Top German Catholic official says church should be more inclusive
Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German national conference of Catholic prelates, called for a more inclusive church on December 29, suggesting that the Catholic hierarchy could shift its positions on women’s ordination and homosexuality.
According to the Catholic News Service, Bätzing, who heads the Diocese of Limburg, near Frankfurt, told a German magazine that while it is important to “honestly state the church’s arguments as to why the sacramental ministry can only be given to men,” those arguments are becoming less convincing over time.
“There are well-developed arguments in theology in favor of opening up the sacramental ministry to women as well,” Bätzing told the German magazine Herder Korrespondenz.
