“The first meeting of the synodal committee will take place as planned on Nov. 10–11, 2023,” the bishops’ conference noted.
One of the key questions will be the financing for the controversial project, given the Synodal Way already cost several million dollars. Although funding figures for the three-year synodal committee have not been publicly released, German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) spokesman Matthias Kopp told the National Catholic Register in May that 5.5 million euros had been spent on the Synodal Way during its initial three-year phase of assemblies.
On Tuesday, the four bishops who voted against the funding of the synodal committee at a gathering of the 27 diocesan bishops in Berlin said in a joint press release that “the plan to organize a synodal committee in Germany now, which will then establish a synodal council, is against the clear instruction of the pope.”
“Therefore, we cannot go along with this step at this time,” the four bishops affirmed.
“It is not unlikely that at this point, with a lot of money and effort, we would set up another body whose competences are anything but clear — only to find out in the end that we cannot do it in this way,” Woelki, Hanke, Oster, and Voderholzer explained.
“At the Synodal Way, decisions have been made that cause anxiety among many believers throughout the world: These are deep questions of doctrine, especially the doctrine of the Church, of the person, of the sacraments,” they added.