people.”the Pope said in a recent letter.
The papal letter was a response to four German laywomen who wrote to the Pope on November 6, expressing their “doubts and concerns” about the outcome of the Synodal Path, which began in December 2019 and ended in March 2023.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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