German bishops assure Vatican but vow to proceed with reform
Germany’s Catholic bishops are vowing to continue their controversial reform process after a week of tense meetings with Vatican officials seeking to put the brakes on proposals to ordain women, bless gay unions and rethink church teaching on sexuality
VATICAN CITY (AP) — 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-five-year 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.”
