Pope: Dialogue the way forward for Church in Germany
Saturday morning Pope Benedict XVI received the President of the German Bishops' Conference
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg (see photo), Cardinal Reinhard Marx,
Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Bishop Franz-Josef Hermann Bode of Osnabrück, and
Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.
Following
the encounter the German bishops released a statement explaining that the audience
regarded Pope Benedict XVI’s forthcoming pastoral visit to Germany, scheduled for
September 22 to 25.
The bishops say they “informed the Holy Father on the process
of dialogue that has been ongoing in the Catholic Church in Germany since the 2010autumn
plenary assembly, the Letter to the Community dated March 17, 2011, as well the launch
of the dialogue process on July 7 and 8 in Mannheim”.
According to the bishops’
statement, “Pope Benedict was very interested in this dialogue process which will
give important momentum to the Church's journey towards the future. He then described
the process of as a spiritual journey of renewal and encouraged the German bishops
to continue on this road. The Pope stressed, in particular, its connection with the
50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council”. The statement concludes that “the
meeting, which took place in a deep spirit of brotherhood also included a lunch, which
lasted nearly three hours”.
Archbishop Zollitsch announced a comprehensive
“process of dialogue and reflection” at the end of the Conference’s plenary session
in September 2010. The aim of the process is to find a way to overcome the current
crises in credibility and trust of the Church in Germany related to the abuse scandal
that emerged in 2010.
The first round of consultations in the dialogue process
took place July 7 and 8. At the invitation of the German Bishops, approximately 300
participants addressed the issue of “Prospectives of the Church of Tomorrow”. They
were selected by the Secretariat of the German Bishops Conference, under the leadership
of the Jesuit Hans Langendörfer.