Following an intervention by the Vatican, Germany’s oldest diocese has put on hold plans to reduce its number of parishes from almost 900 to 35.
The planned reorganisation of the Diocese of Trier, the result of a local synodal process, was scheduled to begin on January 1, 2020.
On November 20, Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier published decrees towards dissolving the existing parish structure by enacting a “Law for the Implementation of the Results of the Diocesan Synod 2013-2016”.
The next day, the Vatican stepped in.
