African, German bishops disagree on homosexuality
The Catholic church is facing a possible schism over the controversial issues of homosexuality and the role of women that has caused a sharp clash between African bishops and their German counterparts.
The African bishops, now joined by their counterparts in North America, Australia, some parts of Europe, have sharply opposed calls for fundamental changes to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, blessings for same-sex unions, and the priestly ordination of women by their colleagues from German operating under the “Synodal Path.”
The African bishops, just like Pope Francis warned two weeks ago, argue that calls by their German counterparts have “far-reaching implications for the Church worldwide.”
However, the chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops Archbishop Martin Kivuva downplays concerns that the debate could divide the church, saying it “is a conversation among the faithful ahead of next year’s Global Synod in Rome.”
Way of life
“It is a healthy conversation among the Catholic faithful across the world on current realities facing them. At the end of discussion which is ongoing within the Small Christian Communities (popularly known as Jumuiya), all the views will be collated and presented in Rome for discussion during the global synod at the end of next year,” Archbishop Kivuva says.
Here in Kenya, the Archbishop said, the bishops have also received some proposals that can be described as radical, such as the question on why married Catechists in Africa should not be ordained full time deacons the way it happens the world over.
“There are many issues that we as the church are opposed to, yet there are realities that need to be confronted directly. The church cannot afford to remain silent on some of these issues. But some proposals need to be tackled carefully because of their impact on the way of life,” he warned.
Archbishop Kivuva, however, agrees that though some of the proposals are contradictory to African traditions and norms, they should be openly discussed and agreed upon through consensus during the synod.
“At the end of the day, it would be the Pope, as the prince of the church and a group of senior clergy and theologians, who will gather in Rome who will make the final decision,” he says.
So far, 74 Catholic bishops from the four continents have signed a “fraternal open letter” to their episcopal counterparts in Germany, expressing concern over the German Church’s controversial “Synodal Path.”
Dead end
While noting the need for reform in the life of the Church, the letter states that “Christian history is littered with well-intended efforts that lost their grounding in the Word of God, in a faithful encounter with Jesus Christ, in a true listening to the Holy Spirit, and in the submission of our wills to the will of the Father.”
The letter states that Germany’s “Synodal Path” — a reform effort, backed by the majority of German bishops, that calls for fundamental changes to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, blessings for same-sex sexual unions, and the priestly ordination of women — “risks leading to precisely such a dead end.”
The conservative bishops warn in their letter that “in an age of rapid global communications, events in one nation inevitably impact ecclesial life elsewhere.”
“Thus, the ‘Synodal Path’ process, as currently pursued by Catholics in Germany, has implications for the Church worldwide,” the text of the letter states, including “the local Churches which we pastor and the many faithful Catholics for whom we are responsible,” they warned.
The hot debate was opened last week by the chairman of German bishops’ conference who expressed his disappointment with Pope Francis, insisting that “the teaching of the Catholic Church” must be “changed,” especially concerning homosexuality and the role of women.
Bishop Georg Bätzing wants the church to change with the realities facing the faithful “instead of hiding behind some impossible to implement dogmas.”
Discrimination
Explaining what he meant by this, the bishop said: “The pope, even in the Catholic Church, even with all the powers vested in him, is not someone who could turn the Church from its head onto its feet, which is what we would like.”
Bätzing added: “He is doing what he can. Namely, he is initiating a process where all these questions are put on the table. For the 2023 world synod and for questions, so to speak, like ‘Are groups allowed to participate, are LGBTQ allowed to participate?’ he always says: everyone.”
Bätzing, the bishop of Limburg, in western Germany, went on to state : “I believe that in the final realization of what our image of God and man is, discrimination against homosexuals, people living in relationships, for example, should not be framed as a prohibition, but as a possibility that is encountered in an appreciative way.”
Bätzing also said that on the matter of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood, he wanted to “maintain a balancing act in such a way” that he could say what the Church’s teaching is, but at the same time recognize that “this teaching no longer finds acceptance among the faithful, not only in a social context, among the faithful.”
“The sense of the faithful, has moved on,” Bätzing said.
“This is a sign that we must take up theologically and that leads to change. And that’s what I’m committed to. So, I don’t sit in the armchair and say ‘this is the way it is now,’ but I really give a lot of my strength to achieving this. And I believe that change is going to happen.”
Synodal path
Bätzing’s assertions have now attracted a robust debate from his colleagues across the globe, with some, particularly those from Africa, warning that his team’s proposal would have drastic effect on the Church globally.
Leading voices in opposing the Germany bishops’ proposals include four cardinals — Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, US Cardinal Raymond Burke, South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and Australian Cardinal George Pell — 15 archbishops, and 55 bishops.
“Thus, the ‘Synodal Path’ process, as currently pursued by Catholics in Germany, has implications for the Church worldwide, including the local Churches which we pastor and the many faithful Catholics for whom we are responsible,” Cardinal Napier says in his letter.
The South African cardinal expressed specific concern over the Synodal Path’s deviation from established teaching related to sexuality and said that what happens in Germany “absolutely” has an impact on life in his country.
In fact, he said, that at the meetings of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, “there is always concern about how what is taking place in the Church in the West is [having an] impact upon the Church in Africa, and in particular where the impact is of a negative nature.”
