"German bishops’ secretary: There’s ‘no ban’ on discussing female priests"

"Father Hans Langendörfer, the secretary of the German Bishops' Conference, has given an interview about the German 'Synodal Path' which critics say aims at overturning the Church's teaching and discipline regarding the topics sexuality, celibacy, and priestly ordination. In it, he makes it clear that there is 'no ban on discussing the priesthood of women,' adding that one 'always has to start spiritually and theologically with the pastorally given situation.'...

Speaking with the German newspaper Bonner General-Anzeiger, Langendörfer insists that the Catholic Church in Germany, in light of the clerical sex abuse crisis, urgently needs change. 'After the publication of the sex abuse study, ' the Jesuit priest explains, 'we realized, that there are in Germany an entire set of blockages.' He quotes scientists who claim that these blockages – for example in the field of the sexual morality, the image of the priest, as well as the question of access to the priesthood – have contributed to the sex abuse crisis.

'We want to walk a new path,' Langendörfer states, and points out that for that, the involvement of laymen is needed, next to the clergymen and bishops. 'For that,' he continues, 'we enter onto a special path which canon law – which prescribes certain forms – does not know this way.' This new way, according to this German priest, 'brings laymen and bishops together, onto the same level.'...

According to different preparatory talks and discussion forums, the German synodal path will challenge, among other items, the Church's positions regarding priestly celibacy, female ordination, homosexuality, cohabitation, contraception, the gender theory, and masturbation...

The Wall Street Journal states in a recent article that Ludwig Ring-Eifel, the head of the German bishops' news agency Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur, 'estimates that around two thirds of the bishops – the threshold for passing a resolution [at the synodal assembly] support the ordination of married man and women deacons and half are in favor of blessings for same-sex unions.'"