The prelate maintains that the exercise of episcopal authority must increasingly rely on dialogue with the faithful and diocesan leaders, although he maintains his differences with certain proposals of the German reform process.
According to Katholisch.de, Oster made these statements on Wednesday, October 7, during a roundtable held at the University of Passau, dedicated to the application of synodality in local Churches.
The bishop stated that a new prelate can no longer arrive in a diocese and wield “the brutal mace of power” to announce that he will unilaterally change everything done by his predecessor. “That no longer works,” he asserted, convinced that the path toward greater participation in ecclesial life is irreversible.
Episcopal governance can no longer dispense with consultation
Oster explained that his own way of exercising diocesan governance has evolved and that he currently seeks not to make important decisions without a prior process of deliberation.
The prelate also warned of the difficulties a bishop faces when the diocesan structure and its collaborators maintain an institutional culture contrary to his decisions. In such circumstances, he noted, exercising the episcopal ministry can become an extraordinarily difficult task.
In his view, participation requires an environment in which people can speak freely, without fear of expressing their disagreements, and where there is a genuine willingness to listen. When these conditions are met, he maintained, unexpected results can occur and consensus can be reached.
According to the Diocese of Passau as well, Oster linked this transformation to the need to overcome an excessively personal-power-centered conception of ecclesial governance.
The bishop insisted that synodality should not be reduced to an administrative reorganization, but must be linked to listening to the Holy Spirit and to the encounter among the members of the Church.
“At its core, synodality consists of a deeper faith that God is present in us and among us through his Spirit,” he explained.
A defender of synodality who has questioned the German Synodal Way
The statements are especially significant given the position Oster has maintained during the controversial German Synodal Way.
The bishop of Passau has been one of the members of the episcopate who has publicly expressed his disagreements with several of the reforms advocated by the majority of participants, especially on issues related to sexual morality, the priesthood, and the exercise of authority in the Church.
Last May, Oster denounced the pressures he suffered during the assemblies of the German Synodal Way and acknowledged that those meetings had caused him considerable emotional strain.
The prelate then explained that his opposition to certain proposals was a matter of conscience and that he had personally shared his concerns about the situation of the German Church with the Pope.
His position therefore distinguishes between the content of some reforms promoted in Germany and the need to foster greater participation of the faithful in processes of ecclesial consultation and discernment.
In fact, Oster has pointed out on previous occasions the differences he sees between the German Synodal Way and the worldwide Synod convened by Francis, whose methodology he considers more appropriate for promoting listening and dialogue within the Church.
In his own diocese, last July a synodal team of 16 members, presided over by the bishop, began working with the aim of studying the application of the conclusions of the worldwide Synod held between 2021 and 2024.
Participation and accountability, still without a defined structure
Klara-Antonia Csiszar, professor of Pastoral Theology at the Private Catholic University of Linz, also spoke at the roundtable, defending the need for synodality to be translated into permanent mechanisms of participation, transparency, and accountability.
The theologian argued that bishops must learn to explain their decisions before the people of God and considered it necessary to develop procedures that allow different voices to be incorporated into ecclesial life.
However, she acknowledged that it is still unclear how to translate these aspirations into legal structures and stable procedures. Csiszar described synodality as a process whose outcome is not fully defined and that requires a willingness to listen and to face disagreements.
Both Oster and Csiszar participated in the worldwide Synod on synodality. The Passau meeting, organized by the Catholic Academy of Bavaria together with the diocese and the university, was precisely dedicated to examining how its conclusions can be applied in the daily life of particular Churches.
The interventions raised a question that remains open in the ecclesial debate: how to expand the participation of the faithful in decisions without blurring the bishop’s own responsibility in the governance of his diocese.