A long-running row over abortion counselling in Germany is expected to come to a head shortly, writes Derek Scally.

The Catholic Bishop of the south-western diocese of Limburg, Franz Kamphaus, has defied calls from the Vatican to change the policies of church-sponsored counselling centres for pregnant women.

Rome fears that church-paid counsellors are indirectly helping German women procure abortions and has ordered the practice to end. While 26 German bishops have complied, Bishop Kamphaus continues to stand his ground, maintaining that the crisis counselling prevents abortion.

Under German law, a woman seeking an abortion needs to produce a certificate to show she has received counselling at one of 1,600 pregnancy advice centres around the country. Until the end of 1999, more than 200 of the centres issuing the certificates were run by the Catholic Church - until Pope John Paul II intervened.

He was concerned that the counselling certificates issued by church-supported centres were what one conservative bishop called a "licence to kill". "After praying on the matter, I request you . . . to apply a uniform solution, because I consider it highly damaging to accept different approaches in such a crucial matter," wrote the pope in a letter to the German bishops' conference.

The Catholic Church-run centres continued to operate, but stopped issuing certificates. The underlying message to women was: if you want an abortion, go elsewhere.

But Bishop Kamphaus stood firm and refused to alter his policy. He went to Rome to explain, saying that by not issuing certificates, the Catholic Church was giving up a chance to provide "effective protection for unborn babies" and women were going elsewhere for counselling. According to his own statistics, more than half of women decided to keep their babies after counselling at church-supported centres. Only 4 per cent were known to have used the certificate for an abortion, he said.

He struck a compromise with the Vatican, to continue counselling as before, but to present a report of its operations before the end of 2001.

The eventual Vatican response to the report was unsurprising. It called on Bishop Kamphaus to "re-establish harmony" between the Limburg diocese and the rest of the country by the end of the year - a clear message to stop issuing certificates.

But it seems things have not changed in the Limburg diocese and the Papal Nuncio in Berlin, Giovanni Lajolo, is believed to have travelled to the Vatican in recent weeks to report on the matter. His office declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Irish Times last week.

The Vatican faces a difficult decision: while determined to end the practice of issuing certificates, removing Bishop Kamphaus from his post would be unprecedented and unpopular as he is highly-regarded in Germany and abroad. In his own diocese he is regarded as a hero for standing up to Rome. At 70, he still has five years before he has to retire and although the Vatican would love him to go earlier, Bishop Kamphaus has already proven his stubbornness.

A likely solution would be to remove his responsibilities for the Catholic charity Caritas, which oversees the counselling centres. That would solve the immediate problem, but could backfire if Bishop Kamphaus resigned in protest.

Derek Scally