Last Saturday
morning Pope Benedict XVI received the President of the German Bishops'
Conference Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg,
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.