“The synodal path has delivered” – this is how Irme Stetter-Karp, President of the Central Committee of German Catholics, put it on Saturday. For three days, Catholic bishops and lay people in Frankfurt discussed and wrestled with reform proposals. Two difficult weeks lay behind the publication of the Munich abuse report for many members of the synod, which could be heard from numerous speeches. Weeks of strife and doubt.
For the first time, the Synodal Path also adopted concrete proposals for action at this third assembly: The proposal to involve the church people in the future election of the diocesan bishop received a great deal of approval. In the final vote in the second reading, the voting behavior of the bishops was always made transparent – they have a blocking minority. If at least a third of the bishops and auxiliary bishops reject a proposal, it has failed.
Policy Paper on Gender Equality
79 percent of them voted for an advisory lay committee to be set up at diocese level, which together with the cathedral chapter will draw up a list of suitable bishop candidates and send them to Rome. However, it is uncertain whether and how this will have a concrete effect in Bavaria: In other regions of Germany, the cathedral chapter – which consists only of clerics – already has a greater say in the election of bishops. In accordance with the Bavarian Concordat of 1924, however, the Pope has a largely free hand in appointing bishops in the Free State.
A policy paper on gender equality in the church also met with great approval; it will only be finally decided at the fourth assembly. There will be a total of five synodal assemblies. 93 percent of all members of the synod also voted for a change in service law at national level – the bishops can now decide for themselves that homosexuality is no longer an exclusion criterion for church employment. The Bishop of Eichstätt, Gregor Maria Hanke, even recommended thinking about whether the church shouldn’t generally do without its special labor law regulations, the so-called third way. The traffic light coalition agreement also states that it should be examined how church labor law can be aligned with secular labor law.
Unease about the greetings of the Pope’s ambassador in Germany
With the approval of more than two-thirds of the bishops, some proposals can now be classified as significantly more binding in terms of church policy and dogma. It will be harder for Rome to just walk over it like that. However, for the vast majority of reform projects, the last word still lies in Rome, with the Pope.
The members of the synod therefore followed the greetings of the Pope’s ambassador to Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, with unease. On Saturday in Frankfurt he did not find a single word of encouragement, instead warning: What the Holy Father says is decisive.