Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki and Bishop Georg Bätzing. / Episkopat.pl/Bistum Limburg.
Warsaw, Poland, Feb 22, 2022 / 02:00 am (CNA).
The president of Poland’s Catholic bishops’ conference expressed “fraternal concern” about the direction of the “Synodal Way” on Tuesday in a strongly worded letter to his German counterpart.
In the almost 3,000-word letter published on Feb. 22 on the Polish bishops’ website, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki questioned whether the initiative bringing together Germany’s bishops and laypeople was rooted in the Gospel.
“The Catholic Church in Germany is important on the map of Europe and I am aware that it will either radiate its faith or its unbelief to the entire continent,” he wrote to Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference.
“That is why I look at the actions of the German ‘Synodal Way’ so far with concern. Observing its fruits, one can get the impression that the basis for reflection is not always the Gospel.”
Gądecki’s intervention is likely to intensify the debate about the Synodal Way, a multi-year process addressing the way power is exercised in the Church, sexual morality, the priesthood, and the role of women in the wake of a devastating clerical abuse crisis in Germany.
At a meeting earlier this month, participants voted in favor of draft texts calling for married priests in the Latin Church, the ordination of women priests, same-sex blessings, and changes to Catholic teaching on homosexuality.
In his letter, Gądecki addressed the votes and appealed to Bätzing to resist pressure to seek to bring Church teaching in line with public opinion.
“Faithful to the teachings of the Church, we should not yield to the pressures of the world or to the patterns of the dominant culture, since this can lead to moral and spiritual corruption,” he wrote.
“Let us avoid repeating worn-out slogans and standard demands such as: the abolition of celibacy, priesthood for women, Communion for the divorced, or blessing of same-sex unions.”
More to follow
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Rome Newsroom, Apr 9, 2021 / 08:00 am America/Denver (CNA). Cardinal Seán O’Malley urged religious leaders to be vigilant in preventing child sexual abuse and supporting survivors in healing at a virtual conference organized by […]
Pro-life supporters march in this year’s March for Life in Ottawa, Canada, May 9, 2024. / Credit: Peter Stockland
Ottawa, Canada, May 10, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Thousands of pro-lifers packed onto Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, and spilled out onto Wellington Street on May 9 for the 27th annual National March for Life.
The diverse crowd gathered on the Hill at noon with its members bearing both homemade and professionally crafted signs pledging them to stand fast for the unborn and vulnerable.
The march’s theme, “I Will Never Forget You” was taken from the prophet Isaiah’s poignant question: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?”
Participants in the Ottawa, Canada, March for Life on May 9, 2024, sing the national anthem. Credit: Peter Stockland
The rally and march were broadcast live by the U.S. cable network EWTN. (Editor’s note: EWTN is the parent company of Catholic News Agency.)
This year’s speakers included pro-life speaker and author Abby Johnson, President of 40 Days for Life Shawn Carney, and Campaign Life Coalition Vice-Chair Jeff Gunnarson.
The opening prayer was led by Father Daniel Szwarc, OMI, who traveled to Ottawa from the Arctic Circle together with three young women engaged in pro-life activities in their small Inuit village of Naujaat.
Diana Kringayark told the crowd that every week she and the other women buy baby products to distribute to 40 village families to show that “every baby is important.”
Diana Kringayark shares about her pro-life ministry in Naujaat, Nunavut, at the Ottawa March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Damphousse encouraged the marchers to act with “courage, compassion, and conviction.”
Conservative members of Parliament Cathay Wagantall and Arnold Viersen were the only federal politicians to address the crowd.
In her brief speech, Wagantall emphasized that advocating for the unborn and the vulnerable is particularly difficult for Canadian politicians. But she hailed the number of young people in the crowd as a sign of hope.
“If you think it is a battle out here, you know it is a battle in there,” the Saskatchewan member of Parliament said, indicating the Houses of Parliament behind her.
Angelina Steenstra of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign introduced Nathalia Comrie, a young woman who, at 17, was pregnant and felt that “abortion was the only choice my family would accept.” She said she was told that “everything would go back to normal after the abortion.”
Nathalia Comrie shares the story of her abortion and the support she received from Silent No More Awareness Campaign and the Sisters of Life at the Ottawa, Canada, March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
“That was a lie,” Comrie said. After years of depression and substance abuse, she was introduced to the Sisters of Life, and through them to other women who, like her, had suffered as the result of abortion.
“I will never forget my son Kaeden. He is why I am silent no more,” Comrie said.
In the crowd of clergy, habited religious sisters, elderly, schoolchildren, and loud teenagers were women who had found themselves, like Comrie, in situations where they felt pressured and alone.
Christa Ranson came to the March for Life from Montreal because she knew what it was to have considered abortion.
Thousands gather to hear opening speeches at the 27th annual National March for Life in Ottawa, Canada, on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
Ranson had been scheduled to undergo an abortion on two separate occasions. The first time she was actually on the table being prepped for the abortion when she decided not to go through with it. The second time, after hearing her son’s heartbeat by ultrasound, Ranson decided she “just couldn’t do it.”
Ranson said she now tells her son: “I loved you when you were just a heartbeat.”
When asked why it was important for her to come to the March for Life, she told Canada’s The Catholic Register that it was to let women know there is a choice other than abortion.
Thousands gather on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, for the 27th annual National March for Life on May 9, 2024. Credit: Peter Stockland
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that, when you are on that table, those babies are living, they have a heart, they have feelings.”
“I want other women to know that even if it is difficult, it will be okay and it is worth it. If women are making the decision because of health reasons, or financial reasons, they should reach out. There are resources out there, there are doctors out there who will help.”
Berlin, Germany, Sep 10, 2019 / 01:40 pm (CNA).- The German bishops have rejected an alternative proposal for a synodal process centered on the “priority of evangelization” called for by Pope Francis.
As a needed modification to my comment there are homosexuals, perhaps better described as those with same sex attraction who fight the good fight. Dag Hammarskjöld former UN secretary general was one such man who also had extremely high values. An example of modesty, and simply said good.
At least Archbishop Gądecki is doing something [might we envision a subtle appeal to our Roman Pontiff?]. Although, it appears the German SynodalWay is a not too well disguised tableau for the Great World Synod.
As Papal Posse rough riders mused recently with all the outrageous antiChrist SynodalWay proposals that make Gądecki [as well as Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki might well ask the Posse] aghast, if the Great Synod achieves just one, such as normalizing adult homosexual relations it [that is the Great Synod drivers Cardinals Hollerich, Grech, presumably behind the curtain His Holiness Francis] they’ve won their initial gambit toward progressivism.
As a needed modification to my comment there are homosexuals, perhaps better described as those with same sex attraction who fight the good fight. Dag Hammarskjöld former UN secretary general was one such man who also had extremely high values. An example of modesty, and simply said good.
At least Archbishop Gądecki is doing something [might we envision a subtle appeal to our Roman Pontiff?]. Although, it appears the German SynodalWay is a not too well disguised tableau for the Great World Synod.
As Papal Posse rough riders mused recently with all the outrageous antiChrist SynodalWay proposals that make Gądecki [as well as Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki might well ask the Posse] aghast, if the Great Synod achieves just one, such as normalizing adult homosexual relations it [that is the Great Synod drivers Cardinals Hollerich, Grech, presumably behind the curtain His Holiness Francis] they’ve won their initial gambit toward progressivism.