The German Bishops’ Conference president has called Germany, a nation whose very history is entangled with the Catholic Church, a “mission country.” In an interview, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg said: “We live in a missionary country when we realize that less than half of Germany’s citizens still belong to the Christian denominations.” The German Synodal Way, which has advocated for significant changes to traditional Church teachings, has not stemmed the dramatic decline in Catholic numbers.