Bishop Georg Bätzing and Irme Stetter-Karp spoke on the first full day of Europe’s synodal continental assembly in Prague.

German Catholic leaders urged participants in Europe’s synodal continental assembly Monday to consider adopting the goals of the country’s controversial “synodal way.”

Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German bishops’ conference, and Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), told delegates at the meeting in Prague Feb. 6 that the Church needed structural changes in response to systemic abuse.

Speaking on the first full day of the meeting, they insisted that the Church in Germany wanted to pursue reforms in unity with Catholics in other European countries, rather than taking a “special path” (Sonderweg) that critics say could lead to schism.

Bishop Bätzing said: “We started a synodal way in 2019 because a scientific investigation into abuse in our Church showed us: There is serious…