Defining synodality is a “major challenge” for the Church, Cologne’s Cardinal Rainer Woelki has said, while also urging parity between the Novus Ordo and the traditional Mass.
Cardinal Woelki has led his native Archdiocese of Cologne since September 2014, after having already been created cardinal in February 2012. In recent years he has been one of the handful of German prelates expressing scepticism about the direction of Germany’s Synodal Way.
Speaking to Die Tagespost on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Woelki opined that understanding the concept of synodality would be a key part of the Church’s future and identity. “A major challenge lies in defining for the universal Church what synodality is,” he said.
He referenced Pope Leo XIV’s promotion of synodality as a priority for the Church, commenting that “synodality is one side of the coin, and the other side is evangelisation.”
“Synodality is a tool for evangelisation and mission,” which in Leo’s assessment – Woelki said – is “a spiritual path of seeking in the Holy Spirit and discerning the spirits.”
Critics of the Synod on Synodality have warned that the event and accompanying style poses a threat to the hierarchical nature of the Church, both in terms of the equal footing given to lay and clerical voters and the style of questioning everything, including established Church teaching.
Viewed almost as a precursor to the global Synod on Synodality, Germany’s Synodal Way in particular has garnered especially attention and criticism from prelates internationally and in Germany itself. Woelki has commented a number of times about his own concerns with the Synodal Way, stating more recently that for him “the Synodal Way is over”. Commenting in January, Woelki stated that “from a certain point onward, the Synodal Path in Germany became primarily about implementing certain church-political positions.”
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