Bonn, Germany, May 9, 2022 / 12:10 p.m. (CNA).

The German “synodal way” has created worldwide controversy. But how much it costs the Catholic Church remains a mystery.

A spokesman for the Church in Germany declined on May 8 to give a cost breakdown of the multi-year project, which critics say could lead to a schism.

CNA approached the spokesperson after seeing documents suggesting the German Church had spent millions on the Synodal pathan initiative bringing together laity and bishops to discuss profound changes in Catholic teaching and practice.

Documents appeared to indicate that the project had so far cost more than 5.7 million euros (about $6 million).

The figure is based on data compiled by the Association of German Diocesesa legal entity of the German Bishops’ Conference located in Bonn.

The documents, which are not publicly available, suggest the Church spent €703,195 in 2019, €878,035 in 2020, €2,231,400 in 2021 and €1,900,245 in 2022, for a total of €5,712,875. euros.

The documents seen by CNA list the expenses as “Consequences of the MHG study”, with a note stating that “This cost center [Kostenstelle] includes all costs incurred within the framework of the “Synodal Way” of the German Bishops’ Conference.

But Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the German bishops’ conference, told CNA on March 16 that the figures refer not only to the synodal route but to all expenses following a 2018 analysis of clerical abuses. in the German Church known as MHG study.

The study was one of the factors that prompted the German bishops to embark on the Synodal path in 2019.

Kopp said: “In our budget planning, we have set an annual budget of 2.5 million euros according to the cost definition (Kostenstelle) ‘consecutive costs of taking over the MHG study’ (i.e.: all costs for work after MHG, i.e. sexual abuse work office, running costs of independent sexual abuse commissions, Synodal Path in Germany).

He added that the figures showed costs falling “below estimate” every year, but pointed out that the figure for the year 2021 was incorrect.

“I repeat: the ‘Kostenstelle‘ supports all (!) work on the consequences of the MHG study, not only on the synodal path,” he commented.

When later asked if he could give a more detailed breakdown of the costs of the Synod Path itself, Kopp said he was unable to provide further information.

How is the Synodal Way financed?

The cost of the Synodal Way is controversial because the Catholic Church in Germany is financed by an ecclesiastical tax.

If a person is registered as a Catholic in Germany, 8-9% of their income tax goes to the Church. The only way for them to stop paying the fee is to make an official declaration of renouncing their membership. They are then no longer authorized to receive the sacraments or a Catholic burial.

Approximately 27% of Germany’s 83 million people identify as Catholic, with just 5.9% of Catholics attending Mass in 2020. More than 220,000 people officially left the Catholic Church that year.

But the Catholic Church in Germany remains one of the richest in the world. He received more money church tax than ever in 2019 despite the loss of a record number of members, due to the growth of the German economy.

Church tax funds groups such as the influential Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), who campaigned for many years for changes in Church teaching and discipline.

The ZdK joined forces with the German Episcopal Conference to launch the Synodal Way.

The German bishops’ conference has clashed with the Vatican after initially suggesting the process would end in a series of “restrictive” voice.

The participants in the Synodal Way voted in February in favor of draft texts calling for the abolition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church, the ordination of female priestssame-sex blessings, and changes in catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Critics of the Synodal Way speak out

The project alarmed Church leaders outside Germany.

In April, more than 70 bishops from all over the world published a “fraternal open letter” to the German bishops warning that the initiative could lead to schism.

In March, the Nordic Catholic bishops published a open letter expressing strong reservations about the direction of the project.

Their intervention follows the publication in February of a letter from the President of the Polish Episcopal Conference expressing “fraternal concern” on initiative.

The synodal way has also been the subject of criticism within the German Catholic Church.

Members of an initiative called “New start” said the process would be deepen divisions among Catholics.

“The next schism in Christendom is fast approaching. And it will come back from Germany,” they said.

But Msgr. Georg Bätzing, president of the German episcopal conference, repeatedly rejected suggestions that the Synodal Way will lead to schism.

Participants cited the MHG study in support of their claim that priestly celibacy should be abolished, women ordained priests, and Church teaching on sexuality changed.

The study has been criticized as “unscientific” and also constantly questioned by Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, a candid criticism of the Synodal Way.

The next Synodal Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the Synodal Way, will take place in Frankfurt from September 8 to 10.

The Synodal Way should end in the spring of 2023, before the Synod on Synodality in Rome in October next year.