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More participation planned for lay people: Pope Francis greets believers during an audience (archive photo)
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Evandro Inetti / dpa
Pope Francis wants to open the Catholic Church to a greater say for laypeople and to initiate a synodal process for this purpose.
"The Church of God has been called to a Synod," says a document presented in the Vatican in preparation for the World Bishops' Synod in 2023. All believers are called to participate in the further development of the Church.
The document speaks of a process "in which everyone can participate and from which no one is excluded".
One must listen to everyone, including ordinary people, and give them the opportunity to express themselves, said the Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, at a press conference in the Vatican.
There should be assemblies in every diocese.
In general, synodality is understood to mean that the future of the church is discussed on the broadest possible basis with the involvement of non-clerics.
The Vatican uses the term Synodal Way as used in the Catholic Church in Germany several times.
German Catholics want concrete reform steps
However, it is questionable whether the Pope understands this to mean something similar to the German Catholics.
For a year and a half these have been discussing the position of women, ecclesiastical sexual morality, dealing with power and priestly celibacy and want to achieve very concrete progress in reform.
Abuse and corruption are also discussed in the Vatican document: "But we cannot hide from the fact that the church itself has to counteract the lack of faith and corruption within itself," it says self-critically.
Above all, one cannot forget the suffering of minors and vulnerable people, which they experienced because of "sexual abuse, such as abuse of power and conscience" by clerics and religious.
The German Bishops' Conference (DBK) and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) assessed the document as confirmation of their reform course. DBK chairman Georg Bätzing spoke of a "milestone". ZdK President Thomas Sternberg said: "The fact that the Vatican is formulating that synodality represents a royal road for the Church gives me hope that the people of God will really listen to the faith of the people of God." The Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx sees his own statement "Many things in common" with the Synodal Way in Germany.
But there are also doubts among German bishops as to the extent to which the Pope actually supports their course. Quite a few fear that the Pope will want to hear many voices, but in the end everything will stay the same. There is almost a consensus that this would cause disillusionment and frustration among the mass of German believers.
The concerns also shine through at one point from Bätzing's statement when he writes that the Vatican document states that the consultation phase is not about producing documents, but rather about letting dreams germinate.
"The Pope said something similar to me last year in a conversation about our Synodal Path," said Bätzing.
"That is authentic Pope Francis, but immediately raises the question of effectiveness, because the Synodal Way - whether worldwide or in Germany - must remain concrete."
kfr / dpa