He does not want a second Protestant church, but a strong Catholic one: Francis has already sent this bon mot to the German bishops twice. Now his criticism becomes even clearer.
“I want it Catholic, but in brotherhood with the Protestant Church”: Pope Francis expresses strong reservations about the reform plans of the German bishops.
“Nothing sticks without repetition” is an old educational principle. Pope Francis repeated his provocative words at a flying press conference after his visit to Bahrain. «I say to the German Catholics: Germany has a large and beautiful evangelical church. I wouldn’t want any other, she would never be as good; but I want it Catholic, but in brotherhood with the Evangelical.»
Francis warns not clumsily against a “Protestantization” of the Catholic Church. He praises the evangelical and warns the catholic against a faint doublet. The catch-up self-modernization of Catholicism, which the Second Vatican Council initiated sixty years ago, should not be continued in such a way that what constitutes Catholicism evaporates. The inferiority complex towards the Protestant educated elite, which was prevalent among Catholics far beyond the German Empire, may have worn off since the Adenauer era anyway.
The background to the statement is the reform debates on the synodal path in Germany, on which bishops and lay people advise and decide on an equal footing. In the Evangelical Church in Germany, such synodal practices have long been established, women have access to the office of pastor and bishop, and sexual ethics have been liberalized. In the “Church of Freedom” even assisted suicide is openly discussed. Francis obviously does not wish to copy this – and the timing of his dissent marking is remarkable.
Francis remains skeptical
In mid-November, the German bishops are expected to make their regular visits to Rome to discuss the situation of the Church in Germany with the Pope. The previous visit by several bishops, who once again campaigned intensively for the Synodal Path, had no effect on the Roman pontiff. Francis remains skeptical.
Advocates of the synodal path in Germany will not be happy about this. The Pope’s letter to the Church in Germany in 2019 already provoked mixed reactions. The encouragement for more synodality was welcomed, the papal vote for a “primacy of evangelization” was ignored. There was even more criticism that the Pope did not say a word about the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, ignored the question of women and made no statements about the binding nature of the synodal resolutions.
The abuse scandal has an unmistakable systemic dimension that demands structural answers. The synodal path in Germany saw this and made decisions to tackle the abuses quickly and take preventive measures. However, it is questionable whether this can be so closely interlinked with further reform intentions that affect the understanding of ministry and the episcopal church constitution.
In the end, the bishops should decide
It is tricky that some actors refer their demands directly to those affected by abuse. The danger of a functionalization or even “retraumatization” (Klaus Mertes) is in the air. Some want reforms, others reject them, others again value speedy processing and quick compensation without being bothered with church reform questions. In view of the plural self-understanding of those affected, which is hardly adequately represented in the affected councils, the question arises: should some be heard and others ignored?
Right from the start, Francis separated the processing of the abuse complex from the synodal process of the universal church. In 2015 he established a commission for the protection of children and in 2019 organized an “anti-abuse summit”. He has introduced a tougher legal approach to dealing with abusers. Further steps must follow. At the same time, the Pope initiated a synodal process that wants to include everyone, but clearly differentiates between consultation and decision. All those involved in evangelization should contribute their voice, and the bishops make the decisions. The following applies: without spiritual renewal there can be no structural reform.
The synodal path in Germany pursues an opposite agenda. First the due structural reform, then evangelization measures. The Tübingen theologian Peter Hünermann has just defended this approach in an open letter to the Pope and referred to the deep shock that the uncovering of the abuse scandal caused by the study published by the Bishops’ Conference in 2018. There was no alternative to the new discussion format between the bishops and Catholics as a way of a public process of repentance and reconciliation.
«Gender trouble» in the church
Hünermann has kept quiet about the fact that the German reform project is striving for a bold reorganization of the church constitution, as well as the targeted further development of church sexual ethics in the name of self-determination and the gradual entry of radical gender theories. At the synodal assembly in February 2022, women could no longer vote as women, but only as “non-men” because there was one person among the synodal members who defined himself as non-binary.
With that, the «gender trouble» had arrived in the church. However, tolerance for diversity had the paradoxical effect that the members of the synod were surreptitiously denied that they were women. The uneasiness provoked. So in September there was a new, modified voting triad: ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘diverse’. All of these developments are unlikely to be in the spirit of Pope Francis.
The synodal path wants to establish a supreme council, which should be staffed by lay people and bishops in a gender- and generation-fair manner. This is a new type of church leadership. Permanent synodality – a few for all! At the Frankfurt Synodal Assembly in October, a “Synodal Committee” was given the task of preparing the institutional consolidation of the Council. This allows the apparatus to continue to swell and swallows up considerable financial resources with falling revenues. The new national governing body also limits the powers of the bishops’ conference, which Pope Francis wants to see strengthened as an intermediary between the local and universal churches.
What do the faithful people think?
Loyalty conflicts of the German bishops are inevitable. As members of the college of bishops, they are part of the universal hierarchy, with which the local majority decisions certainly do not always harmonize. The synodal council can only function if the bishops submit to the council through «voluntary self-commitment». It is unclear where the theological legitimacy that lay people should lead the church with quasi-bishop authority should come from. It is also significant that the Central Committee of German Catholics wants to appoint the members of the Synodal Committee solely from its own ranks – others are not considered.
The Pope indicated that he had doubts that academic elites and representatives of associations adequately represent the faithful: “What do God’s faithful, holy people think? Go there and look for his feelings, that simple religiosity that you find in grandparents. I’m not saying to go back, no; but to go back to the roots to the source of inspiration.» There are also laypeople who are irritated by the testy tone of the debates on the synodal path. Many marvel that the identity politics of sexual minorities should take up so much space when the collapse of preaching and the galloping desertification of faith are not an issue.
In order to break up the reform discourse, Francis put his call “back to the sources” in concrete terms and gave the spiritually exhausted church in Germany a clear sign: “If there is no encounter with Jesus Christ, there will be an ethic disguised as Christianity.” It remains to be seen whether the Pope will personally present his spontaneous interview statements to the German officials during the ad limina visit. In any case, it would be high time that Francis changed from an undecided observer to a determined co-designer of the synodal path.
Jan Heiner Tück teaches systematic theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna.