The vice-president of the German bishops’ conference has met with the Pope to discuss the demands of the German synod.
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, spent five days in the Vatican at the end of February expounding on the demands for church reform that are being debated at the German synodal procedure.
He spoke first with the heads of the Vatican dicasteries and then with Pope Francis in a private audience.
It was most important that the German Church intensify its talks with the Vatican authorities, he told the Osnabrück church paper Kirchenbote on his return. “You can talk to Rome. In future, we must try harder to seek dialogue and talk together.”
He had discussed the hot-button issues that were on the German Church’s synodal procedure’s agenda like the sexual morality, women’s role in the Church and the priestly ministry in all his meetings, he said. “A few years ago it would have been quite unthinkable for a Catholic bishop to speak out openly about such desires for church reform in the Vatican,” Bode said.
The cardinals and the Pope had encouraged him to bring up the German reform issues at the worldwide synodal process.
He had received “no halt signs, commands, condemnations or threats,” although it was “no secret” that many curia figures had difficulties with the German Church’s demands.
The climax of his visit had been his private audience with Pope Francis. He had been able to discuss even controversial issues quite openly. He had, for instance, told the Pope that as far as women’s ordination was concerned, the German Church wanted “to keep the discussion open” and that Pope St John Paul II’s stance on the subject was less and less understood amongst the faithful.
Bishop Bode also raised homosexuality, the nature of the priesthood and the high number of people leaving the Church in his meeting with the Pope. Francis did not take a clear position on any questions, he said, but made it clear in his reactions that it was important to stay close to people.
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