In a recent interview with Croatian radio station HRT, Zulehner shared insights on the ongoing Synodal Path and Rome's approach to church reforms.

Professor Zulehner claims Rome's approach stems from its desire to showcase synodality, establish new structures and adapt church law before reforms can be implemented elsewhere.

The Synodal Path in Germany faced challenges due to its early start and Rome's shortage of theological experts.

"Rome doesn't like to take the second step. They say ‘We are taking the first step'" Zulehner explained.

Good model for democracies

The theologian wants to see more theology at the next Synod on Synodality.

"We need to do more theology and recognise what we hear: Is the Holy Spirit speaking to us? And then we need to find a good way to make the final decisions" Zulehner stated.

In this context, Zulehner picked up on thoughts from Synod on Synodality advisor and Linz theologian Klara Csiszar. Csiszar emphasised that church synodality "can also be a good model for democracies".

Otherwise the church would ask itself what it could learn from democracy about participation.

"This is a very good task for the future, the task of the church in today's world" Zulehner said.

Zulehner, speaking from a conference in Zagreb, Croatia, organised by the Pastoral Forum and the PosT network, reiterated the importance of theology in guiding the church's future. Both organisations, founded by Zulehner, focus on supporting and researching churches in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Pastoral Forum, established 35 years ago, aids young theologians in developing pastoral theology through scholarships. The PosT network, a 20-year-old initiative, connects pastoral theologians across Central and Eastern Europe, fostering collaboration and research in the region.

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, chair of the German Bishops' Conference, stated "The figures show that the church is in a comprehensive crisis".

The statistics revealed a significant drop in Catholic Church membership. Approximately 403,000 Catholics left the church last year, reducing the total to 20.3 million by the end of 2023, down from 20.94 million the previous year.

Bätzing warned that resignation or fear are not the right responses. He emphasised the church's enduring mission to "proclaim the good news of the loving, creative and liberating God".

The bishop urged immediate church reforms, arguing that while they alone would not solve the crisis, the situation would deteriorate without them. "People still have high expectations of the church, particularly in social and educational sectors" he noted.

He emphasised the importance of aligning church priorities with people's real lives, particularly focusing on young people and their families.

Devastating abuse crisis

A total of 1,779,014 people have left the Church in Germany since 2019 in the wake of the devastating abuse crisis. Coincidentally, that was the same year that the Synodal Way was launched,

According to the bishops' conference figures, there were 20.3 million Catholics in Germany at the end of 2023. That figure represents 24 % of the total population of 84.7 million.

To leave the Church formally in Germany, baptised Catholics must book an appointment at a local registry office or court, provide official documents and pay a fee. They are given a certificate confirming they are no longer registered and therefore not liable for the country's church tax.

They also receive a letter from local Church officials informing them they can no longer receive the sacraments, hold Church posts or serve as baptismal or confirmation sponsors.

Sources

Katholisch

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

I would like to see a Roman Catholic constitutional convention, with a broad selection of lay and ordained members, assisted by historians, theologians, and sociologists.

The task

The task would be three-fold:

First: Draw up a constitution for the Roman Catholic Church, as one of several - very valid and important — Christian traditions.

The constitution would clarify that the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Christian Community is broader than than just the Roman Catholic Church.

Secondly: Create a new administrative structure, covering all aspects of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical governance, from the bishop of Rome to local bishops and to local parishes.

Thirdly: Clearly establish that the bishop of Rome, the pope, could be a man or a woman and should be elected for a limited term of office by an international body of lay and ordained representatives.

She or he would be the chairperson of an international administrative board of directors. Much of the old Vatican bureaucracy could be dismantled.

Under the new Roman Catholic Constitution, there would be no need for a papal electoral college or a smoking stove in the Sistine Chapel.

The cardinal electors could be retired and hand in their red hats. The old stove that sent up white smoke when a new pope was elected could be put in a papal museum or simply recycled.

Moving one

We need to move ahead. Broad-reaching church reform is necessary. But, I would emphasise that church reform is about much more than the necessary structural institutional changes.

Genuine church reform must be primarily about how people experience and live their Christianity.

About one's pattern of life. About how one lives respectfully with others and lives with self respect.

The historical Jesus did not establish or lay down any pattern or plan for church structure.

He clearly did emphasise, however, a necessary pattern of life, which we see in the "Sermon on the Mount" found in Matthew 5-7.

It is a message of love, compassion, and selflessness. Jesus encourages his followers to love their enemies, to forgive others and to care for the poor and marginalised.

Paul the Apostle reminds Christians as well, in 1 Corinthians 13:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres." Read more

• John A Dick is a historical theologian. Now retired from the KU Leuven. His areas of research, lecturing, and writing are religion and values in the United States, secularisation, and religious fundamentalism.
• He writes at For Another Voice

President Higgins (pictured with Pope Francis) expressed these sentiments after a private audience with the pontiff in the Vatican's library.

"He faces grave difficulties in the institution of which (he) is head. I get a sense of that nearly every time I meet him. But his heart is in the right place" President Higgins told reporters.

Pope Francis is "reaching out to people in the LGBT community" and "those who feel that they haven't been labelled as Catholics" Mr Higgins continued.

Despite these challenges, the President commended the Pope for having a compassionate approach to addressing these issues.

"His heart is open, and he refers to that very often."

Signals of reform

The meeting came as the Vatican held a synod assembly about the church's future that is being closely watched for signals of reform.

Higgins stressed the importance of the ongoing synod and its potential outcomes. He advocated for a thoughtful consideration of the roles of both male and female believers in a changing Church.

President Higgins observed that the Pope is facing a challenging internal battle within the Church to guide it towards reform. However, there seems to be an opportunity for transformation.

The Irish President also highlighted that Pope Francis has reintroduced individuals into the discourse who were previously excluded for far too long. Many people within the Church have been profoundly affected by these exclusions and their voices deserve to be heard.

"Look at the people he has allowed back into the discussion" he continued.

"There are people who have been excluded from the discourse that should have been long, long back and there are people who've been deeply wounded by this."

Sources

The Irish Times

CathNews New Zealand

Théo Péporté is past-president of the Council of Christian Churches in Luxembourg and former vice-president of SIGNIS (the World Catholic Association for Communications).

Péporté was one of 18 international observers who attended the 12-day Synodal Way procedure, and he was impressed by what he saw.

"This procedure is not only most exciting but absolutely necessary and definitely a model for the World Church," Péporté told katholisch.de, the official website of the German bishops' conference.

The bishops and the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) commenced the Synodal Path at the end of 2019.

The catalyst was to address the massive defection of believers as part of the devastation caused by the clerical abuse crisis.

A clear majority of the Synodal Path delegates favour the reform course suggested by the procedure's presidium, consisting of the bishops' conference president and deputy president plus the ZdK president and vice president.

But that does not mean that opinions of the minority who are against Church reform were suppressed.

"Those who are of a different opinion, have their say and are respected like everyone else," Péporté pointed out.

Péporté said the procedure has a significance well beyond the situation in Germany.

"We in Luxembourg and other European countries can learn a great deal from the participation of the laity in Germany.

"I very much hope that the considerations that were made here in Germany will flow into the worldwide synodal process," said Péporté.

He noted that the shock of Germany's clerical sexual abuse scandal could still be clearly felt at the plenary.

He said confidence in the Church had already been eroded well before the abuse scandals were exposed. The scandals, he argued, had merely accelerated Catholics' loss of trust.

"Even bishops said: 'We cannot carry on like this. The entire system must be renewed from the inside'. And it was most important that they invited the laity to join in as that is the only way renewal can be achieved," Péporté said.

He explained that Catholics in his homeland of Luxembourg are carefully watching the German process.

The Churches in both countries have long been discussing similar issues.

Unfortunately, he said, the Church in Luxembourg has already become largely irrelevant.

Catholics there are no longer interested in ecclesial reform.

The Church hardly features any longer in the media, Péporté said.

"I can therefore only encourage German Catholics not to break off their connections with society in general. That is an added reason why the reforms are sorely needed."

Sources

• La Croix International
• CathNews New Zealand

The 75 priests and lay Catholics who make up the parish council met just days after the conclusion of an apostolic visitation of the archdiocese.

The Vatican investigation of the largest archdiocese in Germany had been ordered by Pope Francis.

The meeting also followed a demonstration by a group of Catholics who walked from their parish some 30 km to demand that the cardinal resign.

The cause of the tension relates to Cardinal Woelki's refusal to publish an independent report on sex abuse in the archdiocese.

He had previously vowed to make the report public.

The 64-year-old cardinal set up a victims' council and commissioned a law firm to write up the report. But at a meeting with the council in October 2020, he backtracked and said he would not allow the report to be published.

Patrick Bauer, one of the council's members, said it was a "terrible meeting" that left the victims feeling betrayed.

To show his disappointment, he resigned from the victims' council. Soon others followed.

The cardinal then commissioned a second report, which was published last March.

But this has done nothing to ease tensions.

"All the people mentioned in the second report were mentioned in the first," said Bauer, who had access to both files.

"The only difference is that the first report looked at the systemic dimension of the abuse and its cover-up. The second one only looked at individual cases," said another person who also saw both documents.

Many argue that this is the real reason why Woelki decided to publish only the second report.

The ongoing crisis surrounding Cardinal Woelki comes when the Catholic church in Cologne sees members leaving in large numbers.

Discontent is largely fuelled by paedophilia scandals. But, many German Catholics are also demanding radical changes for a more inclusive church.

In Cologne's administrative court is an office where dozens of people come every day to officially leave the Catholic church.

Followers of all faiths in Germany are required to pay a tax to finance the religious institutions they belong to. This is registered by tax authorities.

The demand to leave the Catholic Church is so high, that the deregistration office has increased the number of appointments it offers from 600 to 1800 a month.

In defiance of Vatican doctrine, the blessing of homosexual unions is one of the expressions of a growing reform movement in Germany.

There is also a growing demand for equal rights for women in the church.

In the light of growing discontent within its institutions, the bishops' conference and the central committee of German Catholics are exploring ways to reform the church. In 2019, they launched a vast debate referred to as the 'Synodal Path'. Their conclusions are due in 2022.

The winds of change are blowing through the Catholic church in Germany.

That's why there is a campaign for reform and also for more plurality in the Church. Followers want more openness, and all believers want to stop more people leaving.

Only the future can tell whether these reforms will come to fruition.

Sources

La Croix International

EuroNews

Speaking from his own experience, Bishop Georg Bätzing says he has noticed when he preaches "dialogically" (ie in a dialogue-like way), he gets a lot of feedback from laity.

"When I talk about my faith, my struggle to believe, then I get super feedback," he says.

"Attention to the quality of sermons and services has seldom been as high as now… People immediately tell you what they liked and what they didn't like. I see that as a challenge."

"The faithful will not allow us simply to fall back into old patterns."

Bätzing says he is now more supportive than ever of the German Synodal Path (or Procedure) for Church Reform.

He also has more concrete ideas about what changes are possible and how they can be achieved.

Focusing on what God means for today's world, the Procedure has set up forums on four pivotal questions: power and checks and balances; sexual morality; priestly life; and the place of women in the Church.

These are the pivotal questions that determine whether people feel they belonged to the Church or not.

Bätzing says there's a longstanding rift between the reality of people's lives and Church teaching, especially as far as the question of sexuality and partnership is concerned.

Nonetheless, the Church has a great deal to offer Catholic laity here based on its image of God and what it means to be human," he points out.

"But for many people the message we proclaim comes over as a type of moralizing that only forbids. People feel alienated."

"...I sincerely hope that we will be able to further develop certain wordings on the Church's teaching in the present Catechism."

All resolutions the Procedure passes must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of the bishops' conference.

Asked if that doesn't prove that there's still an imbalance of power between priests and the laity, therefore how might Church reform move forward? Bätzing says he's not sure.

When the Synod's two years of discussions are over, he hopes bishops favouring reform will form coalitions on reform resolutions.

He also hopes that dioceses that have already begun implementing certain reforms will form networks.

These could include dioceses that allow other Christians to receive the Eucharist at Catholic liturgies or look for solutions to help Catholics whose relationships are not fully recognized by the Church.

"At the moment, we can only see the first tender sprouts of the new social form of the Church, but it is on these ... we must focus. God's self-revelation never stops, but the deposit of the faith remains the same... ...the maturation of faith is a process that can never be declared completed."

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Kirche+Leben