The shortest definition of religion is “interruption,” says Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured).
Some forms of continuity people seek from religion are “frankly suspect,” the president of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference asserts.
Bätzing made the comments during the bishops’ plenary assembly in a live-streamed Mass on Tuesday.
In his homily he said “all too surely asserted continuities, … according to the motto ‘that has always been so; that has always been believed so; what was wrong yesterday cannot be right today’ … are frankly suspect”.
The “great images in which God’s people spelled out their historical experiences with faith and recognised God’s guidance in them,” he said.
It is indeed “in our human nature to seek bridges between yesterday and tomorrow, to draw temporal lines and discover meaningful connections — which is often only possible in retrospect,” he explained.
“We seek continuity. But the shortest definition of religion is and remains ‘interruption,’ as Johann Baptist Metz put it.”
Metz was an influential German priest and theologian who died in 2019.
The German bishops’ plenary meeting has been overshadowed by two events. One is the recent turbulent meeting of the Synodal Way. The other is the abuse report in the Osnabrück diocese.
The report includes strongly incriminating statements about Bishop Franz-Josef Bode.
Bode has refused to resign, although a report published last week says he mishandled abuse cases.
He has been vice president of the German bishops’ conference since 2017 and is the vice president of the German Synodal Way.
Bode has publicly supported women deacons and the idea of developing a Church ceremony for blessing same-sex unions.
At the latest meeting of the Synodal Way, participants voted to change the Church’s teaching on a number of related topics, including homosexuality and the ordination of women.
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