CNA Deutsch, Sep 25, 2025 / 14:03 pm (CNA).
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference defended his country’s controversial guidelines on same-sex blessings this week, asserting that there was no contradiction with Vatican teaching, despite Pope Leo XIV’s recent criticism.
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg used his closing address at the autumn assembly to address the concern. “To construct the matter of ‘episcopal disobedience’ on the part of German bishops from Pope Leo XIV’s statements on Fiducia Supplicans is simply absurd,” Bätzing said.
Pope Leo made the statement in a recent interview with Crux.
“In Northern Europe, they are already publishing rituals of blessing ‘people who love one another,’ which goes specifically against the document that Pope Francis approved,” the pontiff said.
Even before Leo’s warning words, five German dioceses refused to implement the German guidelines, citing conflicts with Vatican teaching.
On Thursday, Bätzing maintained that these guidelines, titled “Blessings Give Love Strength,” were created “in consultation with the Roman Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
The German prelate said that “the criticism that the pope hints at in the interview is directed against the publication of liturgical formularies for formal blessing rituals. This is precisely what the German bishops have consciously not done.”
“The handbook created in Germany, ‘Blessings Give Love Strength,’ is a pastoral concretization of Fiducia Supplicans created in consultation with the Roman Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith about the situation in Germany,” the conference chairman said.
When asked by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, about how this “consultation” was structured, a conference press spokesman stated that it does not comment on such internal matters as a matter of principle.
Vatican document context
The German tensions relate to the document Fiducia Supplicans, issued by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in December 2023.
The document allowed priests to offer “spontaneous” pastoral blessings to same-sex couples and others in “irregular situations” while maintaining that such blessings cannot resemble ceremonies and must be very brief.
In his opening Mass homily this week, Bätzing reflected on the Church’s theological self-understanding.
The Church’s identity as “sacrament and instrument of salvation,” as formulated by the Second Vatican Council, “must not be understood exclusively, as it has been for centuries,” he said, referencing the traditional teaching “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (“no salvation outside the Church”).
The conciliar declaration Nostra Aetate on the Church’s relationship to other religions has become “exemplary for the further development of Church teaching,” enabling “ecumenism, dialogue with other religions, acceptance of freedom of religion and conscience,” Bätzing argued.
However, other bishops quickly shifted focus at the assembly to different concerns, including declining membership.
Membership crisis deepens
Considering catastrophic results from the 2023 Church membership survey, Mainz Bishop Peter Kohlgraf emphasized that “reforms are not enough.”
According to the survey, only 22% of Catholic Church members have confidence in their institution, down from over 80% in the 1980s. Three-quarters of Catholic Church members are considering leaving the Church.
Kohlgraf emphasized: “Even if the Church and we bishops, as responsible actors, were to implement such an agenda in full, the church pews would not automatically fill up again, baptism rates would not rise, and Church departures would not decline.”
Archbishop Udo Bentz of Paderborn warned Tuesday: “We must not get stuck in crisis mode.” While calling for “a synodal culture,” he cautioned against focusing solely on “who is allowed to participate in decision-making” at the expense of broader pastoral concerns.
The division among German bishops reflects broader tensions as the Church navigates between pastoral outreach and doctrinal clarity in an increasingly secular society.
This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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“Three-quarters of Catholic Church members are considering leaving the Church.”
When is enough of Post-conciliarism enough?
All the faithful want is the return of their Catholic Religion.
All the bishops want is a NWO Fratelli Tuti soup of the day: Ecumenical New Church.
Who can save the Catholic Church from 60 years of misguided bishop appointments?
(Misguided is a euphemism. Fr Murr* is quite clear: the post-conciliar bishop selection has been masonic).
* Murr.2022. Murder in the 33rd Degree.
Howdy again, Mr. Cracked Nut!
I’m assuming that Bishop Kohlgraf is citing a survey specific to Germany. I couldn’t find it quickly, but I certainly don’t see that trend bearing out here in America (and particularly not in Texas).
The post-Conciliar problems, I think, are showing signs of improvement – I’d point specifically to the fact that the Crux Interview referenced above very cleared showed Pope Leo calling out Northern Germany for misappropriating FS. That’s, actually, a very hopeful sign. The push-back from the German bishops conference is also a good sign – I think the tension there will force those bishops to take a hard look at the landscape in Germany and forge a path forward. The German Church really is in crisis, and it’s hard to see what all those factors that have complicated that crisis are from this side of the pond. Much of that seems self-inflicted and messy to move forward from; but at least they’re looking for a solution and attempting to involve Rome.
What I do see is that we have a pontiff who has signaled that he is going to hold to orthodoxy during his pontificate – that will be a good thing for the Global Church.
God hasn’t abandoned or stopped inspiring His Church since 1965; have no fear, friend.
500,000 Catholics have been formally leaving the German Ecumenical New Church a year since 2013. The faithful have been voting with their feet.
Because of German paperwork, the statistics are available for that country.
Germany has the most advanced version of ecumenical New Church on the planet.
When is enough of ecumenical New Church enough?
Bishop Batzing’s words put me in mind of Lewis Carroll’s character Humpty Dumpty when he says:
“When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Let us hope Bishop Batzing doesn’t end up like Humpty Dumpty with egg on his face.
Mr Cracked Nut:
You state that “All the faithful want is the return of their Catholic Religion”.
So where did our Catholic Religion supposedly “disappear” to? I regularly attend a reverent Novus Ordo Mass and a weekly Byzantine Divine Liturgy. Both liturgies are completely valid, and are in full communion with Rome.
The Catholic Religion is most certainly present in those liturgical rites.
There are Tridentine Masses available for those who wish to attend.
The Catholic Religion isn’t exclusive to the TLM, or the pre-conciliar Church. The Catholic Religion didn’t end in 1962.
Christ says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
Much of Catholic religious experience was jettisoned in the 1970s, DB. I note you seek the Sacred beyond Novos Ordo…
500.000 German Catholics a year leaving the Church shows something is wrong across the rheine: They have the most advanced stage of Novos Ordo Ecumenical New Church on the planet.
Pax.
500k German Catholics leaving the Church every year is a bad sign. However, that’s their own personal (and pathetic) choice to leave the True Faith. The Novus Ordo Mass in and of itself is not to blame for someone else’s actions. It certainly may be a factor in their decision, but it isn’t the sole thing to blame, as you are in control of your own self.
When done correctly, there is no controversy with the revised Mass.
I fully agree that the Roman Catholic Church in Germany has drifted toward the brink of schism. Why aren’t those 500k people attending Eastern-rite Catholic liturgies, or relocating to a more traditional Roman diocese somewhere else? They’re not just leaving the (unfortunately) abused revised Mass, they’re leaving because they very well may have lost faith in the universal Catholic Church anyway. People like that can reap what they sow. There’s fault on both sides: The people who left, and the bishops who haven’t led their flocks in the right direction.
At the end of the day, it’s not the revised Mass that is to blame.
DB:
There is Before Novos-Ordo, and After Novos-Ordo.
To suggest Novos-Ordo is not to blame but rather the refusal of the faithful to move house in search of a reverent modernist priest is frankly sticking one’s head in hole.
Mr Cracked Nut:
What is a “reverent modernist” priest? Or is that a misprint? Also, it’s NovUs Ordo, not NovOs Ordo.
As I previously stated, the vernacular Mass, when done correctly, isn’t controversial. It is however, done insufferably in Germany, and that absolutely needs to change, I agree with you there.
Except I don’t blame the Mass. I blame the bishops and the people who hijacked an otherwise perfectly acceptable rite.
As for the people who willingly left,
they are responsible for their own choices, and to deflect that blame onto the revised Mass is sticking your own head in the sand. The horrible things that have been foisted into the German Catholic dioceses are the main reason why they left, but that’s not the fault of the revised Mass in and of itself.
Even if the Novus Ordo had never come to be, bishops like Bätzing eventually would have come along. They would’ve spread their poison into the Latin Mass as well, because there wouldn’t be anywhere else to do so, except the various Eastern-rite Churches.
I think we can agree on much in our shared frustration at the German bishops, and I believe that we see where we differ. Good debate sir, keep the faith.
If Bishop Batzing weren’t from an echo chamber in continental Germany he’d better understand an American-born pope–and the remembered collision course between an iceberg and the “unsinkable” HMS Titanic steaming full speed ahead (actually only 22 knots) from island Britain to the United States.
And, about the mutating document Fiducia Supplicans, we recall that this invention already represents a collision with Church unity—with public dissent from all of continental Africa, and Poland, Hungary, Peru, Kaskhstan, Ukraine, the Netherlands, and parts of Argentina, France and Spain, plus the Coptic Church and an expression of “shock” from the patriarch of Budapest.
That headline is an indictment of both parties.
Oh, this is great.
The Catholique church is now blessing “people who love each other” in “irregular situations”?
À la Bergoglio!
Just perfect.
St. Paul and the rest of those closed-minded rigorists from the Bible used to use Church teachings as a weapon, after all.
I mean, let’s just say once and for all that we should all do everything we can to love each other in this big, wide barnyard we call life.
And we can have the church bless people who love their neighbors’ wives, and their neighbors’ husbands, and their neighbors’ grade-school-aged children while they’re at it.
And their neighbors’ pets too.
Why not? On what basis can we refuse?
Come on. Nobody believes all that old Catholic stuff any more anyway. Certainly not the Church’s enlightened leaders. Such as Bätzing.
After all, marriage is about unfettered and unlimited access to as many orgasms as you can possibly achieve. With whomever you might happen to love at any particular moment.
Right, bishops?
So let’s get at it.
Thanks be to Baal.
More from the five faithful dioceses, please, less from the fabricators.
What exactly is “Vatican teaching”?
There is Catholic teaching and Vatican policies or statements. I suspect the reporter means the latter.
Does loving everyone include loving the victims of those in love with their sins?
It does. We are called to bear the pain of it in the Lord, among other things. Yes.
I say we put the The Great Bergoglian Mistake behind us. He’s dead and many of us will not miss his papacy one bit. It was a Papal Election orchestrated by McCarrick and his little boy followers. If Pope Leo does not chart a wholly different course, we will be saying the same thing about his papacy.
I think that if you go read the Crux interview, Pope Leo’s very clearly signalling an orthodox course (in a way that is charitable to his predecessor).
I’d love to believe that the current pope is setting out on an orthodox course, but when he expresses statements regarding embracing unorthodox positions, he adds unsettling phrases like “not in the foreseeable future” or “not at the present time.” I wish he would state a categorical yes or no and leave it at that. His silence regarding the recent rainbow fest at the Vatican was deafening.
I think Pope Leo is attempting to be charitable to the papal office in the way he’s speaking. The way I read it, ‘not in the foreseeable future’ means ‘not during my pontificate’ and I find that refreshing. I get the sense that even when silent, this pope is speaking. We’re going to learn more from his nuance than overt messages that might contradict Pope Francis’ messages outright and might play more into partisan divisions. I think that if you go back and look for any proof of his endorsing unorthodox Catholic positions, you’ll come up empty-handed (even consider how he “hosted” Fr. Martin recently – I don’t recall any endorsement, nor do I recall Fr. Martin claiming an endorsement). On the other hand, I can show many more instances where he is outwardly embracing orthodoxy. This is telling – and hopeful.
So we have to wait and see for any changes to doctrine in the next pontificate, like a politician saying not during my administration.
This is not how you run the Catholic church whose doctrines can not be changed by any pope.
Why is it so difficult for the hierarchy to speak clearly and stop playing games.
A title of “Blessings Give Love Strength” unequivocally and explicitly intends to bless the love, not the individuals, which was the farcically purported justification of _Fiducia supplicans_.
The wayward bishops in Germany have placed themselves above the Pope. They are disobedient children who know better than their mother. Pope Francis opened the door to this. I pray that Leo will have the courage (and the wisdom) to do what is necessary. This is going to a very bad place and the Church must be mindful of the faithful who suffer because of this.
No confrontational course if it’s the Rome of division A, Cdls Cupich, Hollerich, Parolin, Grech, Fernandez, Tobin, Marx, McElroy. All depends if Leo XIV instead sides with division B, Cdls Muller, Eijk, Burke, Sarah, Zen.
Pope Leo has consistently affirmed his commitment to Pope Francis’ direction [division A] toward increased openness, less restrictions. And with that a unified Catholicism. This is surely a tall order that doesn’t appear possible unless there’s modifications of both divisions or a complete conversion of one division to the other.
To date Leo XIV has assumed a laissez faire posture with apparent accent on supporting division A, the Francis division. His silent permission of drastic restrictions, lack of observance of tradition indicate that.
Enough is enough already.
Not even Baal woukd like this blasphemous Synodaler Weg performance for the Archbishop in his Cathedral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15_fhh4hNaY
It’s as if the Germans refuse to be outdone in blasphemy by the French opening ceremonies at the Paris Olympics.
Per the title: If the German bishops are not a confrontational course with Rome it is only because Rome does not wish to confront (and correct) what they are doing.
Precisely…a mutual charade.
Bishop Bätzing is half wrong. They’re ARE on a confrontational course with Rome.
The other half is that they’re also on a schismatic course with Rome.