The road will be rocky

On Twitter, the Synodal Way always starts the week with an impulse. On Monday, there was a short passage from the Psalm translations by the writer Arnold Stadler. "Only courage! Nothing but hope!", the first words read.

With regard to the dialogue on the future of church life in Germany, a thoroughly ambiguous message. In addition to encouragement, this can also be read as an appeal to persevere. That one seems necessary, at least when you talk to some of the participants in the Synodical Way.

Dissatisfaction in the forums

In the four forums, which are to prepare central topics for the plenary sessions of the Synodal Way, dissatisfaction is stirring a good six months after the start in Frankfurt. Fundamental questions are waiting to be answered, at least from the point of view of some synod members: "How do we talk to each other??" – "How do we deal with each other??" – "What is the goal of our work?"While the substantive work – also due to the Corona break – has hardly progressed, it seems that friction and frustration between reformers and preservationists are increasing.

At the top, the synodal presidium, people keep a low profile – like the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Batzing – or spread confidence – like Thomas Sternberg. "The positive attitude toward the Synodal Way, both among the German bishops and among the laity, the good mood from the start in Frankfurt, have remained" said the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in early July.

Regional conferences in five locations

At the 4. September, regional conferences in five locations are now on the agenda – instead of the second synodal assembly, which was postponed until February next year because of Corona. On this occasion, Sternberg said, the forums could "feed back the first results of their work to the synodal assembly and present them for discussion": power, sexual morality, priestly life and the role of women.

As if that alone were not more than enough for an event scheduled to last eight hours, Jesuit Bernd Hagenkord, for example, would like to see something else as well. He would have liked to talk more about the consequences of the Corona Academy, because the church has become very visible during this time, Hagenkord said at the beginning of the month in the podcast series "Himmelklar – Furchtet euch nicht"!". The longtime head of the German-language division of Radio Vatican is responsible for the spiritual guidance of the initiative, along with theologian Maria Boxberg.

In Rome the clocks go differently

Does the synodal path lead to nowhere? In any case, it's rockier and more winding than initially thought. Two unexpected factors make it even more difficult: Because of Corona, synodal assemblies with their strong group dynamics are impossible. And it is becoming increasingly clear that, on sober reflection, the high expectations that were in the air at the beginning of the initiative can hardly be fulfilled by the church in Germany alone. In Rome, the clocks go differently, as the Vatican Instruction on the subject of parishes and priests has recently made surprisingly clear.

So now all hopes turn to the regional conferences. Perhaps there will be a new jolt through the 230-strong community of the Way. A "Synodal Way" theme booklet for religious education already exists. In addition impulses on Twitter and Facebook with a good portion of courage free of charge.