German episcopacy acknowledges wake-up call

Of course what follows makes complete sense.

Is so much of 'theological doctrine' just one fancy cream bun? Would the German bishops have been allowed say this in public during the previous two papacies?

 What else will the German bishops find "fraught with problems that bishops and priests find almost impossibe to overcome"?

The exceprt below is taken fom the National Catholic Reporter.

A large majority of German bishops favour Cardinal Walter Kasper’s solution for remarried divorcees which would allow them to receive the sacraments under certain circumstances. Only a small minority think present church teaching is theologically correct and pastorally appropriate.

As most German bishops are convinced that the pastoral approach to remarried divorcees is a test case for the church’s credibility, the bishops’ conference published the findings Dec. 22 of a working group which has been researching the subject for two years. They presented these findings as guidelines to the ongoing preparatory discussions for the coming Synod of Bishops in October 2015.

“The search for a theologically responsible and pastorally appropriate accompaniment for Catholics whose marriages have broken down and who have married again in a registry office is a pressing challenge for the church worldwide as divorce and remarriage are often the beginning of a process of alienation from the church,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference, when he presented the new guidelines on December 22.

The majority of German bishops find that the present guidelines regarding pastoral work with remarried divorcees are “fraught with problems that bishops and priests find almost impossible to overcome.”

“For many practising, committed Catholics in Germany, the pastoral approach to remarried divorcees is the test case for an evangelising church which is not only for special groups of faithful but which also welcomes those whose life projects have failed. It has become the touchstone of whether the joy of the Gospel also holds good for remarried divorcees and their families,” the bishops stated.