Vatican Letter Critical of Pro-LGBTQ+ German Catholics Escalates Tensions

The conflict between German Catholics and the Vatican has reached a new low. The Vatican released a letter criticizing the German church, specifically about homosexuality and women’s ordination, but one leading German bishop forcefully defended the efforts by Catholics in his country.

In late November, a letter from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state for the Vatican, to Dr. Beate Gilles, a laywoman who is general secretary of the German Bishops’ Conference, was made public. The letter, dated October 23rd, starkly denies that any change in church teaching on homosexuality or the ordination of women is possible. The letter comes ahead of three planned 2024 meetings between German bishops and officials at the Vatican’s Curia to discuss, per OSV News, “what is unchangeable in the Church’s doctrine and discipline and what can be altered.”

The ongoing conflict stems from Germany’s Synodal Way process that concluded in March. The multi-year process that included both bishops and lay people issued historic calls for the Catholic Church to revise teachings on sexual ethics, to fully welcome transgender and intersex people, to bless same-gender couples, and more. It also proposed a Synodal Council going forward which would practice joint decision-making among bishops and lay leaders.

Parolin’s letter became known shortly after a letter from Pope Francis raising his own concerns about the German church was made public. Addressing four lay women in Germany who were concerned by the Synodal Way, the pope demurred on gender and sexuality issues, mostly criticizing the proposal for a Synodal Council. According to the National Catholic Reporter, Francis wrote, in part, “I, too, share this concern about the numerous concrete steps that are now being taken by large parts of this local church that threaten to move further and further away from the common path of the universal church.”

German Catholics have denied claims they are moving towards schism or are out of step with the universal church. Irem Stetter-Karp, president of the lay-run Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), noted wider reforms were already happening in the church, not just in Germany—and perhaps the letter reflects the mind of Parolin, not the pope. OSV News reported:

“[Stetter-Karp] said that even before the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican, Cardinal Parolin had said it was impossible to give women voting rights in the synod because that would contradict canon law. ‘And what did our pope do? Suddenly it was legal and was put into practice,’ Stetter-Karp told KNA.

“Thomas Soeding, a member of the ZdK’s presidium, said there were repeated attempts to ‘pass off partial truths taken out of context as definitive statements by Rome.’ The ZdK would not let itself be intimidated by this, he said. On the contrary, it was positive ‘that there is and should be a dialogue process between Germany and Rome.'”

However, that dialogue is becoming more difficult. A dispute between two bishops reveals how high the temperature is. Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, chair of the German Bishops’ Conference, responded sharply to criticisms against German Catholics made by Poland’s Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference.

In October, Gadecki wrote to Pope Francis describing the Synodal Way’s resolutions as “extremely unacceptable and un-Catholic,” which are “inspired by left-liberal ideologies.” He focused criticism on the proposal to bless same-gender couples. At the time, both Gadecki, a noted opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, and Bätzing were at the Vatican participating in the Synod on Synodality’s first General Assembly. Gadecki’s letter became public in November.

Bätzing responded to the Polish archbishop with his own public letter, saying Gadecki acted with “unbrotherly behavior.” America reported:

“According to the [Polish] Rzeczpospolita newspaper, Bishop Bätzing told Archbishop Gadecki: ‘I expressly reject this approach by the Archbishop, the tone of your letter and also the way in which the facts are presented.’ He himself had chosen a different path by writing directly to the archbishop and informing the pope, he added.

“Bishop Bätzing questioned in his letter whether a president of a national bishops’ conference had the right to pass judgment on the catholicity of another local church. ‘Let me therefore make it clear that I consider the Archbishop’s letter to be an enormous overstepping of his authority.'”

The November flurry of letters follows the Synod’s General Assembly the month before which left Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates and others disappointed with the assembly’s final document, which failed to even use the term “LGBTQ+.”

How the tensions between German Catholics, the Vatican, and other prelates critical of the Synodal Way will be resolved is becoming harder to envision. A certain entrenchment is setting in. Wunibald Müller, a German theologian, speaks for many Catholics not only in his country, but worldwide. Katholisch.de reported:

“‘Catholics no longer allow themselves to be lectured by Rome about what they are allowed to discuss and what needs to change in the Church so that the Church can continue to be a place for them or once again become a place where they can live their faith together with conviction,” Müller told katholisch.de on Sunday.

“Love between same-sex partners – even where it is expressed sexually – is love and remains love. ‘This love is fundamentally just as much under God’s blessing as the love of heterosexual partners. This no longer needs to be discussed,’ Müller continued. It must be taken for granted in the church and, at least in the German church, this is increasingly the case. ‘There is no turning back and there will be no turning back, no matter how much some people in the Vatican resist.'”

The conflict in which Pope Francis, Cardinal Parolin, Bishop Bätzing, Archbishop Gadecki, and many more church leaders find themselves is messy. It may appear more like bickering than progress. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI spent decades trying to suppress such open conflict, silencing theologians and condemning pastoral ministers at the margins.

Yet, today’s debates are actually a healthy sign of progress. Pope Francis urged young people in 2013 to “make a mess,” and has continually called for Synod delegates to speak honestly and without fear. Synodality is quite messy. It brings with it many difficulties and disruptions. Warring letters may not tbe best approach, but if the church is to truly be one that listens to and includes more lay people as influencers, it will be church that necessarily has to treat issues of gender and sexuality as unsettled and in need of development.

In all of this, one truth is clear: the days of Roma locuta, causa finita (“Rome has spoken, the matter is done”) are over. German Catholics’ faithful modeling of synodality should be treated by the wider church as a gift, not a threat.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, December 4, 2023