The Catholic journal Communio reported Dec. 11 that Sr. Igna Kramp, C.J., and Peter Hundertmark would not attend the body’s third plenary assembly in Wiesbaden this weekend.
The synodal committee, composed of bishops and selected lay people, was established at the end of Germany’s controversial “synodal way.”
The committee is responsible for implementing the synodal way’s 150 pages of resolutions and preparing the creation of a permanent national synodal body in 2026.
Communio reported that disagreements had emerged during a preparatory meeting for the synodal committee’s Dec. 13-14 plenary assembly. The spiritual advisers’ proposal of a time of silence and prayer was ineffective, it said.
“Kramp and Hundertmark then withdrew their willingness to participate and expressed the impression to those present that spiritual accompaniment of the committee’s work was not really desired,” Communio said.
A spokesman for the German bishops’ conference confirmed the departure of the spiritual advisers.
“The spiritual accompaniment of the synodal committee is an important concern for us, which is why this aspect has been expressly included in the synodal committee’s statutes,” he told Communio.
“The two spiritual advisers have given up this task, which we regret, but of course respect. We realize that spiritual accompaniment is a process and we are learners. That is why we have asked two members to take on this task for the upcoming meeting of the synodal committee.”
But in comments to the national Catholic weekly Die Tagespost, the spokesman took issue with Communio’s characterization of the preparatory meeting, insisting there had been “no dispute.”
The two new spiritual advisers for the upcoming meeting — Sr. Katharina Kluitmann, O.S.F., and Konstantin Bischoff — are among the synodal committee’s 70 members.
Communio noted that this contradicted the committee’s statutes, which state that the body’s steering committee must appoint “two spiritual advisers of different genders who are not members of the synodal committee.”
The statutes say the advisers “provide a spiritual impetus and ensure spiritual reflection on the work of the committee and its bodies.” They can interrupt plenary assembly sessions “if this seems to further and help the discussion process.”
The spiritual advisers’ appointments were announced in June after the synodal committee’s second plenary assembly in Mainz.
Neither Kramp, who provides “spiritual process accompaniment” in the Diocese of Fulda, nor Hundertmark, who oversees spiritual formation in the Diocese of Speyer, appear to have commented publicly on their departures.
The synodal committee’s organizers have stressed the body’s spiritual dimension, following criticism that synodal way assemblies were adversarial and akin to a parliament.
When Pope Francis launched the global synodal process in October 2021, he described it as “a process of spiritual discernment, of ecclesial discernment, that unfolds in adoration, in prayer, and in dialogue with the word of God.”
The two sessions of the synod on synodality in Rome featured an intensive daily program of prayer and silent reflection.
Four of Germany’s 27 bishops are boycotting the synodal committee. In a Nov. 4 joint statement, Cologne’s Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Eichstätt’s Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke, Passau’s Bishop Stefan Oster, and Regensburg’s Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer argued that the German initiative was at odds with the global synodal process.
They said that “spiritual discernment, listening to one another in a spirit of trust, and a focus on missionary discipleship were hardly present” at synodal way assemblies. Instead, they said, “there was a parliamentary-like process of pure majority-building and not of spiritual discernment.”
Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and co-president of the synodal committee, insisted in October that the synod on synodality provided a “tailwind for necessary changes,” but suggested it did not go far enough.
She criticized “the still unchanged anthropology of the Church, which values women for their motherliness, their ability to suffer, and their warm-heartedness, but not for their ability to lead, to make decisions, and to hold ordained ecclesiastical positions.”
The ZdK adopted a new mission statement at a plenary assembly in Berlin in November.
It says the ZdK represents “the concerns of the Catholic faithful in Germany” and stands “for gender equality and democratic structures in the Church.”
“For us, this includes access for women to all services and offices,” the mission statement says.