For many years there was a leaden atmosphere in the German Bishops’ Conference. At general meetings of the almost 70 chief shepherds, there was always someone at the table who had enough power and influence to play on the Roman gang through his good connection to the Vatican. And thus playing off the majority of the German bishops from a minority position.
Not infrequently this was the Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner (1989-2014), who thus exercised his own understanding of spiritual power. This time became leaden because bishops always feigned unanimity. Publicly enduring serious conflicts was not their thing.
consensus that there is dissent
The uproar at the plenary assembly of the synodal path of laypeople and bishops in Frankfurt am Main in mid-September, when a blocking minority of bishops thwarted a basic paper on the reform of sexual ethics, changed that. Since then, the formation of camps in the bishops’ conference has been open. “We have a consensus that there is dissent,” said Bishop Bätzing, the chair of the conference. It is important to “endure these differences of opinion without us falling apart as a community”. That sounded at least as much like a pious wish as a description of the situation.
DW church expert Christoph Strack
Glad they’re finally arguing. The Catholic Church, in Germany as well as on the world level, realizes that it has missed the further development of church teaching for decades and has let calls for renewal die down. If these sounded too often, clerics and especially bishops of Rome were called to order and made all the more strictly responsible. Many believers today see their church only as a moral institution and no longer as a community in the struggle for the meaning of life and the question of God.
Sure – there are important questions to be discussed. Incidentally, if on the evening after the deliberations in Fulda you occasionally saw couples of two bishops – definitely from different camps – strolling through the city in serious conversation, it seemed like “Church on the way”. They practice. Rather than the cardinal who spent the evening with members of the small reform-critical group Maria 1.0 in a restaurant in the city.
The coming months will decide the future
One thing is clear: the next year and a half will be about the path of the Catholic Church in the coming decades. They want her to continue making her way through this world with renewed spiritual vigour, more equality and ministry for women, more involvement of lay people and a departure from clerical power. And that this church is not alone as a small group of upright ones only tripping around in the inner circle of their stronghold of faith.
A scandal broke out a few weeks ago on the synodal path – the bishops blocked a reform paper with a blocking minority
In mid-November, all German bishops will travel to the Vatican for talks with the Pope and his most important advisers. Such days of encounter or instruction occur approximately every five years. Now they fall into ecclesiastically exciting and uncertain times. At the end of February, the bishops will meet again, and in March 2023 the synodal path will come to an end, which can certainly still fail, but must not fail. And in the fall of 2023, a large synod of bishops will follow in the Vatican on reform issues.
Provocation by Cardinal Koch
The Pope’s Minister for Ecumenism, Curia Cardinal Kurt Koch, revealed in an interview before the end of the General Assembly how controversial the point of view is and how nerve-wracked the nerves are. He put the synodal path in direct relation to ways of thinking “during the National Socialist dictatorship”. An outrageous, almost infamous statement. In politics, a minister would be an ex-minister days later after such a level failure. In the Catholic Church, he will probably go back to work in his palace on Monday and will feel some pats on the back along the way.
But the German bishops are demanding a public apology and are considering a formal complaint to the pope. Ultimately, however, this controversy also fits with the mood of the churchmen, who always want to be right and do not want to move.
Time is running out
This is how far too many bishops let time pass. What is downright criminal: In Fulda, two bishops spoke to journalists who have a lot to do with dealing with abuse in the church context. The Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, who has been in charge of dealing with the topic for the bishops’ conference for twelve years, took stock and looked back self-critically at the “often very small steps” action taken. And said: “If we had approached things more decisively, broadly and with more openness, then we would be further today.”
More decisive, broader, more open – that seemed refreshingly honest! And downright tragic at the same time. But it fits the style of missed opportunities and wasted time. The time to be bolder is overdue!
