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There is a heated discussion among the German bishops about reforms in the Catholic Church. Fronts seem hardened. At their meeting in Fulda, the bishops want to make a breakthrough on at least one sensitive issue.
At the beginning of the autumn plenary assembly of the German Episcopal Conference in Fulda, its president Georg Bätzing committed himself to the process of reform of the Synodal Way. “The Synodal Way is making good progress,” says Bätzing at the beginning of the three-day deliberations.
The Bishop of Limburg said that the Synodal Way does not represent a risk of division. “We are a church in the context of the world Catholic church and we will continue to be. There are no tendencies to separate as a national church.” This accusation had been made repeatedly by the conservative Cardinal of Cologne Rainer Maria Woelki. Woelki had said last week that it would be bad if as a result “something like a German national church were created.”
“We are Church” calls for a courageous reform course
The “We Are Church” initiative urged the bishops to embark on a courageous course of reform. Neither the crown crisis nor the repeated bombardment from Rome should slow down the urgently needed reform process, said federal spokesman Christian Weisner. Otherwise, there is a risk that many committed Catholics will leave the Church.
One of the co-initiators of the Maria 2.0 reform movement, Elisabeth Kötter, again called for the consecration of women. Church superiors had made Jesus’ message a man’s affair, he said on Deutschlandfunk. Much can hardly be passed on to the younger generation. A revolution is necessary.
The vice president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Claudia Lücking-Michel, told SWR that the goal should be for all those baptized and confirmed to have “equal access to all positions” that the Catholic Church has to offer.
Maria 2.0 was harshly criticized by the conservative bishops. Basically, the reform process is about “changing the church, shaping it in such a way that it opens the way to the gospel for the people,” said Bätzing, president of the Episcopal Conference. “We want to remove the blocks that exist there so that evangelization, which is our basic mission as a church, has an opportunity in the context of a secular world in which we move socially.”
According to canonist Thomas Schüller, the Vatican is putting considerable pressure on the German bishops. “Rome is clearly nervous and sends the Cardinal of Cologne Woelki and the Bishop of Regensburg Vorderholzer in front of them, who categorically put an end to all the tender plants of reforms.” In any case, the vast majority of German Catholics are not interested in the Synodal Way, because in fact no one has any reform steps.
Payments according to the compensation table
Bätzing announced that the bishops wanted to agree on concrete payments to victims of sexual abuse by clergy before Thursday, if possible. “We want a uniform system,” said the bishop. “We want all those affected to have access to it. We want an independent body to decide, including the amount of benefits to be paid.”
In keeping with a pivotal decision made in the spring, the church wants to orient itself at the civil law clearing table. Currently, amounts of between 5,000 and 50,000 euros per case for sexual abuse are foreseen.
Parallel to the bishops’ deliberations, those affected by the abuses want to meet in Fulda to exchange and establish contacts. The Giordano Bruno Foundation raised the issue of abuse in the Catholic Church with an action. A sign in front of Fulda Cathedral read: “THAT is the Catholic Church: Cover up abuses. Postpone compensation. But billions are bunkers!”
