Will the Rhine flood the Tiber?

It’s all Pope Francis’ fault (or merit).

Those who fiercely criticize the Synodal Path that the Catholic Church in Germany embarked upon in 2019 — and even those who enthusiastically support it — cannot deny that the Jesuit pope is responsible.

The only reason the Germans have been able to spend the past three years discussing carefully-argued proposals for major Church reforms — hardly any that are deemed acceptable by the vast majority of officials in the Vatican — is because Francis has allowed them to do so.

Benedict XVI and John Paul II would have never even considered or tolerated it. That should be clear to everyone.

It doesn’t matter if one agrees with what the Germans are proposing — which includes the option for priests to marry; the inclusion of women at all levels of ecclesial governance and ministry; and a comprehensive review and reformulation of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality, to name just the most salient points.

Whether one supports such changes or not makes little difference.

The horse has already bolted.

And now it’s going to be near impossible for Francis to simply ignore the Germans’ proposals out of hand without giving the impression that all his talk about synodality has been nothing but a sham.

He and everybody else know that.

That’s also because the Catholics of Germany aren’t the only ones who see the urgent need for a serious reform of the Church and not — as Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, called it — a reform in the Church.

He warned the German bishops during their Nov. 14-18 “ad limina visit” to heed the distinction.

And, indeed, it is a crucial one.

An intuition that opened pandora’s box

But unlike the Italian cardinal (who has often been touted as a leading candidate to succeed Francis) and his confreres in the Roman Curia, the Germans have seen clearly that structural change is the real issue.

They are aware that the Church’s current institutional model and structures are no longer fit for purpose.

The imperial-monarchical paradigm is long outdated and anachronistic.

It is also unsustainable and has increasingly become a burdensome impediment to promoting authentic Christian witness, discipleship and the spread of the gospel.

Perhaps Pope Francis is not fully 100% convinced of this, but he seems to at least intuit it.

Why else would he open up the pandora’s box that synodality has proved itself to be in various ways?

The pope has his own personal limitations, like all of us, but one thing he is not, and that is stupid.

He can take the pulse of a room very quickly, even the pulse of the global living room where the proverbial elephants are lurking.

He knows very well that Catholics all over the world want things to change and he’s urging them to explain what they think the changes should be.

When he refused to accept the proposal to ordain married men to the presbyterate, which was overwhelmingly approved in October 2019 by bishops attending the so-called Amazon Synod, it caused deep disappointment and even anger among many.

But that refusal did not close the debate.

If anything, it has only provoked more insistent calls to make clerical celibacy optional, as revealed by the Synodal Path (which the Germans began in December 2019) and the recent synodal consultations with Catholics around the world.

Bishop Bätzing stands up to Vatican cardinals

But the top officials in the Roman Curia made it clear during the German bishops’ “ad limina” that they expect their confreres north of the Alps to put the brakes on what they see as a run-away train.

French-Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Dicastery for Bishops, even urged them to impose a moratorium on the Synodal Path, which is supposed to have its final session next March.

The response of Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), was a polite but firm, “Nein, danke!”

It was impressive the way the 61-year-old bishop of Limburg stood up to the Vatican bureaucrats.

Despite the fact that he never studied in Rome, he did not seem at all intimidated by their attempts to use the old curia tactic of playing strong with the weak.

Bätzing showed no sign of weakness.

Just read the English translation of his opening remarks at the Nov. 18 meeting on the Synodal Path that he and his fellow countrymen held with Ouellet, Parolin and Cardinal Luis Ladaria SJ (Dicastery for Doctrine).

Right at the start the DBK leader pointed out that “the Synodal Presidium consists of two bishops and two lay people” and lamented that “essential persons” of the Synodal Path — the lay delegates — were not invited to Rome for the talks.

“And that is why our reflections, discussions, shared perspectives and possibly directions are subject to being discussed, communalised and appropriated with all those involved in the Synodal Path,” he said.

In other words, he told the Vatican officials that he and his fellow bishops would agree to nothing without the consent of their lay partners.

“We urge you to listen to us in this plight.”

The bishop was also unafraid to state the perplexity many German Catholics felt by the letter Pope Francis sent them in June 2019 to offer some guidelines and cautionary notes in the run-up to the Synodal Path.

“It has caused surprise that the pope’s letter does not refer to the actual starting point of the Synodal Path, namely sexual abuse, the inadequate handling of it by Church authorities, the cover-up by bishops and also the continuing lack of transparency shown by Roman authorities in dealing with it,” he said.

The Church “gambled away a lot of trust and credibility” as a result of the abuse crisis, Bishop Bätzing pointed out.

“We will only gain new trust if there is a major change in the way we exercise our ministry, involving clergy, religious and laity in decision-making and decision-taking in a serious and tangible way. And this not only applies to the Church in our country but also to the universal Church,” he added.

“We urge you to listen to us in this plight,” Bätzing pleaded.

Or was it a warning?

A contribution to the entire Church

He then batted back the numerous criticisms that thus far have been levelled at the Germans and their Synodal Path, whether by people at the Vatican or other more doctrinally rigid (conservative) Catholics.

For instance, he refuted accusations that the Germans were flirting with schism or looking to set up a national Church, even taking umbrage at such a suggestion.

“I am saddened by the power this word (schism) has acquired, with which one tries to deny us catholicity and the will to stay united with the universal Church. Unfortunately, this also includes the rather inaccurate comparison with a ‘good Protestant Church’,” the DBK president said.

That comparison, unfortunately, was actually made by the pope himself.

“No new Church is being founded, but the decisions of the Synodal Path ask, based on Holy Scripture, Tradition and the last Council, how we can be Church today — missionary and dynamic, encouraging and present, serving people and helping one another,” Bishop Bätzing told the Vatican representatives.

He insisted that Germany’s Catholics want only to “contribute to the conversation” going on in the entire Church.

The next several months

So what happens next?

Pope Francis has sometimes given mixed signals but has mostly voiced some of the same concerns the Synodal Path’s critics expressed.

Nonetheless, he has not stepped in to halt the process.

At the last minute, it seems, he even decided not to attend the Nov. 18 meeting between the German bishops and his Vatican aides. That was likely done to give the participants full freedom to hash out their difference — and for him to remain above the fray.

The Synodal Path is scheduled to hold its final session in just four months’ time.

Obviously, there are those, including many Vatican officials, who would like to see the pope step in and impose the moratorium that Cardinal Ouellet had suggested.

But that would be seen in Germany, and in many other quarters, as the atomic option. And it would likely create a disaster, leaving damage impossible to repair.

That’s because many, if not most, of the reforms that Catholics in Germany are demanding, are the same ones that believers in more docile parts of the Church are also embracing.

Over these months leading up to October 2023 and the international Synod assembly here in Rome, many will be following the movement of the Synodal Path to see if the changes it’s pushing for gain greater momentum and wash over the rest of the Church.

• Robert Mickens is LCI Editor in Chief.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.