Church in Germany pushes toward a national synodal body

Rome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

Following a series of meetings at the Vatican this year, the German Synodal Committee took further steps toward establishing a national synodal body after the Vatican rejected a permanent council.

At a meeting Dec. 13–14 in Wiesbaden, delegates discussed drafting the composition, competencies, and decision-making processes of a body that initially was proposed to be a synodal council — while facing renewed internal tensions, including the withdrawal of spiritual advisers, CNA Deutsch reported.

Tailwind from the synod

Pointing to the recent Synod on Synodality in Rome, Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, expressed optimism about the latest developments in Germany.

“We feel tailwind for our proceedings in Germany through the results of the world synod,” he said at the meeting, according to CNA Deutsch.

Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said that the final document of the synod in Rome required broader outreach in Germany: “It needs mediation to the parishes, to the grassroots,” she said during the committee’s third session.

Confrontations with spiritual advisers

The departure of two spiritual advisers overshadowed the recent developments.

CNA Deutsch reported that Sister Igna Kramp from the Diocese of Fulda and Peter Hundertmark from the Diocese of Speyer stepped down following what sources described as “confrontations between participants” during preparatory meetings.

According to the organizing committee’s statutes, the presidium is meant to appoint “two spiritual companions of different genders who are not members of the synodal committee” to provide spiritual guidance and reflection. Replacements were swiftly appointed.

Meetings in Rome

Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican intervened as early as July 2022 against plans for a German synodal council.

The interventions were followed by several meetings between German bishops and high-ranking Vatican officials earlier this year.

Most recently, on June 28, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandéz, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops; and Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, met with a German delegation. 

Archbishop Filippo Iannone, prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, joined the cardinals.

Bishops Bätzing, Stephan Ackermann, Bertram Meier, and Franz-Josef Overbeck represented the Synodal Way on the German side.

The talks centered on the proposed synodal council: According to a joint press release, both sides want to “change the name and various aspects of the previous draft” for the controversial body.

Both sides also agreed that the synodal council would not be “above or equal to the bishops’ conference.”

The committee now setting up a “national synodal body” is scheduled to meet again in early 2025.

German dioceses will reportedly be surveyed about the implementation of resolutions in February and March of next year.