The leadership of the German Catholic laity has announced that it will go ahead with plans for a permanent synodal council despite Rome denying it had the powers to do so.
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), which represents the 20 million lay Catholics in the country, announced in a statement on 4 November that it would establish a nationwide permanent body where bishops and laity would share decision-making, as proposed by the German Synodal Path initiative – and explicitly prohibited by the Vatican in January.
The ZdK said it intended to continue with its plans to establish a synodal council where questions about power, the role of women in the Church, sexual morality and priestly lifestyle would not only be discussed by bishops and laity, but also decided.
“We are not dogmatically concerned about the actual words, that is whether it is called a ‘synodal council’ or not, but want to establish a permanent body where bishops and lay Catholics – that is the Office and the People of God – can together not only consult with one another but come to decisions together,” the statement said.
In an interview with katholisch.de, ZdK president Irme Stetter-Carp said that permanency and shared decision-making would be integral to the new council.
In April, a small minority of diocesan bishops – 4 out of 27 – said they were opposed to the Synodal Path initiative and would not provide finance for a synodal council, which seem to jeopardise its prospects.
However, a synodal committee to prepare for a full synodal council will meet for the first time from 10-11 November in Essen. Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau has said that he will not attend.
Stetter-Carp said she expected “at least all those bishops who did not vote against financing the synodal council” to attend the meeting, where they will discuss the synodal council’s statutes and rules of procedure.
These will include whether the meetings will be made public or not, and the nature of effective majorities in the council.
“We no longer want a two thirds majority of bishops but a two-thirds majority of all the participants. That is what we will strive for,” said Stteter-Carp.
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