(ZENIT News / Rome, 06.08.2024).- At the end of July, 70,000 acolytes from German-speaking countries came on pilgrimage to Rome and met with the Pope in Saint Peter’s Square. The majority of Bishops of young people’s and adolescents’ dioceses of origin accompanied them on their pilgrimage. One of those Bishops was the current President of the German Episcopate, Monsignor Georg Bätzing. During their days in Rome, the young people and adolescents met with their own Bishops and had time for questions. In statements to Vatican Radio, Bishop Bätzing, who is also promoter of an ideological agenda in the Catholic Church in Germany, revealed that the young people’s questions had nothing to do with women’s ordination or celibacy.
“What has surprised or inspired you of these conversations?” Vatican Radio’s interviewer asked Monsignor Bätzing, who answered: “They ask me questions, they ask me questions that are close to their heart. And, strangely, they’re not the big questions that usually arise: celibacy, women’s priesthood . . . For instance, a young girl asked me yesterday: “What is the difference between our religion and mythology?” First I had to give it some thought myself, and then we started to talk. Young people are interested in this type of questions. But I also realized that they want this Church to move, so that it continues to be their Church. Because they don’t want to remain outside their time. “We want to be people of our time and, at the same time, Jesus’ friends,” and they look for a connection.
The statement, made by Bishop Bätzing, shows another face of German Catholics’ interest, which is clearly in a different direction from the ideological agenda promoted in recent years by a good part of the German Episcopate.
