Joint Head of Germany’s Synodal Way: Reforms ‘Must Not Stop at Church Teaching’

LifeSite News ^ | 9/27/22 | Andreas Wailzer

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Bishop Bätzing responded to questions posed about Germany's Synodal Way and the plan of Germany's bishops to promote their policies in an upcoming visit to Rome.

FULDA, Germany (LifeSiteNews) — In a recent press conference the head of the German Bishops Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said that “reforms must not stop at Church teaching” when asked about the “reform process” of his country’s heterodox Synodal Way.

Monday’s press conference marked the beginning of the “Autumn General Assembly” of the German bishops in Fulda, Germany.

In fielding questions from the press prior to the assembly, Bätzing was asked how he sees the differences in opinion among the German bishops, and how he plans to present the results of the recent Fourth Synodal Way Assembly to Rome during the German bishops’ ad limina visit in November.

In response he stated:

We carry the situation as it is, among us 69 bishops, to Rome. We feel that there is also an attempt to make politics with the different positions and possibly also partisanship. But I think we have to get rid of that.

Bätzing also said that “there is a very clear two-thirds to three-quarter majority of the German Bishops’ Conference who explicitly says that we have to move forward, that reforms are needed.”

And these reforms must not stop at Church teaching, otherwise, there will always be a certain discomfort, especially for pastors, who always have to personally endure the dichotomy between doctrine and practice, and not least the faithful who do so. We really want to try new approaches here.