Pope Francis' Letter to the German Theologians about Germany's Synodal Way and his Concerns for Church Unity - FULL TEXT

Pope Francis responds to a letter from four German women involved in the national synodal process, and says the German Church risks moving further away from the path of the universal Church.
Four women have written to the Pope to express their "concerns" about the developments of the synodal journey of the Church in Germany, from which they withdrew. Four scholars had sent a letter to the Pope on 6 November expressing doubts and fears about the results of the German Synodal Path concluded in recent months.

In the letter, he also recalled his Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in Germany, published on 29 June 2019: a ten-page document divided into thirteen points, in which the Bishop of Rome called on the leaders of the Church in Germany to walk the correct path, that of the Gospel, without falling into functionalist drifts or ideological reductions.

This process involved 230 delegates, including bishops, priests, laymen, and laywomen, divided into working groups, focusing on issues such as the blessing of same-sex couples, changes in sexual morality, priestly celibacy, clerical power, combating the evil of abuse, the role of women, with particular attention to a female diaconate and the possibility of the priestly ordination of women.

In a letter dated 10 November, the Pope put his apprehensions in writing, already expressed on previous occasions.

It was addressed to moral theologian Katharina Westerhorstmann, theologian Marianne Schlosser, philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, and publicist Dorothea Schmidt.

Dear Professor Schlosser, Dear Professor Gerl-Falkovitz, Dear Mrs. Schmidt,

 I thank you for your kind letter of November 6th your concerns regarding the current developments within the Church in Germany have reached me, and I share your concerns. There are now numerous
concrete steps with which large parts of this local church are moving further and further away
threaten to remove the common path of the universal church. This is undoubtedly part of it,
also the constitution of the Synodal Committee that you mentioned,
who prepare the introduction of an advisory and decision-making body
should, in the form outlined in the relevant resolution text, with the
cannot be reconciled with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church
'and its establishment by the Holy See, therefore, by letter of January 16th
2023, which I approved in a specific form, was prohibited.

Instead of seeking 'salvation' in ever new committees and, with a certain self-referentiality, discussing the same themes, in my Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in Germany, I wanted to emphasize the need for prayer, penance, and worship and invite to open up and go out to meet our brothers, especially those who are abandoned on the threshold of our churches, on the streets, in prisons and hospitals, squares, and cities (No. 8). I am convinced: there the Lord will show us the way,
For your theological and philosophical work and for you;
I thank you for your testimony of faith. May the Lord bless you and the Blessed Virgin
Mary protect you. Please continue to pray for me and for our life together
Concerns of unity.
Connected in the Lord.

Francis