Debate on the convergence of synodal path and process
Salzburg, August 5th, 2022 (KAP) How do the German church reform process “Synodal Path” and the worldwide synodal process planned by Pope Francis relate to each other? Do both ultimately want the same thing, so that they should complement and stimulate each other, or does the synodal process in Germany mark a special path that Rome rightly follows with concern and even suspicion?
It was hardly surprising that questions like this were also discussed controversially at this year’s “Salzburg University Weeks” – moreover, within the framework of a separate discussion format “Theology synodal”, in which three different experts met: The Salzburg speaker responsible for the synodal Process in the archdiocese, Markus Welte, the Münster canon lawyer Prof. Thomas Schüller, and the German nun and superior general of the Oberzeller Franciscan nuns, Katharina Ganz.
Welte made an urgent plea for “mutual learning from each other”, and above all consideration, because he considers it important “that these paths do not leave each other’s paths”. The German synodal path should be more open to the criticism of the Pope, who described synods as a spiritual process of listening to one another – and not as “consultation room, parliament or senate”. As a spiritual path, it is dependent on a communal “listening to the Holy Spirit” – however, “excessive dominance of intellectual and theological elites” or external pressure would prevent this.
On the other hand, according to Welte, it would be “worthwhile to examine again how academic theology, but also other sciences, can be given a clearly audible voice” for the synodal process at the universal church level – as is done in the German synodal path.
The German canon lawyer Prof. Thomas Schüller pointed out that both paths are thematically similar and that the votes from the universal church on the 2023 Synod of Bishops “bring pretty much exactly the same topics that are also discussed on the synodal path”. The themes of the synodal path are therefore “not an expression of a decadent West that has apostatized from the faith, but are burning on the nails of many women and men worldwide”. And even if the synodal path is “legally a nullum” insofar as it does not commit anyone, it develops good arguments for changes whose dynamics “Rome fears” but which “cannot be stopped”.
worry about responsibility
At the same time, Schüller drew a mixed balance on the course of the synodal path so far: On the one hand, he recalled the origins in the MHG study from 2018, which named the clear causes of sexualized violence in the Catholic Church – and on which the synodal path is now to answer. However, he fears that there will be no majority vote on individual issues such as the “women’s question”, the question of celibacy or the change in Catholic sexual morals. The majorities had become more uncertain as a result of Roman critical objections – but this already shows the weakness of the synodal path: its unexpected obligation under canon law. “It really would have been better to hold a plenary council that is binding under canon law, such as the Würzburg Synod or currently the Australian Church. Their resolutions are binding on all bishops.”
Schüller was also critical of the plan to set up a synodal council at the level of the bishops’ conference. According to the canon lawyer, it would be better to hold a diocesan synod regularly and, as required by the Code, every 10 years. Despite everything, the synodal path could be a success if it succeeds in enforcing things that could also be changed without Rome – such as a change in church labor law, a reform of the mission regulations for religion teachers, the introduction of administrative jurisdiction and the Greater involvement of believers in bishop elections. “If the 2/3 majority of the bishops does not come about here, this would be a major setback”.
Make the synodal path permanent
The nun and superior of the Oberzell Franciscan Sisters, Sr. Katharina Ganz, also contradicted the mutual playing off of the German synodal path and the worldwide synodal process: the synodal path is also a spiritual path – the participants would make “communal experiences as a pilgrim people of God” there. It is therefore inaccurate to speak of a “German special path”, according to Ganz. The devaluation associated with this term also ignores the drama and the “disastrous situation into which the church has maneuvered itself through the massive crimes against people and the systematic cover-up” – and to which the synodal path wants to respond.
“The principle of synodality, which the Pope demands for the entire universal Church, has been intensively practiced here for the past two and a half years”. According to Ganz, the synodal path should therefore “be made permanent” in order to maintain change and dialogue processes. (Information: www.salzburger-hochschulwochen.at)