Speaking in Rome on Sunday morning, Bätzing said: "How do we want to handle this as a conference in future? Do we remain among ourselves or do we at least open up the Bishops' Conference to believers from our country for guest status with the right to speak?"
The final document of the current World Synod makes these considerations possible. Bätzing described this text as a tailwind for the German reform project Synodal Way.
Bätzing went on to say that he considered the resolutions of the World Synod on the diaconate for women to be important, but not sufficient. He felt that the decision to keep the question of a possible diaconate for women open was tentative.
Nevertheless, this decisive sentence was included. "That's what we asked for."
Most votes against the passage on the diaconate for women
The resolution to keep the diaconate of women open received the most votes against in the vote on the final document (97), but still received the necessary two-thirds majority.
The fact that the women's issue could be interpreted as the biggest problem within the Catholic Church makes him sad, said the Limburg bishop.
Because "that would weaken the urgent need to talk about the role of women in the Church and enable them to participate at all levels".
But more than 72 per cent had also voted in favour, he added.
Bätzing also gave an insight into how the paragraph came about. Of all the points in the text, it had undergone the most editorial changes.
When the women received the first draft of the document, many had reacted very disappointed "that what was lived in the synod was not reflected".
However, this is now the case and he is very grateful for this, said Bätzing.
The Catholic Church in Germany could make a contribution to the further discussion of the topic, both on a theological level and from the experience of church life.
On Saturday, several years of consultations on more co-determination and a new approach in the Catholic Church came to an end in Rome.
In their final document, the representatives of the so-called World Synod voted in favour of expanding lay participation in the Church's decision-making processes.
For example, advisory bodies are to be established worldwide.
To date, only ordained men have decision-making power in the Catholic Church; there is no legally binding consultation of clerics by lay people.