Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg. (Credit: Diocese of Regensburg)
Regensburg, Germany, Sep 30, 2021 / 03:00 am (CNA).
A German Catholic bishop suggested this week that the country’s “Synodal Way” is using the abuse crisis to reshape the Church on Protestant lines.
Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg questioned why the German Catholic Church’s progress in tackling abuse was seldom acknowledged, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
He said: “The fact that interested parties now continue to pretend that nothing has actually happened so far, that without a valid comparison of institutions and without a historical classification of the cases of abuse, the peculiarities of the Catholic Church are systemically blamed for it, feeds my suspicion that the sexual abuse is being instrumentalized here in an attempt to reshape the Catholic Church along the lines of Protestant church orders, where ‘synod’ means something different than in the Catholic Church, namely a kind of church parliament.”
Voderholzer, a professor of dogmatics, made the comment while preaching at Vespers at Regensburg Cathedral on Sept. 26.
The bishop is a prominent critic of the “Synodal Way,” a multi-year process bringing together bishops and lay people to discuss four main topics: the way power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women.
The German bishops’ conference initially said that the process would end with a series of “binding” votes — raising concerns at the Vatican that the resolutions might challenge the Church’s teaching and discipline.
Bishops and theologians have expressed alarm at the process, which is expected to end in February 2022, but bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Georg Bätzing has vigorously defended it.
In his sermon, Volderholzer recalled that he and Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki had proposed an alternative set of statutes for the Synodal Way in August 2019 that was rejected by a majority of German bishops.
He said that the alternative statutes stressed the importance of the new evangelization, mission, and catechesis, in accordance with a 19-page letter that Pope Francis sent to German Catholics in June 2019.
In his letter, the pope called for evangelization in the face of a “growing erosion and deterioration of faith.”
“Every time an ecclesial community has tried to get out of its problems alone, relying solely on its own strengths, methods, and intelligence, it has ended up multiplying and nurturing the evils it wanted to overcome,” he wrote.
Earlier this month, Voderholzer launched a new website that presented an alternative to the text endorsed by members of the Synodal Way’s Forum I, focused on the way power is exercised in the Church.
The 36-page document, called “Authority and responsibility” and translated into English, is the first in a series that will also address the topics of the other three synodal forums.
The text was co-authored by Fr. Wolfgang Picken, dean of the city of Bonn, Marianne Schlosser, a theology professor in Vienna, Austria, journalist Alina Oehler, and Augsburg auxiliary Bishop Florian Wörner.
Speaking in Rome on Sept. 17, the influential German theologian Cardinal Walter Kasper praised the alternative text,
The 88-year-old former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said that text adopted by members of the Synodal Way attempted “to reinvent the Church in the face of the crisis with the help of an erudite theological structure.”
“There is much that is correct in it, but also much that is hypothetical. In the end, many wonder whether all this is still entirely Catholic,” he commented.
Preaching on Sunday, Volderholzer quoted Kasper extensively, expressing his agreement with the theologian considered to be close to Pope Francis.
Volderholzer’s intervention came on the eve of a plenary session of the Synodal Way in Frankfurt, southwestern Germany, on Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
The event is the second meeting of the Synodal Assembly, the Synodal Way’s supreme decision-making body.
The assembly consists of the German bishops, 69 members of the powerful lay Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), and representatives of other parts of the German Church.
A group of German Catholics presented a new reform manifesto on Sept. 29, reported CNA Deutsch.
The Arbeitskreis Christliche Anthropologie (Christian Anthropology Working Group) published the manifesto online. It called for a new start in the German Church, arguing that the Synodal Way was failing to offer authentic reform “in a dramatic fashion.”
Pope Francis addressed fears about the trajectory of the Synodal Way in an interview with the Spanish radio station COPE aired on Sept. 1.
Asked if the initiative gave him sleepless nights, the pope recalled that he wrote an extensive letter that expressed “everything I feel about the German synod.”
Responding to the interviewer’s comment that the Church had faced similar challenges in the past, he said: “Yes, but I wouldn’t get too tragic either. There is no ill will in many bishops with whom I spoke.”
“It is a pastoral desire, but one that perhaps does not take into account some things that I explain in the letter that need to be taken into account.”
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The Holy House of Our Lady in the Shrine of Loreto. / Tatiana Dyuvbanova / Shutterstock.
Rome Newsroom, Dec 10, 2022 / 05:30 am (CNA).
What do Galileo, Mozart, Descartes, Cervantes, and St. Therese of Lisieux have in common? They all traveled h… […]
Maureen McKinley milks one of her family’s goats in their backyard with help from three of her children, Madeline (behind), Fiona and Augustine on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. McKinley and her family own two goats, chickens, a rabbit, and a dog. / Jake Kelly
Denver Newsroom, Aug 10, 2021 / 16:32 pm (CNA).
With five children ages 10 and under to care for, and a pair of goats, a rabbit, chickens and a dog to tend to, Maureen and Matt McKinley rely on a structured routine to keep their busy lives on track.
Chores, nap times, scheduled story hours – they’re all important staples of their day. But the center of the McKinleys’ routine, what focuses their family life and strengthens their Catholic faith, they say, is the Traditional Latin Mass.
Its beauty, reverence, and timelessness connect them to a rich liturgical legacy that dates back centuries.
“This is the Mass that made so many saints throughout time,” observes Maureen, 36, a parishioner at Mater Misericordiæ Catholic Church in Phoenix.
“You know what Mass St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Therese, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Augustine were attending? The Traditional Latin Mass,” Maureen says.
“We could have a conversation about it, and we would have all experienced the exact same thing,” she says. “That’s exciting.”
Recent developments in the Catholic Church, however, have curbed some of that excitement. On July 16, Pope Francis released a motu proprio titled Traditiones custodis, or “Guardians of the Tradition”, that has cast doubt on the future of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) – and deeply upset and confused many of its devotees.
Pope Francis’ directive rescinds the freedom Pope Benedict XVI granted to priests 14 years ago to say Masses using the Roman Missal of 1962, the form of liturgy prior to Vatican II, without first seeking their bishop’s approval. Under the new rules, bishops now have the “exclusive competence” to decide where, when, and whether the TLM can be said in their dioceses.
In a letter accompanying the motu proprio, Pope Francis maintains that the faculties granted to priests by his predecessor have been “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
Using the word “unity” a total of 15 times in the accompanying letter, the pope suggests that attending the TLM is anything but unifying, going so far as to correlate a strong personal preference for such masses with a rejection of Vatican II.
Weeks later, many admirers of the “extraordinary” form of the Roman rite – the McKinleys among them – are still struggling to wrap their minds and hearts around the pope’s order, and the pointed tone he used to deliver it.
Maureen McKinley says she had never considered herself a “traditionalist Catholic” before. Instead, she says she and her husband have just “always moved toward the most reverent way to worship and the best way to teach our children.”
“It didn’t feel like I became a particular type of Catholic by going to Mater Misericordiæ. But since the motu proprio came out, I feel like I have been categorized, like I was something different, something other than the rest of the Church,” she says.
“It feels like our Holy Father doesn’t understand this whole group of people who love our Lord so much.”
McKinley isn’t alone in feeling this way. Sadness, anger, frustration, and disbelief are some common themes in conversations among those who regularly attend the TLM.
They want to understand and support the Holy Father, but they also see the restriction as unnecessary, especially when plenty of other more pressing issues in the Church abound.
Eric Matthews, another Mater Misericordiæ parishioner, views the new restrictions as an “attack on devout Catholic culture,” citing the beauty that exists across the rites recognized within the Church. There are seven rites recognized in the Catholic Church: Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean.
“It’s the same Mass,” says Matthews, 39, who first discovered the TLM about eight years ago. “It’s just different languages, different cultures, but the people that you have there are there for the right reasons.”
Eric and Geneva Matthews with their four children. / Narissa Lowicki
Different paths to the TLM
The pope’s motu proprio directly affects a tiny fraction of U.S. Catholics – perhaps as few as 150,000, or less than 1 percent of some 21 million regular Mass-goers, according to some estimates. According to one crowd-sourced database, only about 700 venues – compared to over 16,700 parishes nationwide – offer the TLM.
Also, since the motu proprio’s release July 16, only a handful of bishops have stopped the TLM in their dioceses. Of those bishops who have made public responses, most are allowing the Masses to continue as before – in some cases because they see no evidence of disunity, and in others because they need more time to study the issue.
But for those who feel drawn to the TLM – for differing reasons that have nothing to do with a rejection of Vatican II – it feels as if the ground has shifted under their feet.
Maureen McKinley wants her children to understand the importance of hard work, of which they have no shortage when it comes to their urban farm. After morning prayer, Maureen milks the family’s goats with the help of the children. Madeline (age 10) feeds the bunny; Augustine (7) exercises the dog; John (6) checks for eggs from the chickens; and Michael (4) helps anyone he chooses.
With a noisy clatter in the kitchen, the McKinleys eat breakfast, tidy up their rooms, and begin their daily activities. They break at 11 a.m. to head to daily Mass at Mater Misericordiæ, an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), where they first attended two years ago.
Matt, 34, wanted to know how the early Christians worshipped.
“The funny thing about converts is they’re always wanting more,” says Maureen, who was, at first, a little resistant to the idea of attending the TLM because she didn’t know Latin. “Worship was a big part of his conversion.”
Maureen agreed to follow her husband’s lead, and they continued to attend the TLM. What kept them coming back week after week was the reverence for the Eucharist.
“Matt had a really hard time watching so many people receive communion in the hand at the other parish,” says Maureen. “He says he didn’t want our kids to think that that was the standard. That’s the exception to the rule, not the rule.”
Reverence in worship also drew Elizabeth Sisk to the TLM. A 28-year-old post-anesthesia care unit nurse, she attends both the Novus Ordo, the Mass promulgated by St. Paul VI in 1969, and the extraordinary form in Raleigh, North Carolina, where her parish, the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, offers the TLM on the first Sunday of the month.
Sisk has noticed recently that more people in her area — especially young people who are converts to Catholicism — are attending both forms of the Mass. While the Novus Ordo is what brought many of them, herself included, to the faith, she feels that the extraordinary form invites them to go deeper.
“We want to do something radical with our lives,” Sisk says. “To be Catholic right now as a young person is a really radical decision. I think the people who choose to be Catholic right now, we’re all in. We don’t want ‘watered-down’ Catholicism.”
Elizabeth Sisk stands in front of Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, North Carolina.
With the lack of Christian values in the world today, Sisk desires “something greater,” which she says she can tell is happening in the TLM.
Many TLM parishes saw an increase in attendance during the pandemic, as they were often the only churches open while many others shut their doors or held Masses outside. This struck some as controversial, if not disobedient to the local government. For others, it was a saving grace to have access to the sacraments.
The priests at Erin Hanson’s parish obtained permission from the local bishop to celebrate Mass all day, every day, with 10 parishioners at a time during the height of the COVID pandemic.
“We were being told by the world that church is not necessary,” says Hanson, a 39-year-old mother of three. “Our priest says, ‘No, that’s a lie. Our church is essential. Our salvation is essential. The sacraments are essential.’”
Andy Stevens, 52, came into the Church through the TLM, much to the surprise of his wife, Emma, who had been a practicing Catholic for many years. Andy was “very adamantly not going to become Catholic,” but was happy to help Emma with their children at Mass. It wasn’t until they attended a TLM that Andy began to think differently about the Church.
“He believed that you die and then there is nothing, and he never really spoke to me about becoming a Catholic,” says Emma, 48, who was pregnant with their seventh child at the time.
Andy noticed an intense focus among the worshippers, which he recognized as a “real presence of God” that he didn’t see anywhere else. After the birth of their 7th child, he joined the Church.
All 12 of the Stevens’ children prefer the TLM to the Novus Ordo.
Emma and Andy Stevens with their 12 children in Oxford, England.
“It’s a Mass of the ages,” says their eldest son, Ryan, 27. “I can feel the veil between heaven and earth palpably thinner.”
A native of Chicago, Adriel Gonzalez, 33, remembers attending the TLM as a child, which he did not particularly like. It was “very long, very boring,” and the people who went to the TLM were “very stiff and they could come off as judgmental” towards his family, he says.
Gonzalez, who also attended Mass in Spanish with his family, didn’t understand the differences among rites, since Chicago was a sort of “salad bowl, ethnically,” he says, and Mass was celebrated in many languages and forms.
He took a step back from faith for some time, he says, noting that he had a “respectability issue” with the Christianity he grew up with. He watched as some of his friends were either thoughtless in the way they practiced their faith, or were “on fire,” but lacked intentionality. When he did come back to the faith, it was through learning about the Church’s intellectual tradition.
He spent time in monasteries and Eastern Catholic parishes with the Divine Liturgy because there was “something so obviously ancient about it.” He decided to stay within the Roman rite with a preference for a reverent Novus Ordo.
When he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gonzalez committed to his neighborhood parish, which had a strong contingent of people who loved tradition in general. The parish instituted a TLM in the fall of 2020, when they started having Mass indoors again after the pandemic.
Hallie and Adriel Gonzalez.
“If I’m at a Latin Mass, I’m more likely to get a sense that this is a time-honored practice, something that has been honed over the millennia,” he says. “There is clearly a love affair going on here with the Lord that requires this much more elaborate song and dance.”
For Eric Matthews, the TLM feels a little like time travel.
“It could be medieval times, it could be the enlightenment period, it could be the early 1900s, and the experience is going to be so similar,” he says.
“I just feel like that’s that universal timeframe – not just the universal Church in 2021 – but the universal Church in almost any time period. We’re the only church that can claim that.”
What happens now?
The motu proprio caught Adriel Gonzalez’ attention. He sought clarity about whether his participation in the extraordinary form was, in fact, part of a divisive movement, or simply an expression of his faith.
If it was a movement, he wanted no part of it, he says.
“As far as I can tell, the Church considers the extraordinary form and the ordinary form equal and valid,” says Gonzalez. “Ideally, there should be no true difference between going to one or the other, outside of just preference. It shouldn’t constitute a completely different reality within Catholicism.”
With this understanding, Gonzalez says he resonated with some of the reasoning set forth in the motu proprio because it articulated that the celebration of the TLM was never intended to be a movement away from the Novus Ordo or Vatican II. Gonzalez also emphasized that the extraordinary form was never supposed to be a “superior” way of celebrating the Mass.
Gonzalez believes the Lord allowed the growth in the TLM “to help us to recover a love for liturgy, and to ask questions about what worship and liturgy looks like.” He would have preferred if what was good was kept and encouraged, and what was potentially dangerous “coaxed out and called out.”
Mater Misericordæ Catholic Church in Phoenix, Arizona. / Viet Truong
Erin Hanson, of Mater Misericordiæ, agrees.
“If [Pope Francis] does believe there is division between Novus Ordo and traditional Catholics, I don’t think he did anything to try to fix that division,” she says.
Hanson would like to know who the bishops are that Pope Francis consulted in making this decision, sharing that she doesn’t feel that there is any of the transparency needed for such a major document. If there are divisions, she says, she would like the opportunity to work on them in a different way.
“This isn’t going to be any less divisive if he causes a possible schism,” Hanson says.
According to the motu proprio and the accompanying letter, the TLM is not to be celebrated in diocesan churches or in new churches constructed for the purpose of the TLM, nor should new groups be established by the bishops. Left out of their parish churches, some are worried their only option to attend Mass will be in a recreation center or hotel ballroom.
Eric Matthews hopes that everyone is able to experience the extraordinary form at least once in their life so they can know that this is not about division.
“I can’t imagine someone going to the Latin Mass and saying, ‘This is creating disunity,’” he says. “There’s nothing to be afraid of with the Latin Mass. You’re just going to be surrounding yourself with people that really take it to heart.”
Maureen McKinley was home sick when her husband Matt found out about the motu proprio. He had taken the kids to a neighborhood park, where he ran into some friends who also attend Mater Misericordiæ. They asked if he had heard the news.
“I felt disgust at a document that pretends to say so much while actually saying so little and disregards the Church’s very long and rich tradition of careful legal documents,” Matt McKinley says.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix stated that the TLM may continue at Mater Misericordiæ, as well as in chapels, oratories, mission churches, non-parochial churches, and at seven other parishes in the diocese. Participation in the TLM and all of the activities of the parish are so important to the McKinleys that they are willing to move to another state or city should further restrictions be implemented.
For now, their family’s routine continues the same as before.
At the end of their day, the McKinleys pray a family rosary in front of their home altar, which has a Bible at the center, and an icon of Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary. They eat dinner together, milk the goat again, and take care of their evening animal chores. After night prayer, the kids head off to bed, blessing themselves with holy water from the fonts mounted on the wall before they enter their bedroom.
“The life of the Church springs from this Mass,” Maureen says. “That’s why we’re here—not because the Latin Mass is archaic, but that it’s actually just so alive.”
The Frauenkirche, the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. / Credit: Diliff via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.5)
CNA Newsroom, Feb 18, 2025 / 11:05 am (CNA).
Bishops in Germany and Austria have reacted to separate, deadly attacks that have… […]
8 Comments
Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer is certainly correct. In the secular world, the familiar adage is “never led a good crisis go to waste”.
That the Synodal Way would stoop to such transparent manipulation is sure evidence of what Pope Francis calls “ideological colonization.” Also, evidence of an elitism which assumes, theologically, that the captive audience is as stupid as hell.
Linking the Abuse Crisis to the Federalization of Bergoglio’s Post-Catholic Church is justified, in that the same players are responsible for both the Problem and their destructive Solution. The Sankt Gallen Mafia “Kingmaker” Cardinal McCarrick started his pedophile career in the Swiss town of Sankt Gallen – the Freemasonic town of the annual European Episcopal Conferences [Taylor Marshall, 2019] and centre of operations of the evil Aleister Crowley [1875-1947]. The first Sex Abuse summit in the Church was hosted by the key player McCarrick. Ten years later his spiritual son “Cupich” held the same role. The Sankt Gallen Mafia leader today is Jorg Bergoglio, in charge of cleaning up the Sankt Gallen ruined Church. He was obliged to “discipline” McCarrick after international outrage, reducing him to the State of a normal everyday Catholic in a hideaway luxury appartment for a few years. The Sankt Gallen pre-electoral pact with China was finalized for Bergoglio by McCarrick and Paolin to the dismay of Catholics Worldwide. Cardinal Zen was mocked by Paolin and those around him for bemoaning the persecution of Chinese Catholics which ensued and for “not smiling enough.” His attempts to seek papal audiences meet the same open dialogue from Bergoglio as that shown to the Dubia Cardinals. The link is thus the right one to make: the culprits are now in charge of finishing the Alta Vendita as published by Pope Leo XIII and reprinted in “Infiltration” by Taylor Marshall, 2019. Sofia Institute Press: Crisis Publications with a foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
“German Catholic bishop suggests ‘Synodal Way’ is using abuse crisis to reshape Church”.
Seems quite obvious to me.
And where does Pope Francis fit into the picture? The inconsistency of his decisions on clergy abuse in the German versus the American context has been noted by more than one commentator.
Voderholzer reminds this writer of the parody, a cowboy attempting to herd cats into the corral. German bishops like strays have their own ideas. Even the domestic creature who will run to the food dish when called responds to virtually nothing else except to be petted. My brother in law who has taken to pet cats sort of trains them by gentle swats with rolled newspaper [the Pope’s letter and Volderholzer’s latest alternative writings amount to similar swats]. This topic including Bishop Voderholzer’s August Authority and Responsibility plus Cardinal Kasper’s surprisingly positive review were covered here recently. My opinion then was suspicion of Kasper’s intentions. Perhaps seeking a modest synodal approach to keep the thing intact. As the original idea for Church modernization Cardinal Carlo Martini believed the simple existence of such an ongoing, according to Pope Francis virtually eternal ‘journey’ would inevitably bring about hoped for radical transformation. Whether heterodox or orthodox is the big question. Although human nature sets into its vagrant course unless strongly directed by Rome. As Voderholzer wisely envisions whenever an ecclesial body sets off on its own. Each bishop with his own brilliant ideas strays off course in different directions. Charles Krauthammer on cats facetiously opined that cats like the French were distant sophisticats. This troop of German bishops instead seem more taken to idiosyncratic wanderlust.
Cardinal Martini was not alone. To repeat a “comment” submitted a week ago, and worth repeating. This, from Ratzinger:
“The real content of Christianity is not the discussion of its Christian content and of ways of realizing it: the content of Christianity is the community of word, sacrament and love of neighbor to which justice and truth [!] bear a fundamental relationship. The dream of making one’s whole life a series of discussions [an “endless journey”!], which, for a time, brought even our universities to the brink of paralysis, also exercises an influence on the Church under the label of the conciliar idea.
“If a council [synodality] becomes the model of Christianity per se [the Synod’s preparatory documents: the ‘form, the style, AND the structure of the Church’], then the constant discussion of Christian themes comes to be considered the content of Christianity itself, but precisely there lies the failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity [….]
“[In Don Quixote] the arrogant certainty with which Cervantes burned his bridges [e.g., Traditiones custodis versus both Summorum Pontificum AND Sacrosanctum Concilium?] behind him and laughed at an earlier age has become a nostalgia for what was lost. This is not a return to the world of the romances of chivalry but a consciousness of what must not be lost and a realization of man’s peril [!], which increases whenever, in the burning of the past, he loses the totality of himself [the real sensus fidei].
“Certainly we cannot return to the past, nor have we any desire to do so [!]. But we must be ready to reflect anew on that which, in the lapse of time, has remained the one constant [!]. To seek without distraction and to dare to accept, with joyful heart and without diminution [!], the foolishness of truth—this, I think, is the task for today and for tomorrow: the NUCLEUS of the Church’s service to the world, HER answer to “the joy and hope, [and!] the grief and anguish of the men of our time (Gaudium et spes).”
(All of the above: Ratzinger, “Principles of Catholic Theology,” 1987, CAPS added).
“Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: ‘Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down.’ In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: ‘Old things, but in a new way.’”
Ratzinger through Beaulieu: “…constant discussion of Christian themes comes to be considered the content of Christianity itself, but precisely there lies the failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity” to me.
Where’s, then, the needful call to prayer? It’s Friday. a day of traditional penance. First Friday, a day of traditional reparation. October 1, feast day of St. Therese:
My Lord and my God
….
Today one thing pleases the world,
tomorrow another.
What is praised on one occasion
is denounced on another.
Blessed be You,
my Lord and my God,
for You are unchangeable for all eternity.
Whoever serves You faithfully to the end
will enjoy life without end in eternity.
Amen.
+J.M.J. Granted, just as Jesus said that God the Father can rise up sons of Abraham out of stones, and I’m praying every day for increased priestly and religious vocations. However, in general, how do you get men to want to be priests if access to the Sacraments is not that easy, and Church teaching is suppressed? Do adolescents and young adults have daily access to Mass, Confession, Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction? Does anybody teach t0hem traditional prayers such as the Holy Rosary (all 20 Gospel Mysteries? Do they have access to studying Catholic Scriptures in conjunction with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Papal and Church Council documents, lives and writings of the saints, Church History, Sacred Music (especially consistent with Church teaching on transubstantiation),Sacred Art, Catholic Philosophy (e.g. on the subject of being by St. Thomas Aquinas, etc.), using the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Papal encyclicals as study guides, examining the moral standpoints of literary works? Thanks for you consideration.
In caritate Christi, Mrs. Richard Avian (Carol Avian)
Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer is certainly correct. In the secular world, the familiar adage is “never led a good crisis go to waste”.
That the Synodal Way would stoop to such transparent manipulation is sure evidence of what Pope Francis calls “ideological colonization.” Also, evidence of an elitism which assumes, theologically, that the captive audience is as stupid as hell.
Linking the Abuse Crisis to the Federalization of Bergoglio’s Post-Catholic Church is justified, in that the same players are responsible for both the Problem and their destructive Solution. The Sankt Gallen Mafia “Kingmaker” Cardinal McCarrick started his pedophile career in the Swiss town of Sankt Gallen – the Freemasonic town of the annual European Episcopal Conferences [Taylor Marshall, 2019] and centre of operations of the evil Aleister Crowley [1875-1947]. The first Sex Abuse summit in the Church was hosted by the key player McCarrick. Ten years later his spiritual son “Cupich” held the same role. The Sankt Gallen Mafia leader today is Jorg Bergoglio, in charge of cleaning up the Sankt Gallen ruined Church. He was obliged to “discipline” McCarrick after international outrage, reducing him to the State of a normal everyday Catholic in a hideaway luxury appartment for a few years. The Sankt Gallen pre-electoral pact with China was finalized for Bergoglio by McCarrick and Paolin to the dismay of Catholics Worldwide. Cardinal Zen was mocked by Paolin and those around him for bemoaning the persecution of Chinese Catholics which ensued and for “not smiling enough.” His attempts to seek papal audiences meet the same open dialogue from Bergoglio as that shown to the Dubia Cardinals. The link is thus the right one to make: the culprits are now in charge of finishing the Alta Vendita as published by Pope Leo XIII and reprinted in “Infiltration” by Taylor Marshall, 2019. Sofia Institute Press: Crisis Publications with a foreword by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
“German Catholic bishop suggests ‘Synodal Way’ is using abuse crisis to reshape Church”.
Seems quite obvious to me.
And where does Pope Francis fit into the picture? The inconsistency of his decisions on clergy abuse in the German versus the American context has been noted by more than one commentator.
Voderholzer reminds this writer of the parody, a cowboy attempting to herd cats into the corral. German bishops like strays have their own ideas. Even the domestic creature who will run to the food dish when called responds to virtually nothing else except to be petted. My brother in law who has taken to pet cats sort of trains them by gentle swats with rolled newspaper [the Pope’s letter and Volderholzer’s latest alternative writings amount to similar swats]. This topic including Bishop Voderholzer’s August Authority and Responsibility plus Cardinal Kasper’s surprisingly positive review were covered here recently. My opinion then was suspicion of Kasper’s intentions. Perhaps seeking a modest synodal approach to keep the thing intact. As the original idea for Church modernization Cardinal Carlo Martini believed the simple existence of such an ongoing, according to Pope Francis virtually eternal ‘journey’ would inevitably bring about hoped for radical transformation. Whether heterodox or orthodox is the big question. Although human nature sets into its vagrant course unless strongly directed by Rome. As Voderholzer wisely envisions whenever an ecclesial body sets off on its own. Each bishop with his own brilliant ideas strays off course in different directions. Charles Krauthammer on cats facetiously opined that cats like the French were distant sophisticats. This troop of German bishops instead seem more taken to idiosyncratic wanderlust.
Cardinal Martini was not alone. To repeat a “comment” submitted a week ago, and worth repeating. This, from Ratzinger:
“The real content of Christianity is not the discussion of its Christian content and of ways of realizing it: the content of Christianity is the community of word, sacrament and love of neighbor to which justice and truth [!] bear a fundamental relationship. The dream of making one’s whole life a series of discussions [an “endless journey”!], which, for a time, brought even our universities to the brink of paralysis, also exercises an influence on the Church under the label of the conciliar idea.
“If a council [synodality] becomes the model of Christianity per se [the Synod’s preparatory documents: the ‘form, the style, AND the structure of the Church’], then the constant discussion of Christian themes comes to be considered the content of Christianity itself, but precisely there lies the failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity [….]
“[In Don Quixote] the arrogant certainty with which Cervantes burned his bridges [e.g., Traditiones custodis versus both Summorum Pontificum AND Sacrosanctum Concilium?] behind him and laughed at an earlier age has become a nostalgia for what was lost. This is not a return to the world of the romances of chivalry but a consciousness of what must not be lost and a realization of man’s peril [!], which increases whenever, in the burning of the past, he loses the totality of himself [the real sensus fidei].
“Certainly we cannot return to the past, nor have we any desire to do so [!]. But we must be ready to reflect anew on that which, in the lapse of time, has remained the one constant [!]. To seek without distraction and to dare to accept, with joyful heart and without diminution [!], the foolishness of truth—this, I think, is the task for today and for tomorrow: the NUCLEUS of the Church’s service to the world, HER answer to “the joy and hope, [and!] the grief and anguish of the men of our time (Gaudium et spes).”
(All of the above: Ratzinger, “Principles of Catholic Theology,” 1987, CAPS added).
It’s not the first time it’s been pointed out:
“Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: ‘Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down.’ In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: ‘Old things, but in a new way.’”
Pope Benedict XV, Ad Beatissimi Apostolrum, § 25.
Ratzinger through Beaulieu: “…constant discussion of Christian themes comes to be considered the content of Christianity itself, but precisely there lies the failure to recognize the true meaning of Christianity” to me.
Where’s, then, the needful call to prayer? It’s Friday. a day of traditional penance. First Friday, a day of traditional reparation. October 1, feast day of St. Therese:
My Lord and my God
….
Today one thing pleases the world,
tomorrow another.
What is praised on one occasion
is denounced on another.
Blessed be You,
my Lord and my God,
for You are unchangeable for all eternity.
Whoever serves You faithfully to the end
will enjoy life without end in eternity.
Amen.
+J.M.J. Granted, just as Jesus said that God the Father can rise up sons of Abraham out of stones, and I’m praying every day for increased priestly and religious vocations. However, in general, how do you get men to want to be priests if access to the Sacraments is not that easy, and Church teaching is suppressed? Do adolescents and young adults have daily access to Mass, Confession, Eucharistic Adoration, Benediction? Does anybody teach t0hem traditional prayers such as the Holy Rosary (all 20 Gospel Mysteries? Do they have access to studying Catholic Scriptures in conjunction with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Papal and Church Council documents, lives and writings of the saints, Church History, Sacred Music (especially consistent with Church teaching on transubstantiation),Sacred Art, Catholic Philosophy (e.g. on the subject of being by St. Thomas Aquinas, etc.), using the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Papal encyclicals as study guides, examining the moral standpoints of literary works? Thanks for you consideration.
In caritate Christi, Mrs. Richard Avian (Carol Avian)