Germany: The ZdK’s Reaction to Cardinal Parolin’s Letter

Cardinal Parolin’s letter was made public by the daily newspaper Die Tagespost on November 24, 2023, and its reception by the DBK was confirmed by its spokesman, Matthias Kopp.

The two points specifically brought up are: the ordination of women, which the Church cannot carry out by divine right, and the doctrine concerning homosexual acts, which are always objectively sinful, whatever the subjective aspects.

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) Reacts

The terms employed by the site katholisch.de are carefully chosen: “The Central Committee of German Catholics reacted with calmness to the letter of the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, made public on Friday, in which he declared that two central themes of reform within the Catholic Church were nonnegotiable.”

But this reaction is anything but a peaceful acceptance. A refutation of the cardinal’s remarks goes in two directions—first, with a counterexample presented by the president of the ZdK, Irme Stetter-Karp. She recalled that, during the General Assembly of the lay representative body in Berlin, Parolin had made a declaration before the Synod of October.

He said then that the participation and voting rights of women during the Synod was unthinkable, for these things would not be in keeping with the structure and the history of the Catholic Church, nor within the framework of canon law, nor on the sacramental level. “And what did the Pope do? All of a sudden, it was legal, possible, and put into practice,” explained Stetter-Karp.

Then, the vice president of the ZdK, Thomas Söding, contested the basis of Parolin’s letter. He underlined that the Cardinal Secretary of State’s letter demonstrated the existence of a process of dialogue between Germany and Rome, which is “a good sign.” But he is opposed to the fact that there would be nonnegotiable subjects in the Church.

“It’s not a matter of negotiating. It’s a matter of knowing if we are facing the problems which exist in the Catholic church,” explained Söding. According to him, there is simply a global problem of authority regarding the Vatican’s declaration that the Church does not have the power to ordain women priests. “It needs to be talked about; we will see what the results are.”

As for the topic of homosexuality, the world Synod declared that the Catholic Church did not yet have all the answers with its traditional anthropology, “but that it needs to confer with the social sciences.” This is absolutely true, and shows the incompetence of the Vatican, which should have resolved this matter before the first session of the Synod.

Finally, Söding minimized the impact of the letter, explaining that after the constituent meeting of the Synodal Committee there were two weeks in which “a certain nervousness” prevailed in certain circles. He therefore expects repeated attempts “to pass off partial truths, taken out of context, as definitive declarations from Rome.”

But he concludes that the public can be sure that the ZdK is not overly concerned about this matter. In other words, what Rome might say is not truly interesting nor relevant, and the process of the Synodal Path must continue.