The German Bishops Conference (DBK) has voted to update its labour rules. Now, it will no longer be concerned about certain aspects of its workers’ private lives. Until now, employees of Catholic institutions in Germany could lose their jobs if they were openly in a same-sex partnership or remarried after a divorce. The change means Read more
Germany’s Catholic bishops have assured the Vatican that their “Synodal Path” won’t lead to a schism; however, they vowed to proceed with reforms. Summarising the German position, the head of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said the German church would not make decisions that were the Vatican’s to make. “We are Catholic,” Bätzing Read more
The head of the German Catholic bishops’ conference said on Thursday that the global synodal process has already changed the Church. Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured) said, “After only one year, this Synodal Process has generated a dynamic that has led to a new understanding of the dignity of all the baptised, to a broader co-responsibility Read more
The president of the German bishops’ conference Bishop Georg Bätzing sat down with Cardinal Kurt Koch on October 4 to clear the air with the ‘Christian Unity’ president. Bätzing had demanded an apology from the Vatican’s Koch (pictured) over comments that brought up Germany’s Nazi past. He lamented what he called Koch’s “untenable statements” about the Read more
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 Read more
The German “Synodal Way” has adopted a controversial proposal to create a permanent body composed of lay people and bishops to oversee the local Church. The country’s bishops initiated the “Der Synodale Weg” in 2019 in the wake of a damning report that showed the vast extent of the clergy sex abuse crisis. The aim Read more
On Friday Germany’s Synodal Way approved a text on the role of women in the Catholic Church, one that challenges the exclusion of women from sacramental ministry. The vote took place on the second day of the plenary session. The document “Women in ministries and offices in the Church” was facing its second reading. The Read more
German bishops have hit back against a Vatican warning over the direction of the Synodal Way, saying they were “astonished” by the rebuke. The Vatican said Germany’s synodal path is a threat to church unity at a universal level. The Holy See stressed that the undertaking lacks the authority to compel bishops to make changes Read more
Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he told the leader of Germany’s Catholic bishops that the country already had “a very good evangelical church” and “we don’t need two.” The pope recalled his remark to Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German bishops’ conference, during a conversation with the editors of Read more
The chairman of Germany’s Catholic bishops’ conference has responded to strong criticisms of the ‘Synodal Way’ by his Polish counterpart. Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, Germany (pictured on the left) was answering criticisms levelled at Germany’s Synodal Way by Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki of Poznan, Poland (pictured on the right). Bätzing explained that the Synodal Way Read more