Church
German bishops take controversial reform step
The dispute with Rome seems to have been resolved – Bishop Georg Bätzing has spoken in Rome. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
The Pope had blocked and criticized the plans for the Synodal Council. Now the German bishops have passed the controversial statute.
The Catholic bishops in Germany still have an important one after a two-month delay Reform step taken. The Permanent Council of the Bishops’ Conference had already adopted the statutes of the Synodal Committee reform body on Monday, said the spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference, Matthias Kopp. “Things have developed from the last general assembly to the conversation in Rome and now,” explained Kopp to the dpa.
One of the central reform projects of the Catholic Church in Germany is the planning of a Synodal Council in which bishops and lay people will discuss and make decisions together in the future. In order to prepare the Synodal Council, the Bishops’ Conference and the lay body Central Council of Catholics have founded a Synodal Committee.
However, a ratification of the committee’s statutes planned last February during the spring general assembly of bishops was effectively blocked by Pope Francis: three high Curia cardinals from the Vatican wrote a very clear letter to the bishops’ conference, whereupon chairman Georg Bätzing removed the vote from the agenda.
But now the ratification has taken place. The background is Bätzing’s discussions in Rome last month. The Germans are said to have agreed on a coordinated approach with the Curia – the central administration of the world Catholic Church.