Catholics in Germany have been waiting for months for an answer from the Vatican to a request for talks about the Synodal Path reform project.
The president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Baetzing, and the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, wrote a letter directly to the Pope on March 17 asking to present the results of the reform dialogue soon, the Christ und Welt (Christ and World) supplement of the newspaper Die Zeit reported in an article released ahead of its publication on Thursday.
When contacted by Germany’s Catholic News Agency (KNA), the Bishops’ Conference confirmed the existence of the letter. It said it had not yet received an answer and declined further comment.
In the letter, Baetzing and Stetter-Karp again rejected accusations that the Synodal Path risked splitting the Catholic Church, Christ und Welt reported. “Not all differences could be overcome,” the letter says, according to the report. “We expressly affirm, Holy Father, that we see ourselves as part of the Universal Catholic Church.”
The reform-oriented bishops and laypeople in Germany have been complaining for a long time that the Vatican does not want to talk to them and that they are only ever talked about by others. They have said their reform proposals are denounced by critics as a danger to the unity of the Universal Church and are often deliberately misinterpreted.
*Originally reported by KNA Germany.
