(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV, during a Tuesday airplane press conference before returning to Rome from Lebanon, warned the German Church against silencing those who do not agree with certain aspects of the German Synodal Way.
During his brief December 2 remarks, the pontiff emphasized that many German Catholics do not agree with certain aspects of the Synodal Way and that the powerful German bishops spearheading it need to listen to and engage in further dialogue with these faithful so that their voices are not excluded. The heterodox German Synodal Way has openly broken with Church teaching on same-sex “marriage” and gender ideology.
“I am aware that many Catholics in Germany believe that certain aspects of the Synodal Way that has been celebrated in Germany up until now do not represent their own hope for the Church or their own way of living the Church,” Leo said.
“There is need for further dialogue and listening within Germany itself, so that no one’s voice is excluded, so that the voice of those who are more powerful does not silence or stifle the voice of those who might also be very numerous but don’t have a place to speak up and to allow their own voices and own expressions of Church participation to be listened to,” the pontiff added.
Pope Buries German Synodal Way: the voice of the powerful in the German Church cannot silence the voice of the numerous who are not listened https://t.co/8c179TpSaH pic.twitter.com/wsVxM4xs0f
— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) December 3, 2025
In recent years, several German prelates have openly sought to change perennial Church teaching on matters like homosexuality, gender, and “women’s” ordination through the Synodal Way.
READ: Heterodox German bishop criticizes Cardinal Müller for adhering to Church teaching on LGBT issues
A document approved by participants of the Synodal Way claims that sodomy is “not a sin” and “not to be judged as intrinsically evil.” Another document declared that “transsexual” persons should be admitted to the priesthood.
Pope Leo further stressed that there is an ongoing process within the Roman Curia to ensure the Synodal Way does not depart from the path of the universal Church.
“The group of German bishops has been meeting, for the last couple of years, with a group of the cardinals from the Roman Curia,” he said. “There is an ongoing process … to try and make sure the German Synodal Way does not, if you will, break away from what needs to be considered as the pathway of the universal Church.”
READ: Two more German bishops reject pro-LGBT ‘sex ed’ school document from episcopal conference
While Pope Leo has shown at least tacit support for pro-LGBT clerics like Father James Martin and, in September, allowed thousands of so-called “LGBT Catholics,” many with their same-sex partners and led by a rainbow cross to process into St. Peter’s Basilica during a jubilee year pilgrimage, he appears to be drawing a line with the German Synodal Way.
In October, Pope Leo’s Vatican said they did not approve the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) guidelines for “blessings” of homosexual “couples,” the divorced and civilly “remarried,” and other irregular unions, published earlier this year. Bishop Georg Bätzing, the head of the DBK, had previously insisted the heretical guidelines were approved by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).
READ: Vatican did not approve German bishops’ same-sex ‘blessing’ guidelines: report
The American pontiff also recently appointed Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, who has sharply criticized the Synodal Way, as the new president of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
