Bishop appeals for German rebels

by Viviane Hewitt in Rome
THE President of the German Episcopal Conference has said he fears the Vatican is planning to "punish" over 500 European theologians who, in a series of critical documents earlier this year, protested at current trends in the Church.
The President Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz is known to have written to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, appealing to him to abandon any intention of sanctions. "I am afraid that Rome intends to punish the theologians and I am ready to go to the Vatican to prevent this", he has declared.
Last January, 163 mainly German theologians signed the Declaration of Cologne outlining grievances principally about Rome centralisation and Vatican intransigence on social issues such as contraception. The Declaration sparked a spate of similar written protests to the Vatican from theologians throughout Europe.
At the time of the Declaration of Cologne, Bishop Lehmann of Mainz had been one of few German prelates to express his regret publicly at what he said was a certain bitterness in the document.
He is believed to have assured Doctrine Prefect Cardinal Ratzinger that Germany was "calmer" now but he admitted the theological debate against Vatican trends was still enflamed in Austria and Switzerland.