(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Georg Bätzing has said that Pope Leo XIV “accompanies the Church in Germany with trust” after his first private audience with the Roman Pontiff.
On September 4, Leo received Bätzing, the head of the German bishops’ conference, in a private audience for the first time since becoming Pope.
The Holy See did not comment on the meeting, but Bätzing released the following statement after the audience:
I am grateful for today’s meeting with Pope Leo XIV and the good and meaningful conversation we were able to have. Before he was elected Pope, I had the opportunity to meet the Holy Father several times in recent years, not least during the World Synod. And now, too, I found him to be an attentive listener and an interested pastor. We discussed many topics, which I will report on to the plenary assembly of the German Bishops’ Conference in Fulda in a few weeks. I am very pleased that Pope Leo XIV accompanies the Church in Germany with trust.
Bätzing is known for his radical heterodoxy. He has openly defied Church teaching, endorsing homosexual acts, women’s ordination, and gender ideology. As the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, he was the leader of the German Synodal Way, which published multiple heretical documents.
During the Synodal Way meetings, more than two-thirds of the German bishops voted for documents that are contrary to Church teaching on a number of issues, including homosexual acts, same-sex “blessings,” women’s ordinations, and transgenderism.
The Pope has recently met with several prominent dissenters, including the infamous Jesuit Father James Martin, as well as the pro-abortion nun Sr. Lucia Caram. While the Vatican did not signal support for their views, the Holy See also offered no condemnation of their promotion of errors in matters of faith and morals.
