Rome Newsroom, Oct 26, 2020 / 07:00 am
The Vatican has told the German Bishops' Conference that a forthcoming meeting in Rome to discuss Germans' concerns about the new instruction on parishes will not include laymen representing Germany's "Synodal Way".
A letter from Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, to the president of the German Bishops' Conference Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg was leaked to the press and later correspondence was confirmed by a spokesman for the bishops' conference on Oct. 26.
Cardinal Stella's letter was written in response to Bishop Bätzing's proposal in August that the executive committee of the Synodal Way be included in a meeting at the Vatican "since bishops, priests, deacons and laity are equally addressed in the instruction."
Stella replied: "In view of the fact that this instruction, because of its nature, is primarily addressed to the bishops (cf. can. 34 § 1 CIC), at this stage I consider them to be the necessary interlocutors of this Congregation," according to the German media outlet, Herder Korrespondenz.