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The Vatican on Thursday slammed the brakes on a German progressive movement that aims to give lay Catholics a say in doctrinal matters such as homosexuality and women priests, saying this risked causing a schism in the universal Church.
A short but stern statement said the so-called “Synodal Path” could not assume it had the authority to instruct bishops on doctrine or morality.
The movement, a regular gathering of equal numbers of bishops and ordinary German Catholics, has been outspoken in its demands for the Vatican to let priests marry, let women become priests and for the Church to bless same-sex relationships.
Germany’s Church, though far from the world’s largest, has an outsized influence because of the enormous wealth it derives from publicly collected church taxes. Its largest diocese, Cologne, is wealthier than the Vatican.
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(Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP)
The movement “does not have the faculty to oblige bishops and the faithful to assume new forms of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morals”, said the statement, which was not signed but experts said could not have been issued without a green light from Pope Francis.
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“It would not be lawful to initiate in the dioceses, prior to an agreed understanding at the level of the universal Church, new official structures or doctrines, which would represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church,” it said.
The movement alarmed conservatives and moderates in Germany…
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