Four of Germany’s 27 diocesan bishops have refused to fund a committee created to implement the resolutions of the country’s controversial “synodal way.”
The synodal way’s logo at the final assembly in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 9, 2023. © Synodaler Weg/Maximilian von Lachner.
Cologne’s Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Regens­burg’s Bishop Rudolf Voder­hol­zer, Passau’s Bishop Stefan Oster, and Eich­stätt’s Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke vetoed the release of money from a common fund known as the Association of the Dioceses of Germany (VDD), which requires the unanimous approval of the country’s diocesan bishops.
Their decision means that supporters of the synodal way must find an alternative source of funding for the ”synodal committee” ahead of its scheduled first meeting in November.
The committee, which is composed of diocesan bishops and lay people, is intended to pave the way for the creation of a permanent “synodal council” overseeing the Church in Germany — a proposal explicitly rejected by Rome.
Soon after the four bishops’ stance was made public, Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the influential lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), insisted that the synodal committee’s deliberations would go ahead as planned.
Recalling the origins of the synodal way, she said: “It was the bishops who, in unity, asked the ZdK in 2019 to begin this way with them.”