The "Synodal Way" reform project has suffered a severe setback and may be on the verge of failure.

On Thursday evening at the beginning of the fourth general assembly in Frankfurt, the German bishops prevented the adoption of a central basic text that calls for a paradigm shift in church sexual morality.

Although more than two-thirds of the almost 200 delegates present voted for the paper, it just missed the additional two-thirds majority among the bishops.

Thomas Jansen

Editor in Politics.

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After the vote, some delegates expressed their dissatisfaction with the bishops.

The Bureau temporarily suspended the meeting and withdrew to deliberate.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing, spoke of a "huge disappointment" that could be felt in the room.

"This is a critical situation for synodality," he said.

However, there can be no doubt that it is a valid vote.

At the same time, Bätzing appealed to the delegates to continue along the “synodal path”.

The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Irme Stetter-Karp, said she was deeply disappointed that most of the bishops who voted no had not expressed their opinion in the previous debate.

She accused them of "refusal to talk".

"I expect the bishops to be open about their opinions," said Stetter-Karp to the applause of the delegates.

If the bishops would also reject the text on women in church offices, which was also due to be adopted on Thursday evening, "we are faced with a shambles".

In the previous debate, most of the bishops who took the floor were in favor of accepting the text.

The text speaks out in favor of placing the independent decision of the believers in the center in the future and no longer ecclesiastical prohibitions.

The call for fundamental changes in church sexual morality is one of the four central concerns of the "Synodal Way" reform project launched in 2019 by the German Bishops' Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics.

At the beginning of the fourth general assembly, Bätzing called for concrete steps towards reforms in the Catholic Church in Germany.

The basic concerns of the "Synodal Path" must "become a lasting reality in the church," he demanded.

He felt “infinitely great pressure to change” in the communities.