Another German diocese becomes a law unto itself. Diocese of Münster wants to involve laypeople in episcopal elections

The highest synodal body, the diocesan council, should have a say in future bishop elections. The Vatican is critical of such initiatives. The diocese of Münster still wants to act and give lay people more influence.

In the Diocese of Münster, laypeople will in future be more involved in the election of the Catholic bishop. The cathedral chapter, which is decisive for the election and consists only of priests, wants to "strengthen the participation of laypeople in the appointment of the Diocesan Bishop of Münster, to the extent that canon law regulations and the so-called Prussian Concordat, which regulates the election, allow it," emphasized the cathedral chapters Antonius Hamers and Stefan Sühling on Friday at the meeting of the Diocesan Council.

Consultations in “the Group of 32”

In the future, this highest synodal body of the Diocese should appoint 16 members who will then discuss the new Bishop together with the 16 voting members of the cathedral chapter. Before that, as before, there should be a first step in surveying the members of the committees. The members of the Diocesan council, the church tax council and the councils of the pastoral professional groups would be invited to name people who they could imagine as the future Bishop of Münster.

According to Hamers and Sühling, the discussions in the group of 32 should first discuss the necessary profile and only then should concrete name suggestions be discussed. On the basis of these discussions, the cathedral chapter then wants to compile the list that will go to the Apostolic Nuncio, i.e. the Pope's ambassador to Germany: "Although we are not allowed to involve the laity directly in drawing up the list, we would not involve the process in it "We would introduce this form if the assessments of laypeople were not important to us," said Hamers and Sühling.

Vatican has reservations

The Nuncio then passes on name suggestions to Rome, from where a list of three names is ultimately sent back to the cathedral chapter, which then chooses the Bishop of Münster from this list. This procedure is also laid down in the Prussian Concordat.

The Vatican has major reservations about plans in several German dioceses to involve laypeople more in the election of bishops. This demand is one of the central results of the Synodal Path to the Future of the Catholic Church in Germany reform project. So far, in most dioceses, only the cathedral chapter is entitled to vote. The Pope's Embassy in Berlin rejected a request from the Archdiocese of Paderborn to extend the right to vote to a limited number of other people.

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