(Frankfurt) “The goal of this path is to achieve something that can foster the unity of the Church”: Card. Reinhard Marx, President of the German Bishops (DBK), and Thomas Sternberg, President of the Lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK), spoke at a press conference in Frankfurt a few hours after the opening of the first “Synodal Assembly” that kicks-start the two-year discussion process the German Church has decided to embark on. From today until Saturday, 230 delegates, including 69 members of the Bishops’ Conference, representatives of movements and associations, priests, religious orders, and dioceses will be meeting in the German city to exchange views on four selected topics: “Power and separation of powers in the Church”; “Priestly life today”; “Women in services and offices of the Church”; and “Love and sexuality”. “The starting point is the crisis caused by sexual abuse scandals in the Church”, Card. Marx said at the press conference, and now is the time for a “spiritual process” and “conversion”. What is at stake is “the future of the faith and the Church in our country”, Card. Marx stated, adding that there is a need to “restore credibility”. “The Pope urges us to discuss and seek answers together”, Sternberg went on to say, answering a question about “how to live the faith” among today’s men and women in Germany. “There will be no end to this path”, because this is the “start of a new way of being Church”.