In his June 4 statement, Cardinal Marx noted that at a gathering in Rome on May 3, 2018, "the bishops participating in the meeting were told that they 'should find a solution that is as unanimous as possible in the spirit of ecclesial communion,'" and he was therefore surprised to receive the letter "before such a unanimous settlement had been reached."
Cardinal Marx said that he sees a "further need for discussion within the German bishops' conference...but also with the corresponding Roman dicasteries and the Holy Father himself."
On June 6, the Chairman of the Ecumenical Commission of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg, published an editorial on "katholisch.de," a DBK website, in which he expressed disappointment at the response from Rome, and sharply criticized the "moral double standards" of bishops raising concerns over the proposal to the Vatican while allowing Protestants to receive Communion in their own diocese for pastoral reasons.
The Bishop of Magdeburg drew a connection between allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion in some circumstances, which the German Bishops Conference, amongst others, introduced in guidelines issued in the wake of Amoris laetitia.
"A similar conflict, on the grounds that this was a topic that 'pertains to the faith of the Church and is of relevance to the universal Church', could have been triggered by the wording of the German Bishops' [Conference guidelines] on marriage and family ministry, given the statements about the possibility for individuals who remarried after a divorce to receive the sacraments. Why, then, has there been an escalation when it comes to interdenominational differences?"
One day after Bishop Feige, Cardinal Walter Kasper also went public with an editorial published by the German bishops' conference website.