Bishops do not want to pay for their own destruction
After it became known on Thursday that some bishops are apparently hesitating to give the green light for the financing of the planned Synodal Committee, the ZdK has now spoken out. The lay body is irritated and expects the Synodal Path to continue.
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) is irritated by a report published on Thursday at katholisch.de and elsewhere, according to which some German bishops are apparently hesitant to provide the planned Synodal Committee with the necessary funding. "An overwhelming majority of the bishops voted in favour of the Synodal Committee on the Synodal Path. Breaking one's word destroys credibility," explained ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp in Berlin. The ZdK expects "the German bishops to continue the reform process of the Synodal Path".
According to the report of the Catholic News Agency (KNA), a financial decision on personnel and material resources for the Synodal Committee was postponed in April. And even with a view to the next meeting of the Permanent Council of Diocesan Bishops in mid-June in Berlin, it is still unclear whether there will be an agreement on the planned financing, since financial questions must be decided unanimously in the responsible Association of German Dioceses (VDD), in which the dioceses have bundled their community activities. According to the CBA, a letter from Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg to his confreres at the beginning of April caused a stir. In it he wrote that it was not yet clear "whether the VDD will provide any money at all for a synodal committee".
Stetter-Karp: It is about continuing the successful path
The ZdK explained on Thursday that the mistrust of Vatican representatives with respect to the Synodal Path had obviously not remained without effect. However, it was wrong to believe assumptions that had nothing to do with the real work. Neither will the Synodal Committee harm the bishops nor damage their office. "It is about the continuation of the successful path we have taken together with the German bishops. Only through reforms, as we have discussed in three years on the Synodal Path, can the causes of the abuse scandal be dealt with in the long term," said Stetter-Karp. Catholic civil society wants to go further, to give the Church a future - and to do so together with the bishops.
The ZdK President went on to say that long-practised decision-making mechanisms also had to be re-examined in financial matters. Since the highest decision-making body of the VDD is identical in personnel to the Permanent Council of the Bishops' Conference, the 27 diocesan bishops in fact decide whether the Synodal Committee is financed or not. "And that is because unanimity is the ruling principle. This gives power to those who do not want to finance the committee," said Stetter-Karp. ZdK Vice-President Wolfgang Klose called on the bishops to take responsibility and not to duck away. And further: "I trust that the Bishops' Conference will not allow itself to be blocked by a few bishops in its concern to now make the decisions of the Synodal Path concrete".
Cathcon: The Bishops have better things to do with their money than financing echo-chambers for power and money-seeking pseudo-clerical laity.
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