CNA Staff, Sep 18, 2020 / 06:30 am
The president of the German bishops' conference dismissed Friday suggestions that the controversial "Synodal Way" could lead to a split in the Church.
Bishop Georg Bätzing made the comment Sept. 18 after Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne said that the worst outcome would be if the process "leads to a split and thereby outside of the Church, out of communion with the universal Church."
In a Sept. 17 interview with the German Catholic news agency KNA, the cardinal said he feared that this would create "something like a German national church."
He added that the best outcome would be "if we succeeded in initiating real reform, which is definitely necessary in the Church."