Papal letter stuns German Church

New letter from the Pope with well-known concerns about Germany's path to reform

Upon request, Pope Francis has once again formulated his concerns about the reform dialogue of the Catholic Church in Germany in a letter. Just in time for the starting signal of the Synodal Committee – and with an extremely short response time.

New letter from the Pope on the church reform dialogue in Germany - and to say it upfront: Neither the timing, nor the content, nor the procedure of publication are surprising. Similar events have happened several times since the Catholic Church in Germany started the Synodal Path in 2019. Conservative critics of the initiative in particular developed a real pen pal relationship with Rome.

Eleven days ago, on November 10th, the Synodal Committee was formed in Essen - a new body of bishops and laypeople that is intended to pave the way for possible ecclesiastical reforms, including greater participation and equality. On the same day, four German Catholic women received a personal letter from Pope Francis, which the “Welt” published online on Tuesday.

Worry about the specific steps

The content: Francis renews his criticism of German reform efforts. He shares the "concern about the numerous concrete steps that large parts of this local church are now threatening to move further and further away from the common path of the universal church," he writes. This undoubtedly includes the constitution of the Synodal Committee.

The committee is intended to prepare the Synodal Council, in which bishops and laypeople want to continue their discussions about power, the role of women, sexual morality and the priestly way of life. However, such advice "cannot be reconciled with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church," reminds the Pope and refers to the last letter from the Vatican on January 16, 2023, which he approved.

It said that neither the Synodal Way nor any body established by it nor a national bishops' conference had the authority to set up such a body as the Synodal Council, which would curtail the authority of the bishops. The letter at the time was the Vatican's response to a joint request from Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (Cologne) and the bishops Gregor Maria Hanke (Eichstätt), Bertram Meier (Augsburg), Stefan Oster (Passau) and Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg). The reply letter was addressed to the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing. He in turn assured that they were acting within the applicable canon law.

The Synodal Committee was constituted on November 10th in Essen. On the same day, the four former participants of the Synodal Way received the letter of reply from Pope Francis.

The women to whom Francis has now written are no strangers to the German Catholic cosmos: the theologians Katharina Westerhorstmann and Marianne Schlosser, the religious philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and the journalist Dorothea Schmidt, who is involved with Maria 1.0. All four belong to the conservative-traditional spectrum and were delegates from the Synodal Path on the ticket of the German Bishops' Conference.

Last February they jointly resigned from their mandate and announced this publicly with a so-called farewell statement in the “Welt”. The reason they gave was that the Catholic Church in Germany was increasingly distancing itself from the universal church. They could no longer support the fact that on the synodal path "central Catholic teachings and beliefs were called into question" and "repeated interventions and clarifications from Vatican authorities and the Pope" were ignored.

Short response time

Last but not least, the World Synod in Rome in October showed that the key topics of the Synodal Path are being discussed not only in Germany but in all parts of the world and that there is a need for reform. The problem that the Vatican has with the Germans is less on a substantive level than on a structural level: as soon as laypeople and bishops decide together on an equal basis, alarm bells ring in Rome.

There is perhaps only one thing remarkable about the current letter from Rome: the reaction time of Pope Francis, who thanked the women for their letter of November 6th and responded almost immediately. While the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference must always exercise patience when he turns to Rome on this matter.

At its first meeting, the Synodal Committee in Essen unanimously approved the statutes and rules of procedure. However, they can only come into force if the sponsors - the Bishops' Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics - decide on them with the necessary majority. The lay umbrella organization will vote on this at its general meeting in Berlin next Friday and Saturday. The Bishops will vote at their spring general assembly on February 19th to 22nd in Augsburg. It wouldn't be surprising if another letter arrived from the Vatican beforehand.

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German Bishops' Conference (DBK) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) have reacted to a letter from Pope Francis in which he was critical of reforms of the Catholic Church in Germany. When asked, DBK spokesman Matthias Kopp said: "Pope Francis' letter is addressed to four women." We found out about it from the media. "As we are not the recipients of the letter, we will not comment on it."

In a personal letter to four German Catholics, which became public on Tuesday, the Pope wrote, among other things, that he shared "concern about the numerous concrete steps that have now been taken by large parts of this local church that threaten to move ever further away from the common path of the universal church ". In the letter, Francis refers to reforms of the Synodal Way and in particular to the Synodal Committee, which is supposed to prepare the establishment of a Synodal Council.

ZdK: The committee is based on canon law

The ZdK explained that the Synodal Committee stands on the basis of applicable canon law. As an innovation, Pope Francis has introduced official participation and co-decision by laypeople in the deliberations of the World Synod: "We thank the Pope for this clear sign of more synodality, in which we feel closely connected to him."

ZdK Vice President Thomas Söding wrote on "X", formerly Twitter: "Concern for the unity of the Church is the Pope's job." However, you can rely on the Catholic Church in Germany: charitable and synodal. According to the Bochum New Testament scholar, a synodal council will also find recognition in Rome, and work is being done to achieve this. "Sowing discord is no way."

With his letter dated November 10th, Francis responded to a letter dated November 6th. In it, the theologians Katharina Westerhorstmann and Marianne Schlosser, the journalist Dorothea Schmidt and the religious philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz expressed their concern for unity with Rome in view of Germany's reform course.

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