Posts Tagged ‘German Bishops’ Conference’

Synodal vs traditional – Church at crossroads

Monday, February 26th, 2024
Synodal

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

Four bishops boycott Germany’s synodal way meeting

Monday, November 13th, 2023
synodal way

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

German Catholic church loses half a million members in one year

Monday, July 3rd, 2023

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 ‘no’ from Vatican, German bishops moves forward with plans for synodal council

Monday, March 6th, 2023

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

Religion is ‘interruption’, not continuity, says bishop

Thursday, September 29th, 2022
Religion is interruption

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 to Bishop Bätzing: We don’t need 2 evangelical churches in Germany

Thursday, June 16th, 2022

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

Choosing voluntary celibacy or marriage “does not touch the priesthood in itself”

Thursday, February 24th, 2022
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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

German church’s reform is not “too Protestant” says bishop

Monday, May 3rd, 2021

The German bishops’ conference president has criticised Vatican officials who regard the German Church’s reform dialogue as “too Protestant” and threatening to church unity. “For many Vatican officials, the German Catholic Church smells Protestant,” Bishop Georg Bätzing said in an online round table discussion. This did not apply “to top level Vatican officials like prefects Read more

New arguments open debate on women’s ordination says Archbishop

Monday, August 24th, 2020

An open debate on women’s ordination in the Catholic Church is necessary, says Hamburg’s archbishop, Stefan Hesse. “One has to be permitted to think about and discuss the issue.” Hesse says “Ordinatio sacerdotalis,” John Paul II’s 1994 letter stating the church cannot ordain women as priests, was positioned as a response to those who considered Read more

Vatican parish instruction divides German prelates

Thursday, July 30th, 2020

German prelates have reacted strongly to the new Vatican parish instruction. Released last week by the Congregation for the Clergy, the instruction has seen many bishops react with anger and contempt. Only Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne is defending the instruction, while Cardinal Walter Kasper is steering a middle way. The German Bishops’ Conference Read more