The Bochum-based theologian Thomas Soeding has defended the ongoing reform process of the Catholic Church in Germany.
The deliberations of the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican were a boost for the controversial Synodal Committee in Germany, which is scheduled to meet for the first time this weekend in Essen, Soeding told the church website domradio.de on Thursday.
“There was support there for all attempts to establish decentralised, i.e. local, participation structures that lead to decisions. And it is precisely from this perspective that I see us making good progress in Germany,” said Soeding, who took part in the Synod on Synodality in Rome as an advisor and will also be a member of the German Synodal Committee.
The theologian criticised that not all German bishops will take part in the Synodal Committee. “I think it is a contradiction that bishops are not exercising their right to participate,” he said.
That position had become less tenable after the Synod in Rome “because the organisation of shared responsibility in the Catholic Church is the prerequisite for being able to make decisions that are truly legitimate”, Soeding said.
The Synodal Committee will meet for the first time in Essen on Friday and Saturday. Its task is to prepare the establishment of a Synodal Council in which bishops and laypeople want to continue their consultations on key issues such as power, the role of women, sexual morality and the priestly way of life.
Bishops Gregor Maria Hanke (Eichstaett), Stefan Oster (Passau), Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg) and Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki (Cologne) had declared that they did not wish to co-finance the Synodal Council due to reservations in the Vatican about the plan.
The Vatican has repeatedly pointed out that the Church in Germany was not authorised to establish a joint governing body made up of laypeople and clerical members. Last week, Oster confirmed that he would not take part in the Synodal Committee. Oster had attended the Synod on Synodality in Rome in October at the personal invitation of Pope Francis. He was one of five German bishops who took part.
Originally reported by KNA Germany.
