German bishops assure Vatican but vow to proceed with reform

VATICAN CITY – Germany’s Catholic bishops insisted Saturday that their reform process won’t lead to a schism and vowed to see it through, after tense meetings with Vatican officials who want a moratorium on proposals to ordain women, bless same-sex unions and rethink church teaching on sexuality.

The head of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Baetzing, briefed reporters on the weeklong series of meetings he and 60 other German bishops had with Pope Francis and the heads of the Vatican’s main offices. The periodic once-every-fiveyear visit took on far greater import this time given the demands for change and reform among Germany’s rank-and-file Catholics following the German church’s reckoning with decades of clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups.

Summarizing the German position, Baetzing said the German church would not make decisions that were the

Vatican’s to make, and said outsiders who fuel fears of the reform process leading to a separation from Rome were ignorant of what actually was getting debated.

“We are Catholic,” Baetzing said at a news conference. “But we want to be Catholic in a different way.”

Preliminary assemblies of the reform process, known as the Synodal Path, have sought to address how power and authority are exercised in the church. During these meetings, lay representatives and German bishops have approved calls to allow blessings for same-sex couples, married priests and the ordination of women as deacons, though the proposals must be further debated and approved.

Conservative Catholics have criticized the moves and warned the German reforms could lead to schism.

Baetzing assured the Vatican that the German church would “not make any decisions that would only be possible in the context of the universal church,” such as changes to the church’s core doctrine.