The German “Synodal Way” is moving forward boldly following a decisive meeting in Frankfurt at the start of February. But one important question remains unanswered: how does the initiative fit in with the two-year global synodal process launched by Pope Francis leading up to the 2023 Synod on Synodality?
Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German bishops’ conference, went some way to answering that question at the end of the three-day meeting of the Synodal Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the Synodal Way.
“It was received with great approval and joy in the Synodal Assembly that we will establish a mixed discussion group between those responsible in the Roman Synod Secretariat and the presidium of the Synodal Way in our country,” he said on Feb. 5.
Bätzing made it known that he had a meeting in Luxembourg with Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and Cardinal Mario Grech. Both men have critical roles in the worldwide synodal process. Pope Francis chose Hollerich, the archbishop of Luxembourg, to serve as relator general of the Synod on Synodality. The pope selected Grech, from Malta, as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
According to a source familiar with the work of the General Secretariat of the Synod of the Bishops, Grech’s presence at the gathering was “part of a series of meetings that the General Secretariat of the Synod intends to hold with the particular Churches,” with the will to “accompany them in the synodal process.”
In this regard, Grech also gave a speech at the last general assembly of the Italian bishops in November 2021. So, the Maltese cardinal is talking to multiple national bishops’ conferences about the global synodal process.
The idea of establishing a working group is part of a mediation effort that also aims to avert a possible schism of the Church in Germany. In June 2019, Pope Francis sent a 19-page letter to German Catholics high-lighting a “growing erosion and deterioration of faith” in the country. He urged Church members to resist the temptation to reorganize structures in the face of difficulties and engage instead in evangelization.
At the Synodal Assembly meeting on Feb. 3-5, participants voted in favour of draft texts calling for the abolition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church, the ordination of women deacons and priests, same-sex blessings, and changes to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.