A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: Strong words from Pope Francis were met not with filial obedience, but with criticism from the president of the German bishops’ conference.
Bishop Georg Bätzing celebrates Mass at the synodal assembly in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sept. 9, 2022. (photo: Maximilian von Lachner / Synodaler Weg)
As events continue to spiral toward a potential disaster — the formal or informal schism of the Catholic Church in Germany from communion with Rome — it’s long past time to send a blunt memo to Germany’s dissenting bishops and lay Church leaders and their heterodox supporters in other countries.
Such a memo is urgently needed because of the continuing and brazen refusal of German Church leaders to heed the multiple requests from Pope Francis, from senior Vatican officials, and from bishops elsewhere to rein in their disastrous and fraudulently misnamed “Synodal Way” process.
The most recent example was the contemptuous response of Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, to the Pope’s pointed criticisms in his recent Associated Press interview. The Holy Father stated bluntly that the agendas of dissent being shoved forward in Germany, despite numerous unsuccessful attempts at correction, are “neither helpful nor serious” and reflect an “elitist” and “ideological” mentality.
A loyal son of the Church should have been deeply chastened by this direct rebuke from the Successor to St. Peter. Bishop Bätzing wasn’t.
He dismissed the Holy Father’s remarks out of hand, sniping back that if Francis had wanted to communicate his concerns about the Synodal Way he should have done so directly to the German bishops when they visited the Vatican collectively in November.
Equally, a memo is urgently needed to communicate to the dissenting majority of German bishops and to their supporters outside Germany — prominently including U.S. Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego — that it’s completely unacceptable to attempt a similarly ideological takeover of the ongoing worldwide synod in hopes of advancing these same dissenting agendas in that process too.
The dissenting Germans and their allies need to know two central points about synodal processes:
First, Church doctrine is not up for grabs at synods, including with respect to what the Church teaches about the truth and meaning of human sexuality, which is fulfilled only through the loving union of a man and a woman in marriage. Homosexual acts, and other sexual actions outside of an authentic marital bond, can never conform with God’s plan for humankind.
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