11 Comments
User's avatar
Ryan Taylor's avatar

Well I for one cannot wait for the Synod on Synodality this is going to be must see tv. All because of the Syodal way. However it does make me a little sad for the Catholics in Germany, because it seems that their leadership has left them to some extent. Well I will say a prayer for them, and get the popcorn ready for 2023.

Expand full comment
Josh D's avatar

I would be interested in reporting from the Pillar on whether the Nordic bishops were encouraged by Rome to publish their letter and/or whether they cleared it with Rome first.

Expand full comment
Deacon Roger Filips's avatar

If they cannot get their way the German Bishops will choose schism. Liberalism destroys everything it touches. I feel sorry for the faithful Catholics still in Germany. I hope to visit my ancestral homeland some day and wonder if there will be a Mass I can attend.

Expand full comment
James Fee's avatar

While I would like to be optimistic like the ever upbeat Ed Condon, I'm not sure I see cause for it. The Relator-General of the upcoming synod, the Cardinal from Luxembourg, has even more explicitly than the German bishops, publicly repudiated Catholic teaching on human sexuality ... and he remains in his position unpunished.

Expand full comment
Stephen M Cross's avatar

"Bishop Georg Bätzing, has previously said that the Church needs to find “solutions” that are “suitable for their cultural context and prevent the gap between the Gospel and the respective culture from becoming ever wider.”

Sadly, sounds like Bishop Bätzing does not trust in the efficacy of the Gospel, nor the Holy Spirit to stir and touch hearts and bring them to God.

While I hope for the Church in Germany, I'm not hopeful that we won't see a full schism in my lifetime.

Expand full comment
Michael's avatar

I love Germany. It's one of my favorite countries in the world to visit. But God bless them, there's a very common mentality among Germans that they're right and everyone else is wrong. It's the sort of arrogance that led Cardinal Kasper a few years ago to assert that African bishops "should not tell us too much what we have to do.” Ultimately, the Kirchensteuer is absolute poison, as it leads the Teutonic episcopacy to shamelessly pander to lukewarm or apostate Catholics in hopes of keeping them on the tax rolls. "Hey, there, twice-a-year-on-Christmas-and-Easter Catholic, you favor womenpriests, gay weddings and abortion? Well, then it's your lucky day because we agree!"

Expand full comment
Fr. Chris Markman's avatar

I don’t understand why we haven’t already told the Germans they are in schism…is it so we can get as much of their money as possible before they make the leave they’ve already taken, formal?

In my opinion they already made it formal when they directly disobeyed the Holy See and blessed same sex unions. But maybe I don’t understand schism.

Expand full comment
Fr. Anthony Smela's avatar

Jesus let people walk, and so should we. What good are we accomplishing by letting them stay and spout heresy? I agree that they have already made it formal on their end. Make it formal from Rome.

Expand full comment
Chris Meier's avatar

I don't know whether he said it, but I remember reading in Aidan Nichols' Rome and the Eastern Churches a line to the effect, "The Latins hated schism more than heresy, and the Greeks hated heresy more than schism."

Expand full comment
Sue Korlan's avatar

I can't help but wonder whether they will still be considered Catholic if they split from Rome, because if all that money is supposed to be given to the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and they are no longer members, perhaps they will no longer have a legal right to the money involved. Just wondering.

Expand full comment
John M's avatar

If you go to Herder, the chief Catholic theological publisher in Germany, almost every book is about a courageous or surprising new way of looking at Jesus or being Church. So it’s not only about keeping the casual taxpayers from quitting-you can only promise revolution so long before people will lose interest unless you deliver something.

Expand full comment