Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, urged German Catholics to put aside visions and individual needs, noting, “the community must take precedence.”
Addressing several German bishops during a church service June 29, Parolin referred to
Pope Francis’ 2019 letter on the Synodal Path of the Catholic Church in Germany, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. This reform dialogue deals with controversial issues such as Catholic sexual morality, priestly life, power and the separation of powers as well as the role of women in the church.
Parolin urged the church in Germany “to return to a unity that does not depend on agreeing to common orientations, as is usual in politics, but on being rooted in God.” He opposed “reducing togetherness to only one particular part, however relevant and significant it may be.”
KNA reported that among those attending the service were Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ Conference; Cardinals Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising and Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne; Berlin Archbishop Heiner Koch; and several other German bishops.