Key meeting between German Bishops and Vatican representatives. Is there a way forward?
In November, the German bishops had agreed during their ad-limina visit with representatives of the Vatican to remain in dialogue via the Synodal Way. A first meeting of this dialogue took place today in Rome.
A delegation of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) met today for talks with representatives of the Vatican in Rome. The meeting was a continuation of the dialogue during the ad-limina visit of the German bishops in November 2022, the Bishops' Conference announced on Wednesday. At that time, it had been agreed "that the theological questions and the questions of discipline, which have come to light in particular during the Synodal Way, must be discussed further", the DBK statement said. Today's meeting in the Vatican took place in a positive and constructive atmosphere. Further meetings are planned for the future.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, Chairman of the DBK, and Bishops Stephan Ackermann, Michael Gerber, Bertram Meier and Franz-Josef Overbeck took part in the talks, the Bishops' Conference added. In their functions as chairpersons of the DBK commissions for liturgy, spiritual vocations and church services, the universal Church and faith, the senior pastors accompanied the bishops' conference president. Secretary General Beate Gilles and Press Spokesperson Matthias Kopp had also attended. Cardinals Luis Ladaria, Kurt Koch and Pietro Parolin as well as Archbishops Filippo Iannone, Robert Prevost and Vittorio Viola OFM were present from the Roman Curia.
Synodal Committee continues reform process
In the past, the representatives of the Synodal Way had already asked several times to be able to present the results of the Synodal Way at the Vatican. In March, the President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, emphasised that she was "definitely disappointed by Rome and its refusal to talk to us directly". At the start of the spring plenary meeting of the German bishops in March in Dresden, Bätzing had announced that he had responded to the Vatican letter of the Curia Cardinals Parolin, Ladaria and Marc Ouellet on the Synodal Council. In the letter, the DBK President wrote that he would like to take up the offer of talks and asked for a "meeting as soon as possible" after the fifth and last Synodal Assembly.
At the end of May, the "Zeit" supplement "Christ und Welt" reported that a letter sent on 17 March by the two presidents of the Synodal Way, Stetter-Karp and Bätzing, to Pope Francis had not yet been answered. In the letter, both had again asked to be allowed to present the results of the reform dialogue in Rome in a timely manner.
During their ad-limina visit to Rome, the German bishops last spoke personally with the Pope and high Curia representatives about the Synodal Way in mid-November. A moratorium on the reform project proposed by the Vatican was averted. The fifth and last Synodal Assembly took place in March. A Synodal Committee is now to continue working on the draft texts of the Synodal Way. A first meeting is scheduled for mid-November. Funding of the Synodal Committee Funding of this committee through the Association of German Dioceses (VDD) had failed due to the veto of Bishops Stephan Oster (Passau), Gregor Maria Hanke (Eichstätt), Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (Cologne) and Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg).
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