International conference “Synodality and primacy” – Diocese of Metz

Tuesday May 5, 2026, the University of Lorraine hosted, on the site of the major seminary of Metz, an international conference of the European Association of Catholic Theology on the theme Synodality and primacywith many specialists on this issue in different Christian traditions.

This conference was organized by the European Association of Catholic Theology (AETC), whose president for the French section is the theologian Marie-Anne Vannier. This introduced the theme of the Metz conference, after the opening remarks of the vice-president of AETC Europe, Father Jean Ehret, highlighting the issue of theological research open to dialogue with society and in an ecumenical manner.

In the morning, Mgr Job Getcha, Metropolitan of Pisidia, presented the Orthodox point of view of this question, showing the long tradition of synods under the authority of the primate, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the divergences which may exist with certain autocephalous Churches which rather see things in the mode of a consensus between national Churches who meet in a synodal manner.

Mr. André Birmélé, from the University of Strasbourg, then raised this question of conciliarity and synodality for the Churches of the Reformation.

Finally, the Dominican Brother Hyacinthe Destivelle, director of theEcumenical Pontifical University ofAngelic in Rome, evoked primacy as a dimension of synodality.

In the afternoon, Michel Van Parys and Mgr Roland Minnerath, Archbishop Emeritus of Dijon, spoke on collegiality and synodality in the Eastern Catholic Churches and within the framework of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.

Then, the participants were able to listen to three speakers: the ecclesiologist from the Catholic University of Louvain, Peter de Mey, on the posture of Popes Francis and Leo XIV in their relationship to synodality, Jean-Claude Lagarrigue on primacy and conciliarity in Nicholas of Cusa and the Council of Basel. Finally, Father Jean Ehret, from the Luxembourg School of Theology, spoke about the lessons to be learned for a theology of synodality.

This day of conference ended with a mass in the chapel of the major seminary of Metz.