Church: Bavaria's Catholic bishops meet in Passau

Bavaria's Catholic bishops are meeting in Passau for their spring plenary assembly. They will begin their deliberations on Wednesday. Until Thursday, they want to exchange views with the presidium of the Bavarian State Committee of Catholics, talk about Catholic universities - and the situation after the federal election.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) recently suggested that the churches exercise more political restraint following criticism of the Union's course in migration policy, pointing out that the Free State pays the churches' salaries - and that the Union is the only party that still stands by the churches. Hardly any church representative has commented publicly on Söder's controversial statements - not even the Catholic bishops of the Freising Bishops' Conference.

The seven Bavarian dioceses and archdioceses of Bamberg, Munich and Freising, Augsburg, Eichstätt, Passau , Regensburg and Würzburg are represented. Its chairman is the Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who, together with the chairman of the Catholic Office of Bavaria, Matthias Belafi, will inform the audience about the results of the discussions at the end of the conference.