Otherwise, Bätzing said he would “file an official complaint with the Holy Father,” CNA Deutsch reported.
Cardinal Koch’s statement betrayed a fear that “something will change,” Bätzing continued. “But I promise you: Something will change and even Cardinal Koch will not be able to stop that – certainly not with such statements.”
“The plenary assembly of bishops has reacted with horror to this statement, with which Cardinal Koch disqualifies himself in the theological debate,” the German prelate continued.
There had already been “attempts to delegitimize the Synodal Way” by the cardinal for some time, Bätzing claimed.
Koch replied on Friday with a statement published in full by CNA Deutsch.
“To those who feel hurt by my statement, I apologize and assure them that this was not and is not my intention,” Koch said.
The Vatican cardinal said he had “simply assumed that today we can also learn from history, even from a very difficult time. As the vehement reaction of Bishop Bätzing and others show, I have to state, in hindsight, that I failed in this attempt.”
“However, I cannot retract my critical query,” the cardinal stressed. “I raised it not out of ‘pure fear that something will change,’ and not with the intention of ‘delegitimizing,’ as Bishop Bätzing accuses me of doing, but out of theological care for the future of the Church in Germany.”
Koch pointed out he was far from “alone in my criticism of the orientation text of the Synodal Way,” adding: “My critical comment, then, cannot simply be an expression of a completely mistaken theology.”
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Participants in the Synodal Way (Synodaler Weg) approved the “orientation text” in February 2022. It sets out the theological underpinnings of the controversial process, sometimes referred to as Synodal Path.
AC Wimmer is founding Editor-in-Chief of CNA Deutsch. A former senior executive with public broadcaster SBS and graduate of the University of Melbourne and Monash University (Australia), he has worked as a journalist across the globe. Before joining EWTN News, the Australian with Bavarian roots was Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Munich.
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