From 1983 to 1991 he served as secretary to the Synod of Bishops, but only in 2005 did he speak publicly of his experience: "I had responsibility for recording the conclusions of one synod and drafting the documents in preparation for the next. Nothing of what we prepared was ever taken into consideration. Very competent people carried out the whole process, but the texts were never used... The conclusions were formulated in such a way that they no longer reflected what had been said in the discussions."