Meier in the Middle: Why This German Bishop May Be a ‘Roman Bellwether’ on the Synodal Way
In any account of episcopal resistance to Germany’s Synodal Way and its most controversial aims, the name “Bishop Bertram Meier” figures prominently.
After all, the bishop of Augsburg was one of only a handful of German bishops to publicly vote against proposals to attempt to bless same-sex sexual relations and to sacramentally ordain women at this past March’s Synodal Way assembly and has previously said the process poises a “virulent” threat to ecclesial unity. Furthermore, he was one of five German bishops to send a letter to the Vatican in December 2022 raising concerns about the Synodal Way’s plan to establish a permanent “Synodal Council” to govern the Church in Germany, prompting a response from Rome that has, at least, delayed synodalists, who have instead established a transitional “Synodal Committee.”
But precisely because of this track record of public resistance to the Synodal Way and its excesses, Bishop Meier’s recent criticism of skeptics of the synodal process during his homily this past Sunday, in which he said that they suffer from a “circle the wagons” mentality, has been difficult to square for those who had assumed that the bishop’s previous opposition to aspects of the Synodal Way meant that he shared their same fundamental critiques of the process, its purported justification, and its intended ends.
However, according to German sources familiar with the Augsburg bishop, including a priest from his own diocese, that’s not the best way to understand the Augsburg bishop and his overarching modus operandi.
Rather than a confusing defection from a firmly anti-Synodal Way position, Bishop Meier’s criticism of Synodal Way skeptics can instead be interpreted as consistent with the same factor that animated his previous criticisms of the German synodal process itself: the tendency to position himself as a moderate “unity figure” who can play the diplomatic role of middleman not only between various factions within the German episcopacy but between the German bishops and the Holy See.
And at a time when both Curial officials and leadership of the German Bishops’ Conference, who held a surprise meeting on the Synodal Way this past July, are maintaining relative radio silence, Bishop Meier’s words and actions — including his criticism of Synodal Way skeptics for abandoning the process — may be the best “bellwether” available for surmising where discussions between Rome and Germany currently stand and particularly the Vatican’s current stance regarding the controversial process.
