Cardinal Mario Grech has said that Germany’s Synodal Path and the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality are guided by “the same protagonist: the Holy Spirit”.
Speaking at the Katholikentag on May 17, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops rejected the idea that synodality was rooted in parliamentary manoeuvring or majority rule, insisting instead that it was a process of discernment guided by the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit does not create a sum of opinions, but harmony, a symphony,” Cardinal Grech said, according to Katholisch.de.
His Eminence said synodality should be understood as a “symphony of communion” and stressed the relationship between local Churches and the universal Church.
“There is neither a universal Church without local Churches nor a local Church without the universal Church,” His Eminence said.
According to Katholisch.de, the remarks came during a public discussion in which theology student Finja Miriam Weber, a member of the German Synodal Assembly, questioned Cardinal Grech’s comparison of the Church to a symphony orchestra.
Weber asked who decides “who is allowed to play which instrument”, adding that women are barred from certain positions in the Church “simply because she is female”.
Cardinal Grech replied: “Jesus composes the symphony and the Holy Spirit conducts.”
According to reports from the event, the exchange was cut short when the moderator ended the discussion before it could continue further.
Katholisch.de later reported that Cardinal Grech approached Weber afterwards and told her: “We need people like you.”
The intervention is likely to attract attention because Cardinal Grech became one of the leading figures behind the late Pope Francis’s push for synodality. The Maltese prelate was appointed Pro-Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops by Pope Francis in October 2019, succeeding Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri the following year. During that period, Cardinal Grech participated in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region and served on the commission responsible for drafting the synod’s final document.
In one of his first interviews after his appointment, Cardinal Grech spoke of a Church developing “a greater feminine face that would also mirror Mary’s face”.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the cardinal also drew controversy after criticising what he described as an overreliance on sacramental life among Catholics unable to attend Mass during lockdown restrictions.
“It is of concern that someone feels lost outside of the Eucharistic or worship context, for it shows an ignorance of other ways of engaging with the mystery,” Cardinal Grech said at the time.
Pope Francis created Cardinal Grech a cardinal in November 2020, assigning him the Roman deaconry of Santi Cosma e Damiano. He has since been appointed to a number of Vatican bodies, including the Dicastery for Bishops and the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
In recent years Cardinal Grech has repeatedly defended synodality as a model for the future life of the Church. In a 2024 interview, His Eminence said synodality could help the Church move from “uniformity of thought” towards “unity in difference”.
