The situation of the German church continues to disturb Pope Francis' sleep. The Holy Father himself admitted this in a letter sent on November 10 to four scholars in response to their letter of a few days ago full of concern about the start of the work of the Synodal Committee in Germany.
A reply of great importance because it was sent on the very day of the first meeting of the Committee and addressed to the four former delegates who left the Synodal Road last February denouncing "her course" which is clearly pushing the Church into Germany on the margins of the universal"
As the first meeting of the Synodal Committee opened in Essen with the words of the president of the lay organization ZdK, Irme Stetter-Karp who said that " Francis encourages us, let us move forward with perseverance ", the Pope took a pen and in a letter from the Vatican expressed his concern " about the already numerous concrete steps with which large parts of this local Church continue to threaten to depart more and more from the common path of the universal Church ".
That of the Pope was a general distancing from the work of the German bishops, but a clear rejection in particular of the Committee born out of the Synodal Way with the aim of eventually reaching a Synodal Council.
In fact, Francis alluded to this dire outcome, writing that the Committee " intends to prepare the institution of a consultative and decision-making body which, in the form described in the relevant decision-making text, is not compatible with the structure of the sacramental institution of the Catholic Church ".
Although on the occasion of the first meeting she had allegedly mentioned the encouragement of the Pope, the president of Zdk Stetter-Karp has already announced that she has no intention of retiring and in an interview for Domradio she said that she is upset with the Pope. Then he said that he had written several times, together with Monsignor Bätzing, to the Pope to update him on the steps the German Church is following.
But the Pope is also concerned about the final texts approved at the German Synodal Road assembly, which include same-sex blessings and talk of opening the debate on women priests and lifting the obligation of priestly celibacy.
Francis was not the only one to listen to the rebellious German bishops. In fact, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, thought of this when, in a note from late October, which became public in recent days, he already closed the doors to any revision of the Church's teaching on the priesthood and homosexual acts
The Venetian cardinal warned the German Church that " there is no possibility of arriving at a different assessment of the priestly ordination reserved for men without intending to review what was established by Saint John Paul II in the Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" .
Parolin called on the German bishops not to create false hopes even for teaching related to homosexuality.
" Another issue on which a local church cannot take a different position is related to homosexual acts ." (A2 Televizion)
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