RADIO VATICANA REPORT: Saturday morning Pope Benedict XVI received the President of the German Bishops' Conference Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg (see photo), Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Bishop Franz-Josef Hermann Bode of Osnabrück, and Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.
Following the encounter the German bishops released a statement explaining that the audience regarded Pope Benedict XVI’s forthcoming pastoral visit to Germany, scheduled for September 22 to 25.
The bishops say they “informed the Holy Father on the process of dialogue that has been ongoing in the Catholic Church in Germany since the 2010autumn plenary assembly, the Letter to the Community dated March 17, 2011, as well the launch of the dialogue process on July 7 and 8 in Mannheim”.
According to the bishops’ statement, “Pope Benedict was very interested in this dialogue process which will give important momentum to the Church's journey towards the future. He then described the process of as a spiritual journey of renewal and encouraged the German bishops to continue on this road. The Pope stressed, in particular, its connection with the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council”. The statement concludes that “the meeting, which took place in a deep spirit of brotherhood also included a lunch, which lasted nearly three hours”.
Archbishop Zollitsch announced a comprehensive “process of dialogue and reflection” at the end of the Conference’s plenary session in September 2010. The aim of the process is to find a way to overcome the current crises in credibility and trust of the Church in Germany related to the abuse scandal that emerged in 2010.
The first round of consultations in the dialogue process took place July 7 and 8. At the invitation of the German Bishops, approximately 300 participants addressed the issue of “Prospectives of the Church of Tomorrow”. They were selected by the Secretariat of the German Bishops Conference, under the leadership of the Jesuit Hans Langendörfer.
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