Vatican still hasn’t approved Germany’s new synodal body, bishop says

The president of the German Bishops' Conference has announced the bylaws for the German Synodal Conference are still under review in Rome.

The Synodal Conference is intended to serve as a permanent body implementing the controversial German Synodal Way. The Vatican continues to review the bylaws of this new national-level body, which is to consist of bishops and non-bishops.

“The statutes are currently being reviewed in Rome,” Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Münster said in an interview Sunday with the Kirche+Leben website.

“I know from those responsible there that it will still take some time. I am confident that we will make progress on this.”

Wilmer confirmed what he had already hinted at in May: “Personally, I do not expect us to meet as early as November, given the dynamics involved, because the matter is being passed from one dicastery to the next.”

Can the new leader of Germany’s bishops prevent a schism?

The first meeting of the new German body was scheduled for Nov. 6–7 in Stuttgart. The next session was then scheduled to take place in Würzburg on April 16–17, 2027.

The Synodal Conferenceʼs bylaws have been under review in Rome since the end of March .…