An in-depth study of Germany’s younger priests has found they have limited interest in the changes to the Catholic Church advocated by the country’s controversial “synodal way.”
The study, published May 17, asked priests ordained between 2010 and 2021 how they believed the Catholic Church should be reformed. The majority did not select answers championed by synodal participants.
The 308-page document “Who Becomes a Priest?” – presented jointly by the German Bishops’ Conference and Bochum’s Center for Applied Pastoral Research – found that 25.7% of priests thought women should be ordained priests.
A further 29.6% supported the abolition of priestly celibacy, 30.3% called for greater democratisation of the Church, and 36.8% agreed with the statement that “the participation of lay people should be increased, lay people should be given more power.”
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