“I cannot imagine Pope Francis wanting to prevent democratic decisions” on future of Church, says president of Central Committee of German Catholics after pontiff’s controversial remarks at Wednesday General Audience
“There is no future in yesterday’s answers”, explains Bernd Hagenkord SJ, adding “nearly all” participants in German Catholicism’s renewal debates “agree we need women in the running of the Church”
The head of the German Bishops’ Conference has clapped back at the cardinal of Cologne after he warned of the danger of schism emerging from the German Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process.
The Catholic renovation movement ‘We Are Church’ Germany has pleaded for that country’s Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform discussions to continue despite COVID-19 and the “extremely irritating” recent Vatican instruction on parishes.
A severe lack of lay theologians and a public perception of division are giving the German Church even more reasons to push on with its ‘synodal path’ reforms.
A German bishop has come out swinging against the new Vatican instruction on parish life, doubling-down on the German Church’s ‘synodal path’ as the “only answer to this Roman challenge”.
The head of a key German committee of laypeople has insisted that a “positive attitude” and a “good mood” are still reigning in the ‘synodal path’ Church reform process in the country.
Pope Francis has encouraged the German Church to make “good progress” in its ‘synodal path’ reform process.
A German bishop has warned that the Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process must succeed or else Catholicism in the country “will become a sect”.
French Catholic women are pushing their bishops for a German-style ‘synodal path’ in which “to envision the Church of tomorrow”, saying that “the future of Catholicism depends on synod-like dialogue between clergy and laity”.
Despite a cardinal’s objections, the German Bishops’ president has insisted that that country’s Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process is “alive and kicking”.
German Church figures have criticised a bishop who pulled out of the ‘synodal path’ over alleged “dissent” in the reform process, accusing him of a “simplification” of doctrine and of issues involved in the discussions.
A German bishop is shaking his head at the “loud, loveless and terrifyingly excessive criticism” of the national Church’s “synodal path” reform process as path working groups meet today for the first time.
It’s full steam ahead in Germany for that country’s Church’s “synodal path” reforms despite the Pope’s ‘no’ for the moment to worldwide change in his post-Amazon Synod apostolic exhortation.
German Catholics are pledging to fight on for married priests and female deacons despite the letdown of the Pope overlooking both issues in his Amazon exhortation.
A German archbishop has said that that country’s ‘synodal path’ participants are not “revolutionaries”, but instead are seeking a better “Church of the future”.
One of the strongest speeches of the first synodal assembly was probably made by a religious sister describing the system of fear in the Church.
A “synodal path” participant who describes themself as non-binary caused a sensation in the German Church by speaking truth to power at the first synodal assembly in Frankfurt.
German Catholics have blasted Cardinal Müller’s comparison of the German Church’s “synodal path” to the rise of Nazi Germany, ripping the cardinal’s “poisonous”, “inhuman” and “unacceptable” words.
An Austrian theologian has taken heart from the German “synodal path”, suggesting a similar Church reform process for his own country.
Ultraconservative Cardinal Gerhard Müller has compared the German Church’s “synodal path” to the rise of Nazi Germany.
No to clericalism and yes to greater co-responsibility and participation on the part of laypeople in the Church. Those were the keys to the first assembly on the German synodal path which took place this past weekend in Frankfurt.
The first assembly of the German “synodal path” has voted to make resolutions dependent on a majority of female delegates accepting them.
The long-awaited “synodal path” Church reform process gets underway formally today in Germany, with youth and the laity dreaming of Church “democratisation”.
The President of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Sternberg, has blasted the “right-wing conservative” critics of the German Church’s “synodal path” and suggested similar Church reform processes could be carried out every five years.
A German bishop has said that country’s ‘synodal path’ is the “only chance” for the Church, and added that women deacons are “possible”.
The Catholic Women’s Association of Germany (KFD) is drawing “red lines” for that country’s Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process: full equality in Church responsibility and a call to Rome for women’s ordination.
The German Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process is struggling to live up to the deep reform hopes of two of its most important groups of participants: laypeople and women.