Although a final statement from the October meeting of the Synod of Bishops agreed only to continue discussions of the Church teaching on homosexuality, the president of the German bishops’ conference proclaimed the statement “a big step forward for the world Church.”
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg reasoned: “It the Synod says that previous formulations of Church teaching on man are no longer sufficient here, and that at this point, with the help of science, it must continue to change, then that’s a huge step forward.”