Summary
Bishops in the Catholic Church have fallen into a trap by attempting to make the Synodale Conference resemble a kind of church supervisory board. This move has led them down the path of absurdity, as evident from recent events at the Linz conference (kath.net). The key issue lies with the use of abstentions in voting processes. While traditionally a two-thirds majority is required for decisions to be binding, the Synodale Conference operates differently, considering abstentions as unvoted votes. This has allowed a minority vote to override majorities. In an attempt to implement resolutions from the Synodale Conference at local diocesan levels, key Bishops voted with 21 out of 47 present, reaching a two-thirds majority in favor. However, this was only 53% of the total number of Bishops present. To maintain their position, they used the policy that abstentions count as unvoted votes and thus can still constitute a two-thirds majority. Cardinal Reinhard Kardinal Marx from Munich has explicitly stated his opposition to such a configuration, referring to it as an “Oberinstanz” or super-institute in Germany. He sees this as problematic because Bishops would have only 27 supporters against 54 opponents within the Synodale Conference’s council. This setup is seen as highly unbalanced and potentially undermining the authority structure of the Church. This strategy, if successful, could lead to a situation where local Bishops need to justify their non-compliance with resolutions from the Synodale Conference, especially given that the latter are not legally binding according to Church doctrine. The implications for the overall church hierarchy and financial management also remain unclear, as there is concern about the control over VDD (Verein Deutscher Diözesen), a charitable foundation used by Bishops.
Key Topics
Synodale Weg, Bischöfe, Rome
