Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops’ conference discussed theological and disciplinary issues related to the German church’s Synodal Path in a “positive and constructive climate” during a meeting at the Vatican July 26.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference in Germany wants to create a Synodal Council out of both clerics and lay people, but the Vatican has declared its rejection of this plan.

According to the book, the pope emeritus ordered the destruction of all his private notes in writing, “without exceptions and without loopholes.”

The shift of power away from the hierarchy of bishops "will break the neck of the church," the cardinal said.

Attempts are being made to challenge the bishops’ authority to interpret church doctrine, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer wrote in the newspaper Tagespost.

The private secretary of Benedict XVI, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, has defended the former pope and criticised the Munich abuse report which made international headlines when it was released in January.

“I am not clinging to my office,” Cardinal Marx said on Thursday. “The offer to resign last year was meant very seriously. Pope Francis decided otherwise and asked me to continue my ministry responsibly.”

A broad debate has erupted in Germany after former Pope Benedict XVI corrected a central statement he made on the Munich abuse report presented last week.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has provided extensive answers to lawyers’ questions concerning sexual abuse cases in the Munich archdiocese, a major German newspaper reported Friday.

Benedict’s longing for heaven, recently hinted at in a letter of condolence, is not to be interpreted as meaning that the former pope “no longer has any desire to live.”