The Synod can never achieve its aim of making the Church 'Catholic in a different way'

Bishop Georg Bätzing, the head of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), has explained what he wants the German Synodal Path to achieve. “We are Catholic,” he said at a news conference. “But we want to be Catholic in a different way.” 

It may be that Bishop Bätzing has not come across the old German proverb “du kannst nicht ein bisschen schwanger sein“ – "you can’t be a little bit pregnant“. And that is a shame because there is a theological equivalent, which is that "you can’t be a little bit Protestant“.