NAfter the Vatican's latest intervention, the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing, accused the church leadership in Rome of delaying talks with the German bishops. The bishops often had to wait months for appointments to be set in the Vatican, he said on Monday at the start of the spring general meeting of the Catholic bishops in Augsburg.

“We could be much further along. And the responsibility for the delay clearly lies on Rome’s side,” emphasized the Limburg bishop. The Vatican sent a letter to Bätzing at the weekend asking him to remove the planned vote in Augsburg on the statutes of the “Synodal Committee” from the agenda. The church leadership in Rome referred to upcoming discussions with representatives of the bishops' conference on this topic.

Vatican sees bishops' authority at risk

The Vatican takes exception to the “Synodal Committee” set up in November because it is supposed to prepare a body called the “Synodal Council” in which bishops and laypeople should discuss and decide on equal terms on fundamental questions of church life in Germany.

This was decided by the general assembly of the “Synodal Path” reform project. From the Vatican's perspective, this is an unacceptable limitation on episcopal authority. Over the past year and a half, the church leadership in Rome has expressed this to the German bishops several times.

Bätzing reiterated that they “in no way” wanted to limit the authority of the bishops. It’s about putting them on “new ground”. At the same time, Bätzing called it “a given” that he had complied with the Vatican’s demands. “We do not want to and cannot simply ignore the Roman objection.”