On the face of it, the German Catholic Church contradicts much of what Pope Francis stands for. In 2013, the Pontiff said he wanted “a poor Church for the poor”. That same year the German Church received almost £4.6 billion via the church tax. Francis is deeply suspicious of bureaucracy, yet few bishops’ conferences are as elaborately organised as the German one. The Pope is a champion of Confession, but in parts of Catholic Germany the sacrament has all but disappeared. Francis wants to win back the lost sheep, yet in Germany weekly Mass attendance is now a mere 10.8 per cent. (As many nominal Catholics still pay the church tax the bishops have little incentive to tackle declining participation.) The Pope is, nevertheless, associated with the German bishops theologically. He studied for a PhD in Germany and shortly after his election praised Cardinal Walter Kasper. He later invited the controversial theologian to address cardinals on the admission of remarried Catholics to Holy Communion. At last month’s family synod, the German-speaking bishops led the charge for change. We shall soon see if Francis endorses their approach when he releases his apostolic exhortation on the synod.