News of the move came after a meeting of the bishops' conference 27 member Permanent Council, reports the German Catholic news agency KNA.

The Conference's permanent council says Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg (pictured), would "accept the offer of conversation made by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Beniamino Stella" to discuss the new instruction about parishes.

The Conference says Bätzing "will suggest to the Congregation that the conversation be conducted with the Presidium of the Synodal Way, since bishops, priests, deacons and laity are equally addressed in the instruction."

This means Bätzing will be accompanied by laity representing the "Synodal Process" underway in Germany.

After several German bishops criticized the instruction, which stresses the canon law that only priests can direct the pastoral care of parishes, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, said he would be happy to receive them to "remove doubts and perplexity."

At that time he said the meeting could take place "in due course" if the bishops wished to present their objections to the new instruction about parishes, which the Congregation issued on 20 July.

Some commentators see the instruction as a response to plans drastically to reduce the number of parishes in German dioceses.

The Vatican recently blocked a plan by the German Diocese of Trier to turn 800 parishes into 35. The Archdiocese of Freiburg is continuing to press ahead with plans to reduce its 1,000 parishes to 40.

Stella says "care must be taken not to reduce the parish to the rank of ‘branch' of a ‘company' - in this case, the diocese - with the consequence that it can be ‘directed' by anyone, perhaps even by groups of ‘officials' with different skills."

The instruction encourages parishes to see themselves above all as a "missionary community," he says.

There has been a mixed reaction from the German prelates about the new instruction.

While several bishops have concerns about it, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt expressed their gratitude for the text.

Cardinal Walter Kasper is defending the Vatican intervention, saying: "The German criticism completely misses the actual concern of the instruction: the pastoral conversion to a missionary footing."

"But precisely this basic concern of Pope Francis would be highly topical in view of the disturbing recently published numbers of departures from the Church."

Kasper was referring to statistics issued last month which showed that a record number of Catholics left the Church in Germany in 2019.

A date for the meeting between the Vatican and the German bishops and their party has not yet been made.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

The new document, an instruction rather than law, deals with the theme of the pastoral care of parish communities. It's focus is on what parish communities mean to the various clerical and lay ministries, according to the Congregation for the Clergy, which released it.

"This instruction does not contain 'new legislation'," Monsignor Andrea Ripa from the Congregation says.

Ripa explains an instruction's aim is to "set out the provisions of a law and develop the manner in which it is to be put into effect," he said, citing article 34 §1 in the code of canon law.

"The role of the parish priest as the 'proper pastor' of the community is emphasized." the Congregation said when the document was published.

"The pastoral service connected with the presence in communities of deacons, consecrated and laypeople, called to participate actively in the Church's unique evangelizing mission according to their vocation and ministry, is also emphasized and highlighted."

However, critics point out that canon law says the parish priest, not the lay faithful or others, makes the final decision about the parish.

They cite canon 536 as an example. This says "a pastoral council is to be established in each parish", but only if the diocesan bishop "judges it opportune." And such a council "possesses a consultative vote only."

This not only keeps the decision-making with the clergy, but also reserves it for men, critics note.

The new instruction does nothing to change this gender imbalance - which is something the Congregation says it does not have the authority to alter.

The critics say the problem with the new instruction on the "pastoral conversion of the parish" is that there is no way to enforce any implementation of its first eight pages.

All that can be demanded is what comes afterwards - as it was in the beginning (of the implementation of the 16th century Council of Trent).

Pope Francis has repeated many times that any reform of structures will be useless and ineffectual unless there is first a change of mentality.

He has had some success in this respect during the past seven years.

While there are clergy who appear to have been "converted" to his vision of a synodal Church where all the People of God - both those who are called clerics and those who are called the laity - would share responsibilities, even in making decisions for the life of the community, not everyone's on board with the pope's views.

Critics say these people will not change their mentality unless they are provoked to do so by the force of law, which includes new structures and models - which is where critics say Francis's call for "pastoral conversion" comes up short.

More adequate structures and avenues must be created to favour, encourage and reflect the new mentality, they say.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Society of Mary

Doyle, whose father was a priest, is a member of Coping International, an organisation that campaigns for the rights of priests' children.

Although the guidelines are not new, they have been secret until now.

Last year the secrecy around them changed when the Congregation for the Clergy said it was happy to send them to any Bishop's conference that requested them.

This development followed a meeting between Mgr Andrea Ripa, Undersecretary for the Congregation, and Doyle.

Coping International and the Congregation for the Clergy then cooperated over their release.

Doyle says he is "delighted" with the release.

He says it represents represent an important step towards transparency on the part of the Vatican and adds weight to the prioritisation of the natural rights of the child to know his or her parents.

Previously, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy between 2006 and 2010, emphasised the obligation to equal treatment on the part of the children of the ordained had to outweigh any other interests.

Hummes said this was also the opinion of Pope Benedict XVI during his time in office.

Ripa indicated during discussions with Doyle that it would be possible for a priest to remain in ministry, having fathered a child.

He said whether this would occur would be subject to two other considerations.

One is the priest's suitability for ministry and the other concentrates on the good of the child. This represents a significant change in the attitude of the Vatican regarding such situations.

Given Ripa's comments that it would not be "impossible" for priests to continue in their ministry after fathering a child, Doyle pointed to the recent suggestion of the ordination of "viri probati" as priests could provide a "remedy" for "procreative breaches in celibacy".

If this were the case, it would remove the clash of vocations that has previously led to children being raised without knowledge of their father, or in secret.

Source

• The Tablet UK
• Image: The Irish Times

Many have already relocated from enclosed suburban retreats into city centres.

So far seminarians from the dioceses of Lille, Orleans, Nantes, Lyon, Rennes and Paris have relocated.

The change in living arrangements responds to Pope Francis's wish for trainee priests to live less isolated lives.

The 13 seminarians in Lille will move later this year, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich says.

Two of the priests who teach will live with them. Two others will live a short walk away in a second house.

Ulrich says a document called Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis [the Gift of Priestly Vocation] is mainly responsible for the changes. It sets out the guidelines for priestly formation.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy updated Fundamentalis in 2016.

It calls for "a true human, spiritual and pastoral maturity of priests," Ulrich says.

Seminarians say they are pleased with the new living arrangements.

"Rue Princesse [our new home] offers us the challenge of a more evangelical life," Maxime Labesse says. He is a third-year seminarian for the Archdiocese of Reims.

"This community life presages how we will be called to live as priests," Lille seminarian Maxence Dubois says.

He hopes to form an even more fraternal community in the new seminary.

The change offers opportunities to bring theological, philosophical and spiritual formation together with pastoral experience.

Some French seminaries had already long established themselves in local communities before the recent changes to Fundamentalis were made.

Parisian seminaries, for example, began moving closer to the people in 1984.

Today there are eight houses attached to a parish in Paris, where several seminarians and two priests live.

In September 2010, Lyon's Saint-Irénée provincial seminary left a building in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon to settle next to the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica.

"Ratio Fundamentalis makes things happen and forces us to rethink our pedagogy, with fewer lectures and more teamwork," Eudist Father Laurent Tournier says. He has been the rector of the Orleans seminary for the past six months.

Although many changes are taking place, the original seminary buildings are still in use. In Lille, for instance, the original seminary building will continue to be a place of formation and to house diocesan services.

"There is no question of abandoning this building, even if reorganizations are under consideration" Ulrich says.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Séminaire provincial de Lyon saint Irénée