Bishop Georg Bätzing, head of the German Bishops’ Conference, expressed surprise and confusion over recent comments by Pope Francis rejecting the idea of women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. “I have never heard him speak like that before and have often spoken to him personally about these issues” said the Limburg bishop. “Let me say: Read more
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 Read more
Germany — a nation whose history is entangled with the Catholic Church — has become a “mission country” its Bishops’ Conference says. Conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing says under half of Germany’s citizens still belong to Christian denominations. Evangelisation in Germany has been a central theme since the time of Pope St John Paul II Read more
The recent Vatican letter to the German Bishops’ Conference highlights the tension between a synodal, inclusive approach to Church governance involving bishops and laity and the traditional structures of clerical authority. This letter, and the broader debate it represents, is emblematic of a Church at a crossroads. It’s a Church grappling with the need to Read more
Despite Vatican disapproval, an important synodal way meeting in Germany took place on 10 November. It was the first meeting programmed to implement the country’s synodal way decisions. The meeting was light on bishops though. Eight of Germany’s 27 diocesan bishops were marked absent. Four chose to boycott the meeting: Cologne’s Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Read more
The Catholic church in Germany revealed it’s been losing followers like never before. More than half a million people decided to renounce their membership in 2022. According to the German Bishops’ Conference in Bonn, 522,821 people left the church last year. The number was way more than the forecasts made by the institution. In 2021, Read more
Despite repeated warnings from the Vatican, a letter by the president of the German Bishops’ Conference published Wednesday confirms that plans for a German synodal council are progressing. In the letter— dated February 23 and published March 1 — Bishop Georg Bätzing writes that the German bishops take the Vatican’s “concerns” about a German synodal 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
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
Voluntary celibacy or marriage – the call for priests to be able to choose which state they prefer is growing stronger in Germany. German bishops’ conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured) and Archbishop Ludwig Schick have added their support to Cardinal Reinhard Marx who spoke strongly in favour of voluntary celibacy at the beginning of Read more