Cardinal Gerhard Müller has defined as the “process of Protestantization” of the Catholic Church in Germany
Schism in Germany, Leo XIV’s High-Stakes Game
(Photo credit: CNS)
ROME, 17 January 2026 — Pope Leo XIV met Friday with the apostolic nuncio to Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterović, amid reports that their talks focused on the German bishops’ planned vote to establish a permanent Synodal Conference that would grant laypeople decision-making authority equal to bishops, allow doctrinal changes by majority vote, and place Church finances under shared control.
Writing in Il Giornale this morning, Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni said it is “inevitable” that the Pope’s meeting with his nuncio to Germany would be “dominated by the imminent vote of the German Bishops’ Conference on the Statutes of the Synodal Conference.”
The vote is scheduled for the bishops’ plenary assembly Feb. 19–22 in Augsburg.
It follows a Nov. 22 meeting in Fulda, where bishops and lay representatives unanimously approved the statutes for a permanent national synodal body composed of bishops, representatives of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK …