“Heiliger Vater,” “Querido Hermano.” The Pen-Tip Duel Between Rome and the Church of Germany – Settimo Cielo – Blog – L’Espresso

The days go by, but where the exchange of letters between Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the Pope will end up continues to be an enigma. A chronicle of the affair can help in understanding it, but the first thing to be be kept in mind is the context, that “Synodal path” which the Church of Germany started on three years ago and whose goals are already written down, demanded by an overwhelming majority of bishops and laity: elective offices, end of priestly celibacy, sacred orders for women, revolutionized sexual morality. A nightmare even for Pope Francis, who in vain, with a letter dated June 29 2019 “to the people of God who are on their way in Germany,” tried to stop the drift. And now he may be trying again, precisely with his answer to the letter from Marx. The first act of this correspondence is in fact the letter that Cardinal Marx wrote to the pope on May 21. In the letter, Marx exaggerates the influence of sexual abuse on the Church’s fate. He states that it has come to “an institutional and systemic failure,” for which all are “co-responsible.” But “the turning point to get out of this crisis” exists – he writes – “and it is only the ‘Synodal path’.” And to this end he offers his resignation as archbishop of Munich and Freising, as a “personal signal for a new restart of the Church and not only in Germany.”

“Heiliger Vater,” “Querido Hermano.” The Pen-Tip Duel Between Rome and the Church of Germany – Settimo Cielo – Blog – L’Espresso