Synodal Path: third Assembly for 230 bishops and lay people in Frankfurt. Paper on “communication and conflict management” to be discussed

The third Synodal Assembly is taking place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from 3 to 5 February. The venue will again be the Fair Centre to allow social distancing and prevent infections. There, the 230 delegates of the Synodal Path of the Catholic Church in Germany will continue discussing. The texts are already on the web site (https://www.synodalerweg.de) and in the hands of bishops, lay people, men and women religious, the young and the not so young who embarked on this path of dialogue and conversion in 2019, at the will of the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of the Laity. Among the items on the agenda is the first reading of the texts that had not been prepared in time for the September Assembly (for example, the contribution on the life of the priest today) or those that had not been addressed for lack of time. The reading of the second draft of some texts is also on the agenda, in light of the debate that took place in the previous Assembly (the basic theological paper, the paper on the power and co-responsibility in the Church, and that on the “involvement of the faithful in the appointment of the diocesan bishop”). Work will begin with the Presidency’s report and the presentation of a document on “good communication and conflict management”. Besides the discussion of the papers, other items on the agenda of the three-day Assembly include, as usual, the reports on the state of the process of “elaboration and clarification of sexual abuses” and feed backs from the foreign guests at the session. The website of the Synodal Path will provide the live streaming of the Assembly as well as access to the documents to be discussed.
Valentina Bombelli