The German bishops have agreed to submit their work in the framework of the "Synodal Way" and "Synodal Committee" to the approval of the Holy See. This commitment was announced in a brief communiqué issued by the Holy See Press Office at the end of a day of meetings at the Vatican on Friday. At that meeting, a delegation of German bishops met with six representatives of Vatican dicasteries: Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, as well as by the prefects of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor M. Fernandez; for Bishops, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost; for Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch; for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Arthur Roche; and for Legislative Texts, Bishop Filippo Iannone.
The communiqué states that the meeting took place in a positive and constructive atmosphere. Without specifying what these were, it says that "some open theological questions raised in the documents of the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany" were discussed, which "made it possible to identify differences and points in common," according to the method of the Final Synthesis Report of the Synod of the Universal Church of October 2023. It was agreed on "a regular exchange between the representatives of the DBK and the Holy See on the future work of the Synodal Way and the Synodal Committee."
In this context, "the German bishops made it clear that this work will seek to identify concrete ways of exercising Synodality in the Church in Germany, in accordance with the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, the provisions of Canon Law and the fruits of the Synod of the universal Church, and then submit them to the Holy See for approval." It was also agreed to hold a next meeting "before the summer of 2024."
This dialogue was initiated during the ad limina visit of the German bishops in November 2022 and continued throughout 2023. During this time, several Vatican dicasteries expressed their opposition to the creation of a "Synodal Council" that would perpetuate the Synodal Way begun in 2019, as such a Council could compromise the authority of the Bishop in a given diocese or of the Episcopal Conference at the national level.
In the absence of Vatican approval for such a "Synodal Council", the representatives of the Synodal Way agreed to set up initially a "Synodal Committee" which, over a period of three years, would prepare such a Council. The Committee was constituted on November 11, 2023: after the approval of its statutes by the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) it was awaiting approval by the DBK, which had planned to do so at its Plenary Assembly of February 19-22.
However, on February 16, Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Victor M. Fernandez and Robert F. Prevost sent a letter - expressly approved by Pope Francis - to theDBK to request that the latter, at its Plenary Assembly, not deal with the Statutes of a "Synodal Council". After the letter was received, March 22 was set as the date for continuing the dialogue. In the letter of February 16, the cardinals recalled a Synodal Council "is not foreseen by current canon law and, therefore, a resolution in this sense by the DBK would be invalid, with the corresponding juridical consequences." They questioned the authority that "the Episcopal Conference would have to approve the statutes," since neither the Code of Canon Law nor the Statute of the DBK "provide a basis for it."
According to the Catholic news agency KNA, with the compromise adopted by the German bishops, they "have committed themselves de facto not to create new leadership structures for the Catholic Church in Germany against the will of Rome". In some media, such as the tabloid magazine "Stern", it is said that "the German bishops have given in after the latest inflammatory letter from the Vatican". According to this magazine, "it is probable that the German bishops have reacted in this way to the Vatican's warning of a split in the Church". And it adds: "with the joint declaration, the creation of a council of the characteristics that were foreseen, where lay people and bishops could make decisions together, is ruled out".
The ZdK Central Committee has not yet made any statement after Friday's meeting. Recently, its president Irme Stetter-Karp told the unofficial DBK portal "katholisch.de" that, if the Synodal Committee is not formed because of the Vatican's resistance, the ZdK will withdraw from the collaboration with the bishops.
