CONTINUE
The Synodal Path, in which the German Catholic Church worked for a reform of the institution, approved this Friday with 86% of the votes a relaxation of priestly celibacy and will propose to Pope Francis a reflection in this regard along with the rest of the conclusions of the process, for which an unhindered ratification is expected in the vote that will take place in the autumn assembly.
According to the statement issued by the German Episcopal Conference, the proposal is part of the text entitled “The celibacy of priests. Strengthening and openness” and which emphasizes the value of celibacy as a life of priests but calls for the admission of priests married by the Pope or by a council, as well as granting permission for Catholic priests who so wish to be marry and remain in office, in the same way that the Byzantine churches and the Protestant church allow.
During the debate in the plenary assembly, with 200 in-person delegate participants and which took place on Friday in Frankfurt, several interventions criticized that the text contains a positive assessment of life in chastity and requested that it be formally associated with "risks" and "effects secondary”, referring to cases of child abuse. Before the vote, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Munich, Reinhard Marx, and the President of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the EU, Jean-Claude Hollerich, had spoken in public.
Marx once declared in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung that “some priests would be better off married, not only for sexual reasons but because it would be better for their lives because they would not be alone (…) and some will say that if we no longer have compulsory celibacy, then everyone will run off to get married, and my answer is that it would be a sign that, indeed, it is not working well. "It's a precarious way of life."
Hollerich, for his part, had told the English newspaper La Croix: “I have a very high opinion of celibacy, but one wonders if it is essential because I have married deacons who exercise wonderfully, whose homilies really touch people, more than us celibates.” And he continued: “If a priest cannot live this solitude, we must understand him, not condemn him”.
women's organization
In the last session, the plenary assembly of the Synodal Path voted on a second and also controversial document on the ordination of women that will be sent to the Forum as a basis for the work for its subsequent processing. The text deals with gender equality in the Church and establishes that "it is not justified for women to be admitted to all services and offices of the Church but excluded from priestly ordination", for which it defends that "there is no line clear of tradition” requires a “fundamental questioning and change of the prevailing power structures and relations”.
These two documents, although "historic" according to the participants in the assembly, are not yet binding. There is still a crucial debate, which will take place throughout this Saturday, on "Sexual Morality" and "Homosexuality in the Church", with which the current session will close. But already on Thursday two texts were approved, the first links, which include changes of depth and give the measure of the scope that the process intends to sustain. Both will have the necessary two-thirds majority of the bishops present.
With 178 votes in favor and 28 against, the members with the right to vote approved a so-called orientation text with which the reform project establishes its theological foundations. Since the text was also accepted by the present bishops with 41 votes against 16, it becomes binding.
It later succeeded by similar majorities to "Basic Text" sober "Power and Separation of Powers in the Church." The orientation text, which is characterized in terms of language and content as "by theologians for theologians", intends to house a "path of conversion and renewal" for the Church, which is considered irreversible in the face of the "signs of the times". .
Throughout its 20 pages, it emphasizes that “the most important sources for Christians are the Bible, tradition, the magisterium and theology”, and includes among these sources “the signs of the times and the sense of faith of the people of God". The discussion delved into what the Church could hear by "signs of the times" and the Salzburg theologian Gregor Maria Hoff asked that they be recognized as a "source of knowledge". Franz-Josepf Overbeck, Bishop of Essen, added its character of "work of the Holy Spirit".
The Synodal Way has shown itself in this assembly very largely in favor of "fundamental changes in the constitution of the Catholic Church", such as a different distribution of power among bishops, a time limit for the exercise of leadership positions in the Church , the participation of believers in the number of bishops and the delivery of accounts of their administration.
