VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
La Croix International [Montrouge Cedex, France]
March 22, 2024
By Loup Besmond de Senneville
Several German bishops were due to meet with top Vatican officials today, while the two sides are openly at odds over the reform of Church governance
Just hours before the start of Holy Week, several of the highest-ranking officials of the Roman Curia are facing a challenging meeting — the latest round of talks, which was due to take place Friday, with a delegation of Catholic bishops specially convened from Germany.
On the agenda for the March 22 gathering was to be the dialogue, initiated several years ago, between the Holy See and the Church in Germany regarding the German “Synodal Path” and its implications. This initiative, with the Catholic bishops and lay leaders of Germany launched in 2019 in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis, has fueled numerous tensions between the Vatican and the German bishops.Further reading: Why Pope Francis wants no repeat of the German “Synodal Path”
Closed-door meetings
The latest episode in this remote struggle, sometimes played out through the media, was a letter the Vatican sent to the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) on February 19, just days before the opening of the DBK plenary assembly. The Holy See expressed its strong opposition to the German proposal to establish a “synodal council”. The plan would allow priests, deacons, and lay people to share in decision-making within the Church in Germany. The Vatican sees this as a threat to the exclusive mission of the bishops, whose prerogatives precisely involve decision-making regarding the governance of their dioceses.
Friday’s meetings in Rome, which were being held behind closed doors, were expected to include Cardinals Pietro Parolin (Secretary of State), Victor Manuel Fernandez (Doctrine of the Faith), Robert Prevost (Bishops), Kurt Koch (Ecumenism), Arthur Roche (Liturgy), and Archbishop Filippo Iannone (Legislative Texts). Such a gathering is extremely rare for this type of appointment. And according to our information, Pope Francis was not expected to attend.Further reading: Catholic bishops and the magisterial codes of power
Vatican opposition
The list of the meeting’s participants has not been published officially. But according to the German Catholic news agency KNA, Bishop Georg Bätzing, the DBK president, arrived in Rome this week. KNA said he was joined by several other German bishops who head various DBK commissions. They include Bishops Franz-Josef Overbeck (Doctrine), Peter Kohlgraf (Pastoral Practice), Michael Gerber (Priestly Formation), Stephan Ackermann (Liturgy), and Bertram Meier (Migrants).
The German prelates and the pope’s representatives continue to look for a way to break the deadlock. But many in the Vatican and the Church at large remain worried that the Catholic leaders from beyond the Rhine could provoke a schism.
“We have three scheduled meetings in Rome,” Bishop Bätzing, the DBK president, said in early February. “We will attend because it is the only way forward. We do not want to implement anything that contradicts ecclesiastical law. So, we need to talk. Now.”
The Vatican’s opposition is such that, during a previous meeting in November 2022, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, then prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, even proposed a “moratorium” on the Synodal Path. But the German bishops firmly rejected that.Further reading: Church in Germany will not follow a “special German path”, say Catholic leaders
During that meeting, other cardinals — including Pietro Parolin and Luis Ladaria, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — expressed strong doubts about the German initiative.
The November 2022 meeting was extensively covered by both the Vatican and the German bishops. But this time, both parties have agreed to be discreet. No statement is expected to be issued after this new stage of the Vatican-German dialogue, which seems to be increasingly challenging.