German bishops' leader downplays Vatican rebuke (CNA)

The president of the German bishops’ conference has downplayed the importance of a Vatican statement rejecting the German bishops’ plan for a permanent governing “council” composed of bishops and laity.

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg said that the German bishops would discuss the Vatican directive “in the near future.” But he indicated that he did not see the Vatican statement as a rejection of the German plan. He said that “we sill think much more intensively about the forms and possibilities of synodal consultation.”