It fits the familiar picture that the theological register of sins recited by Curia cardinals like the Canadian Ouellet on Friday was ready before the German bishops left for Rome.
Where would veteran curials end up if they first talked to each other instead of about each other?
And since when have bishops from Germany been listened to more than small but well-organized groups from the far right?
They have many advocates, not least among Germans in Rome.
The front line of the nineties
In fact, much of the dispute over the synodal path reform project is reminiscent of the frontline positions of the 1990s, when Cardinal Ratzinger, together with Pope John Paul II, wanted to force the bishops to withdraw from the legal counseling of pregnant women.
The fact that they were successful in the end was also due to the fact that the Germans had not sought allies in Rome and in the universal church.
The same church-political ignorance was the inspiration for the birth of the Synodal Path in 2019.
But the longer the error, the less significant it is.
Because in the synodal process of the universal church, which Pope Francis has extended until 2024, new alliances are forming, even with parts of the Curia.
But the time of the ancestors is running out.
If the pope is serious about synodality, he could soon document it with wise personnel decisions.