Germany’s Catholic bishops have been instructed to introduce blessing ceremonies for same-sex and remarried couples, to allow trans people to alter their baptismal certificates and to permit Sunday homilies from qualified laymen and laywomen.
The Synodal Path, a 230-member assembly of bishops and lay Germans, has also ordered the country’s bishops to lobby in Rome for an end to the priestly celibacy obligation and back ordination of women.
After three years, five working sessions and a walkout of some conservative participants, the reform documents were passed on Saturday by the final session of Germany’s Synodal Path national consultation.
A new 74-member steering committee has been established to oversee reform proposals to change Catholic practice and teaching – but with no binding implementation timeline.
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Beyond national proposals, the final document gives German bishops a tight – and progressive – mandate when they join the worldwide Catholic synodal reform debate and next September’s world Synod in Rome.
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Given energetic rows at previous gatherings, many delegates in Frankfurt were surprised by the scale of support for the reform motions, even among bishops.
In the case of Catholic blessing ceremonies for previously excluded couples, some 93 per cent of delegates were in favour.
All synodal documents required double majority backing of all delegates as well as two-thirds of bishops. Of the 58 bishops who voted on blessing ceremonies, 38 were in favour and 11 abstained.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich, welcomed the move to regularise a practice that had already crept into some German Catholic churches in recent years.
“Now we can do this in public and make clear to homosexual couples – but also remarried divorcees and others who ask for a blessing – that they are welcome,” he said.
The final synodal documents allow dioceses to develop blessing ceremonies for “couples who love each other”.
While priests will not be forced to perform such blessings, the document says that a refusal to bless the relationship of two people “who want to live their partnership in love, commitment and responsibility to each other and to God” shows a lack of compassion.
As delegates departed Frankfurt, many expressed optimism that their daring bid to reform would win back new members in a country where Christians are now a minority
Similarly 90 per cent of delegates backed a call to allow qualified women and men preach at Sunday Mass in Germany and to “open the sacramental diaconate for women”.
To reach agreement, however, the document discarded plans to allow non-ordained people to perform baptisms, weddings and hear confessions.
In total Germany’s Synodal Path has backed 15 reform documents; in the final session, 96 per cent of delegates backed a proposal to allow transgender Catholics to have their sex and first names changed in the baptismal register.
Critics say it remains an open question when – or, indeed, if – this or other reform proposals will be adopted by all German dioceses.
Last January the Holy See intervened to ban the German church from creating a so-called Synodal Council. Rome said the proposal for permanent joint governing bodies of laypeople and clergy at all levels of the German church would limit bishops’ authority.
Pope Francis, with an eye on Germany’s Reformation past, told visiting episcopate head Bishop Georg Bätzing last year that “Germany doesn’t need two Lutheran churches”.
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Ahead of the weekend gathering, Bishop Bätzing insisted the German episcopate must want to remain in dialogue with Rome. On Saturday, however, he insisted a broad majority of the bishops backed the Synodal Path’s reform proposals and wanted lasting change.
“The church is able to change, and she is changing,” he said, announcing plans to revisit the controversial plan for joint leadership councils in three years.
As delegates departed Frankfurt, many expressed optimism that their daring bid to reform would win back new members in a country where Christians are now a minority.
But the final outcome of their greatest ambition – an end to priestly celibacy and ordination for women – remains unclear as it lies beyond the competence of German Catholics and their bishops.
In one reading, Europe’s largest – and wealthiest – Catholic church has thrown down the reform gauntlet to Rome. In another, Pope Francis – his eyes on Europe’s dwindling Catholic tradition and a growing global south – will rebuff German reform demands.
For Irme Stetter-Karp, president of leading lay organisation the Central Committee of German Catholics, Germany’s Synodal Path reform signal shows “this does not end here – this is just the beginning”.
