The recent assembly of the German Synodal Path may have finally put the German Church on the path toward schism, building on a legacy from the 1970s. The Synodal Path rounded off a recent three-day meeting by voting for a permanent council to oversee the local Church. This “decision-making body” will decide upon “pastoral planning, future perspectives and budgetary issues” which are not decided at the diocesan level.
The new body will take on much of what should belong to a diocesan bishop, and what once required the power of jurisdiction linked to ordination or consecration will be placed in the hands of lay people, in defiance of Canon 127 of the new code. It was also specified that “the resolutions of the Synodal Council shall have at least the same legal effects as the resolutions of the Synodal Assembly.”
