On the occasion of the World Synod of Bishops, theologically educated pastoral lay ministers from all continents met in Rome. These professional lay ministers got to know about each other, meet and listen to each other. 

The world meeting aimed at an empowerment of lay ministers in various countries all over the world, i. e. of non-ordained but theologically educated professional pastoral ministers. Their various and already long given reality in the Roman Catholic Church still seems to be overshadowed by other ecclesial perspectives. This ministry reveals an ecclesiological alternative to the “classical” dualism between clergy and laity. 

The outcomes of the sharing and reflection, which the world meeting offered, can influence the processes of the World Synod of Bishops. Therefore, in addition to the exchange of lay ministers on the different continents, there was also a sharing participipants of die Synod.

The initiator of this meeting was the Association of professional Pastoral Ministers in Germany, which at this moment might be the largest organization of full-time lay theologians in the world.

During the days, in synodal work with each other, a letter was written to the participants of the Synod.

In the last days a small article is published in different languages:
https://www.theologie-und-kirche.de/bauer-molz-synodales-sharing.pdf (Deutsch and English)
http://www.settimananews.it/sinodo/sinodo-e-ministeri/ (Italiano)

https://www.religiondigital.org/opinion/Intercambio-sinodal-Ministros-ordenacion-Roma_0_2600439939.html (Espanol) 

A report and reflection of Bibiana Joohyun Ro (corean):

http://www.catholicnews.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=33463 

A theological reflection of Christian Bauer (deutsch)

https://www.feinschwarz.net/der-geteilte-hirtenstab-laienmitarbeiterinnen-solidarisieren-sich-weltweit/

An Interview with Christian Bauer on kirche+leben.de (deutsch)
https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/bauer-neues-welt-netzwerk-von-laienseelsorgenden-ist-weiter-als-synode

A short review on katholisch.de (deutsch):

https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/weltweite-laienseelsorgende-in-rom-klerikalismus-bedroht-synodale-kirche

A review on Radio Vatikan (german, with voices in english on 1:45)
https://www.vaticannews.va/de/kirche/news/2023-10/rom-laienseelsorger-wollen-sich-weltweit-vernetzen.html

The whole letter on kath.ch (german)
https://www.kath.ch/medienspiegel/erstes-welttreffen-professioneller-laienmitarbeitenden/

A review on kath.ch (german):

https://www.kath.ch/newsd/fredy-bihler-treffen-ermutigt-mich-reformanliegen-weiter-zu-verfolgen/

An audio review:

https://lebendig-akademisch.podigee.io/

Information in German on Vatican News:
https://www.vaticannews.va/de/kirche/news/2023-09/laien-seelsorgende-treffen-sich-erstmals-in-rom-konferenz-synode.html

An Interview with us in German on katholisch.de:

https://katholisch.de/artikel/47233-pastoralreferenten-es-gibt-in-kirche-eine-amtlichkeit-ohne-weihe

An Interview and a summary on domradio.de (also in German):
https://domradio.de/artikel/laientheologen-aus-aller-welt-vernetzen-sich-rom

Preparation-Team is the Theological Advisory Board of the "Berufsverband":

University members:

Prof. Dr. Christian Bauer, University of Münster, Germany - Professor of Pastoral Theology
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Sander, University of Salzburg, Austria - Professor of dogmatics
Prof. Dr. Hildegard Scherer, University of Essen, Germany - Professor of  Biblical Theology
Johannes Frenz, University of Münster, Germany - doctor edge

Lay ministers (Pastoralreferent*innen) in Germany:

Thomas Bergmeister, Geretsried and Garmisch-Partenkirchen - working in the youth pastoral in a parish

Dr. Konstantin Bischoff, Munich - working as a parish leader 
Esther Göbel, Berlin and Greifswald - working in the project "Surf and Soul" and as a church organizational consultant
Isabelle Molz, Freiburg - working as theologian in a deanery 
Karoline Wilkens, Hamburg - working in the pastoral care in a psychiatric hospital

worldmeeting@bvpr-deutschland.de

We met for three days to discuss our experiences of beeing lay ministers in the Casa Santa Maria Patrona della Baviera, the meeting center of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

On our last evening, which was also the starting day of the Synod of Bishops, we invited participants of the Synod to a meeting in our house to share the result: a letter to the the synodal participants and our personal stories.

A not inconsiderable part of the costs was financed by solidarity donations from many German colleagues. We would like to express our sincere thanks for this. It was worth it.

Ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der Kosten wurde durch solidarische Spenden vieler deutscher Kolleg;innen finanziert. Dafür sagen wir herzlichen Dank. Es hat sich gelohnt.