SW News: On board the flight from Bahrain to Rome, Pope Francis told a German journalist in a lighter vein that he does not wish to have another Evangelical Church in Germany which already has one. The Holy Father was referring to the scandalous manner in which the Synodal Way discussions in the German Church seek changes in Church teaching regarding human sexuality and gender.

“I do not want another one [Evangelical Church], which will not be as good as that one; but I want a Catholic [one], in fraternity with the Evangelical,” said the pope while answering a question asked by Ludwig Ring-Eifel of the Centrum Informationis Catholicum. He had asked the pope about making a connection between the small, but vibrant Catholic community in Bahrain and the large and rich Church in Germany which is losing 300,000 believers every year and is in a deep crisis.

The Holy Father said that sometimes believers tend to lose sight of the religious sense of the People of God and deviate into ethical discussions that have ramifications in theology. However, he said that they do not constitute the core of theology. He exhorted German believers to do good and have a look at the simple piety of their grandparents. “I am not saying you should go backward. No. Go to the source of inspiration, to the roots. We all have a history of roots of faith; even people have it: Find it!

The pope then went on to quote Holderlin who said, “The old man should keep faith with what he promised as a boy”. The pope said, “We, in our boyhood... promised many things, many things. Now we get into ethical discussions, into contingent discussions, but the root of religion is the slap in the face that the Gospel gives you, the encounter with the living Jesus Christ: and from there the consequences [follow], all of them; from there you get the apostolic courage to go to the peripheries, even to the moral peripheries of people to help; but [it starts] from the encounter with Jesus Christ. If there is no encounter with Jesus Christ, there will be ethics disguised as Christianity.”

During the ongoing Synodal Way discussions in Germany, there are strong demands from a section of prelates, clergy and believers to change Church teaching on sexuality, gender and homosexuality. It is a fact that a section of the Church openly opposes Rome and the dogmas by going to the extent of publicly blessing same-sex couples.

Separately, Pope Francis made a customary visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome to thank the Blessed Virgin for Her protection during his Apostolic Visit to Bahrain. He spent some moments in silent prayer before the centuries-old icon of Maria Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People).