The diocese recently published a comprehensive booklet outlining the conditions under which all Christians within the diocese can participate in a Catholic Eucharist or Protestant communion celebration during ecumenically significant occasions.

The moves marks a significant departure from the traditional practice, where the reception of the Eucharist was reserved exclusively for Catholic believers.

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode approved the publication of these guidelines before his resignation in March.

Bishop Bode emphasised the need for opportunities for mutual hospitality, especially in light of the ongoing quest for full church fellowship and the growing understanding between different denominations.

The Ecumenical Church Congress held in Osnabrück mid-June provided the occasion for this historic release. On Saturday evening during the event, both Catholic and Protestant communities officially extended invitations for inclusive practices.

The nearly 40-page booklet combines two theological essays by Bishop Bode and Osnabrück theologian Margit Eckholt.

It also incorporates personal experiences and reflections from Protestant and Catholic Christians, offering readers a diverse range of perspectives. In addition, the booklet includes references to pertinent theological texts.

The material aims to assist Christians in forming a well-founded opinion, enabling them to decide on suitable occasions whether to extend an invitation to the Eucharist or Communion as a celebrant, or to accept such an invitation as a believer.

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

In a personal statement, Bode said that his decision to resign had "matured in me in recent months," and he hoped that his departure would have a liberating effect on the diocese.

Abuse survivor groups have accused Bode of failing to respond appropriately to some cases of abuse, according to the German news agency dpa.

Bode explained that an interim report released in September on abuse by clergy in the diocese had revealed his mistakes.

Bode acknowledged his responsibility as a bishop and said, "Today, I can only ask all those affected again for forgiveness".

The 72-year-old bishop had been vice president of the German bishops' conference since 2017 and played a key role in the German Synodal Way.

The head of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, issued a statement noting Bode's resignation with "great regret and respect".

With his resignation, Bode "also takes responsibility for the topic of sexual abuse in the church, which has accompanied ... all of us for a long time," Bätzing said.

A church-commissioned report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany in 2018 said clergy abused 3,677 people between 1946 and 2014.

More than half the victims were 13 or younger, and most were boys. Every sixth case involved rape, and at least 1,670 clergy were involved.

The report said that in the first decades of his term, Bode "repeatedly" kept people accused of abuse in office or appointed them to other positions, including management tasks in youth pastoral care.

Other prominent German bishops accused

Irme Stetter-Karp, the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, expressed respect for Bode's decision.

"His resignation from office certainly marks an important step from the point of view of those affected, in order to make real progress in dealing with the abuse scandal," she said.

In a statement published on Saturday, Bode said: "In the almost 32 years of my episcopal ministry, almost 28 of them as bishop of Osnabrück, I have borne responsibility in a church that has not only brought blessings but also guilt."

He admitted that "Especially in dealing with cases of sexualised violence by clergy, for a long time I myself tended to focus more on the perpetrators and the institution than on the victims. I misjudged cases, often acted hesitantly, made many wrong decisions and failed to live up to my responsibility as a bishop".

In addition to Bode, several other prominent German bishops have been accused of mishandling cases of sexual abuse.

They include Synodal Way initiator Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Synodal Way president Bishop Georg Bätzing and Hamburg's Archbishop Heße.

All of them have so far remained in office.

The pope has not yet responded to a resignation request from Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki who also was accused of mishandling sexual abuse cases.

Sources

AP News

Catholic News Agency

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.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

Marx is the president of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Marx says church leaders in the field of pastoral care work and pastoral care should consider the situation of the individual.

This means they must "try harder to accompany them in their circumstances of life".

Gay people are included in this, so priests and pastoral workers must be encouraged to accompany people according to their individual situuations.

There are no general solutions, he says.

Instead, priests should be allowed to bless gay couples on a case-by-case basis.

Marx says the decision should be made by "the pastor on the ground, and the individual under pastoral care".

"It's about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies in other areas as well, which we can not regulate, where we have no sets of rules."

While he stopped short of fully endorsing blessings for same-sex couples, his positive comments made it clear he was open to approving such benedictions in private ceremonies.

"The issue is how the church can do justice to the challenges that new living conditions and new insights bring," Marx says.

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, who is the vice-president of the German Catholic bishops' conference, also asked for deeper discussion on church blessings for homosexual partnerships.

He says it is unhelpful to remain silent about such taboo subjects concerning the "political reality" of same-sex marriage.

"We must therefore ask ourselves how we should encounter and respond to those who enter into such partnerships and remain committed to the Church," Bode says.

"We must ask ourselves how we should accompany them pastorally and liturgically and how we can meet their needs."

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