Pope Leo XIV received Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, in audience this Monday, just one day after the cardinal participated in the Congress of German Catholics held in the city of Würzburg. The meeting was officially announced by the Vatican.
Grech took part from Friday to Sunday in the main gathering of German Catholicism, where he conveyed the Pontiff’s greetings to the attendees during the closing Mass. The cardinal particularly highlighted the involvement of young people and encouraged the faithful to live and transmit the Christian faith with courage in today’s society.
The presence of the Synod’s Secretary General at the Congress of German Catholics (Katholikentag) had sparked particular interest due to the tensions that have existed in recent years between the Vatican and the so-called German Synodal Way, a process promoted by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics to address reforms within the Church.
Grech insists that synodality is not a power struggle
During one of the events held on Saturday, Cardinal Grech spoke in a debate on synodality in the universal Church. There he stressed that this concept “must not be understood as a power struggle or as a simple decision-making process based on majorities”.
The cardinal defended that the true meaning of the synodal process consists in a common listening to the Holy Spirit within the Church.
The Vatican continues to study the future German Synodal Conference
One of the main pending issues between Rome and the German Church remains the approval of the statutes of a future permanent Synodal Conference in Germany, intended to provide institutional continuity to the Synodal Way.
The German Bishops’ Conference approved the text of these statutes at the end of February and subsequently sent them to the Vatican to obtain the corresponding recognitio, that is, the formal authorization of the Holy See.
During the Congress of German Catholics, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Heiner Wilmer, expressed confidence that Rome will eventually approve the project. According to him, the delay in the Vatican’s response “should not be interpreted negatively,” since this type of procedure usually requires time.