Gaetano Masciullo, European Conservative
Thursday, January 29, 2026
On January 17, Pope Leo XIV received in audience the Apostolic Nuncio to the Federal Republic of Germany, Msgr. Nikola Eterović. The meeting is presumed to have revolved around the imminent vote by the German Bishops’ Conference on the statute of the infamous Synodal Conference, which has caused the Vatican many headaches in recent years. From January 29 to 31, in Stuttgart, the sixth and final phase of the Synodal Assembly of the Catholic Church in Germany will take place. Pope Leo XIV, elected with the intention of stitching together opposites, risks being remembered as the pontiff under whom the most serious Catholic schism since the time of the Lutheran Reformation matured.
