Catholic laity react badly to Bishops not wanting to pay for bureaucratic debating society

Synodal Committee: ZdK welcomes will for "alternative financing"

"The good news is: the Synodal Path continues. The first meeting of the Synodal Committee is to take place as planned on 10/11 November. We expected nothing less," says Dr Irme Stetter-Karp, President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK). "The fact, announced today from the Permanent Council of the German Bishops' Conference, that four bishops do not want to co-finance the further walk, cannot stop us from reforms."

"Change must be organised," Stetter-Karp continued. "It would simply be unthinkable that the consistent continuation of work on the Synodal Way should fail because of money. That is why I very much welcome the fact that, despite the unwillingness of four bishops to face up to the operational consequences of five synodal assemblies, the Permanent Council is giving the signal. It goes on! It is important to a large majority of the bishops that the decisions from the synodal assemblies of the past three years are implemented as soon as possible. From the point of view of the ZdK, this does not only include the work in the Synodal Committee. The Permanent Council has stated that an alternative financing model must and will now be sought."

The ZdK President recalled the beginning of the Synodal Path: "It was the bishops who, in unity, asked the ZdK in 2019 to begin this way with you. In view of the inconceivable abuse scandal in the ranks of the Church, we started together with the claim to organise upheaval and renewal. Apparently, individual diocesan bishops lack seriousness." The Presidium and Main Committee of the ZdK would deal with the result from the Permanent Council this week, Stetter-Karp continued. "The fact that a unanimous approval of the funding of the Synodal Committee was not possible there shows that the undivided power of disposal over the church tax in the hands of the bishops has experienced a caesura with today. It is time for the people of the Church and the bishops to finally discuss and then decide together on priorities and distributions."

kfd and KDFB perplexed by blockade attitude and denial of reality

Professor Agnes Wuckelt is speechless about the blockade attitude of the four bishops. Photo: kfd/Kay Herschelmann

Four bishops vote against subsidies for the Synodal Committee

The Catholic Women's Association of Germany (kfd) - Bundesverband e.V. and the Catholic German Women's Federation (KDFB) sharply criticise the inability of the Permanent Council of the German Bishops' Conference to provide financial support for the Synodal Committee.

"Obviously, four bishops have still not recognised the seriousness of the situation: Believers are leaving the Church in droves, the Gospel is being obscured by sexual and spiritual abuse of clergy. What still has to happen to take the outstretched hands of numerous committed Catholics for a sustainable Church and not to slap them in the face?", explains Professor Agnes Wuckelt, deputy federal chairwoman of the kfd.

"Do the nay-sayers really believe that the profound crisis of the Church, in the wake of which the bishops had asked the ZdK to embark on the Synodal Way, can be solved in this way? And it is the money of German Catholics that the bishops are distributing as a matter of course," adds Dr Maria Flachsbarth, President of the KDFB.

A vet by training and now an MP.

She sees no difference between being a Synodalist and Parliamentarian

"It is time for fundamental changes, as they were discussed at the Synodal Way and decided with two-thirds majorities, including those of the bishops. We are grateful to those bishops who have clearly spoken out in favour of funding the Synodal Way and alternative ways of financing it. We are firmly convinced that the Synodal Committee and, in its succession, the Synodal Council will begin their work - the two large Catholic women's associations will work unwaveringly for this," concluded Wuckelt and Flachsbarth.

Background:

After the reform process of the Synodal Path came to an end in March this year, the Synodal Committee is to discuss the establishment of a Synodal Council. The committee is to begin its work in November this year. The aim is to establish a permanent reform process within the Catholic Church with the establishment of the Synodal Council in 2026.

On 19 and 20 June 2023, a regular meeting of the Permanent Council of the German Bishops' Conference was scheduled in Berlin. This is made up of all 27 Catholic diocesan bishops in Germany and makes groundbreaking decisions, especially of a financial nature. Financial support from the German Bishops' Conference is imperative for the Synodal Committee to be able to act.