Germany’s Catholic and Protestant Churches published a joint report last week calling for a more realistic approach to ecumenism.
The report admitted that the historic ecumenical goal of a shared Eucharist remains a distant prospect, instead arguing that rather than setting specific targets the Churches should focus on a “process-oriented ecumenism”.
While Christians of both confessions hope for concrete reforms, the report said, “no breakthroughs are to be expected in the near future”.
The title of the report – “More visibility in unity and more reconciliation in diversity” – reflected its sober approach. The text included no further targets, saying it would be better to focus on similarities than differences.
“Despite differences in some individual ethical issues that have become apparent in the Catholic-Protestant dialogue, there is broad agreement on central ethical issues such as the question of peace, the environment and education,” said Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg, head of the ecumenism commission for the Catholic bishops’ conference.
Germany’s Catholic and Protestant Churches are roughly equal in size and seemed to have come closer together in recent decades, but Catholics’ firm views on bioethical issues have clashed with growing calls for change from Protestants in the past few years.
At least part of the “ecumenical winter” some have bemoaned has been attributed to reluctance of Protestant Churches to be too closely linked with Catholic leaders compromised by sexual abuse scandals.
However, embarrassment at a recent report on abuse in Protestant denominations – which said at least 1,259 perpetrators had abused 2,174 victims – has fostered a change in perspective.
The total recorded in the report was far higher than expected, based on only around 6,000 dossiers of allegations compared with the 38,000 reviewed by Catholic reports. More investigation remains to be done.
Both churches have steadily lost members for a variety of reasons, but the sexual abuse crisis is “a serious burden in both churches that urgently needs to be dealt with”, Bishop Feige said.
The Revd Volker Jung, head of the regional Protestant church in Hesse-Nassau, said that study showed the need to “address this task in a more targeted and coordinated manner in the Protestant Church”.
He praised the Catholic Church in Germany for its Synodal Path initiative, which came in response to revelations of the extent of the sexual abuse crisis, and said its planned Synodal Council would need a “Protestant counterpart” in their umbrella group, the Evangelical Church in Germany.
Germany’s Catholic bishops removed discussion of the Synodal Council – a permanent decision-making body with lay membership – from the agenda of their recent plenary after objections from the Vatican. However, despite the lack of official approval, the bishops have scheduled the next meeting of the Synodal Committee established to set up the council for June.
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