Top German bishop presses on with Church reform, promises to involve Vatican
Limited extract from Christa Pongratz-Lippitt, Subscription journal La Croix International, 11 January 2021
President
of Catholic bishops' conference in Germany says local Churches must be
allowed to find solutions to pressing questions like the diaconate for
women. Bishop
Georg Bätzing, head of Catholic episcopal conference of Germany (DBK),
has vowed to work "in close cooperation with the Vatican" as he forges
ahead with his country's synodal procedure for Church reform. "I have
already had talks in the Vatican about this and plan to continue the
discussions when I go down to Rome with the synodal procedure presidium
as soon as possible," Bätzing said in an interview published January 3
by the Catholic news agency KNA. The
59-year-old bishop, who has been DBK president since last March, said he
plans to keep Vatican officials informed of the developments of the
synodal procedure (also known as the Synodal Way) and not just its
results. He also announced that
Cardinal Mario Grech, the 63-year-old Maltese prelate who recently took
over as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, "will come
and see us, perhaps for our second synodal meeting". Following Vatican Council II The
DBK president said this would allow the cardinal to see first-hand that
the German Church's endeavors for reform are based on the Second
Vatican Council (1962-65) in the tradition of the Würzburg Synod
(1971-75). Many of the demands of
that national synod in the 1970s -- such as admitting women to the
diaconate and opening the priesthood to married men -- have not been
implemented by Rome to this day. Bishop
Bätzing said these suggested reforms, like the ongoing synodal
procedure, are still being discussed and debated. Thus, he said he could
understand that many Catholics were restless. "The
great majority of committed Catholics in our country want change and
that is why the synodal procedure is so essential," said the DBK
president, who has headed Limburg Diocese just north of Frankfurt since
2016. He warned that if the Church did not answer the "pressing questions", it would lose credibility. Women's
ordination was one such pressing question, Bätzing said in a long
interview in the January issue of the German theological monthly Herder
Korrespondenz. Church's official explanation is "less and less
convincing" He said he always tried to do his best in explaining honestly the current Church teaching on the subject.....(Source)