Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, and the heads of five Vatican dicasteries met on March 22 with seven officials of the Bishops’ Conference of Germany—one month after leading Vatican cardinals wrote that a German vote in favor of synodal council would be null and void.
The Holy See and the German bishops agreed to a “regular exchange” of views, with the next meeting taking place before summer, according to a statement issued after the meeting.
“The German Bishops made it clear that this work will seek to identify concrete ways of exercising synodality in the Church in Germany, in accordance with the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, the provisions of Canon Law and the fruits of the Synod of the universal Church, and then submit them to the Holy See for approval,” according to the statement.