CNA Newsroom, Sep 9, 2022 / 09:02 am (CNA).
After bishops blocked a vote demanding changes to the Church’s teaching on sexuality at the German Synodal Way, organizers on Friday voiced their displeasure with the outcome and vowed to “take it to” Rome.
One of two presidents of the Synodal Way, Bishop Georg Bätzing, expressed “personal disappointment” that a blocking minority of bishops prevented the document pushing for changes to the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, bisexuality, gender identity, and masturbation from being officially adopted.
While nearly 83% of the synodal assembly in Frankfurt voted in favor of adopting the text, titled “Living in Successful Relationships,” only about 61% of the bishops did.
The document on sexuality, therefore, fell just short of a two-thirds majority, as 21 bishops rejected the text and three abstained, while 33 bishops voted for the document’s adoption, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
Under the statutes of the German process, not only must two-thirds of the members present vote in favor of a text for it to be officially adopted, but two-thirds of the bishops present must vote “yes” as well.
Bätzing said the rejected text was nonetheless a product of the Synodal Way, reported CNA Deutsch, and “therefore we will take it to the level of the universal Church when we are in Rome in November for the ad limina visit when we go about preparing the World Synod with the continental bishops’ conferences in January.” An “ad limina apostolorum” visit is a papal meeting required for every diocesan bishop in the world in order to provide an update on the state of that bishop’s diocese.
The outcome of the vote on Sept. 8 led to emotional outbursts in the Frankfurt venue, with some participants accusing the bishops of not speaking out before voting against the proposed text.
After Thursday’s secret ballot, several bishops had said they had not spoken beforehand because they feared pressure from the synodal assembly.
Irme Stetter-Karp, the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and co-president of the Synodal Way, decried this explanation on Friday as “whiny” and “somewhat helpless.”
“It is my wish to see a movement now emerging from the bishops’ conference as a result of what took place yesterday, that communication changes, that people speak with an open mind,” the ZdK president said.
The document on sexuality is only one of several courting controversy. Documents demanding the ordination of women and an end to priestly celibacy are also on the agenda, as well as the implementation of a permanent Synodal Council.
The move would create a permanent body to oversee the Church in Germany and is featured on the assembly’s schedule for Friday, Sept. 9.
Critics have drawn comparisons to communist Soviets and accused the process of reinventing existing Protestant structures.
From the outset, the German process — also known as the Synodal Path, though not a synod — has invited fierce scrutiny.
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After decades of more-loving-and-caring-and-compassionate-than-thou phoniness from lib Catholics about perverse human relationships being made by God, I am still waiting for just one of them to explain to me how one achieves fidelity and wholesomeness and monogamy through “bisexuality.”
There are two ways for a Pope to lead the Body 0f Christ’s Church into hell. One way is for a Pope to directly lead the Body of the Church into hell. The other way is for a Pope to fail to anathematize evildoers who do lead the Body of the Church into hell.
Jesus Commands His Church, that, if her hand, foot or eye, of the Body of His Church is its downfall, Apostolic Successors are Commanded by Jesus to ‘cut them off’ from the life of the Body of the Church and cast them into hell. Jesus teaches that it is better to throw a limb/member of the Body of His Catholic Church into hell than to have evildoers lead the whole Body of His Church into hell by their evildoing.
Matthew 18:5
“Whoever welcomes one such child for my sake welcomes me. On the other hand, it would be better for anyone who leads astray one of these little ones who believes in me, to be drown by a millstone around his neck, in the depths of the sea. What terrible things will come on the world through scandal! It is inevitable that scandal should occur. Nonetheless, woe to that man through whom scandal comes! If your hand or foot is your undoing, cut it off and throw it from you! Better to enter life maimed or crippled than be thrown with two hands or feet into endless fire. If your eye is your downfall, gouge it out and cast it from you! Better to enter life with one eye than be thrown with both into fiery Gehenna.
ANATHEMA
the formula of anathema which ends with these words: Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N– himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment.” Whereupon all the assistants respond: “Fiat, fiat, fiat.” The pontiff and the twelve priests then cast to the ground the lighted candles they have been carrying, and notice is sent in writing to the priests and neighboring bishops of the name of the one who has been excommunicated and the cause of his excommunication, in order that they may have no communication with him. Although he is delivered to Satan and his angels, he can still, and is even bound to repent. The Pontifical gives the form for absolving him and reconciling him with the Church. The promulgation of the anathema with such solemnity is well calculated to strike terror to the criminal and bring him to a state of repentance, especially if the Church adds to it the ceremony of the Maranatha…
…He who dares to despise our decision, let him be stricken with anathema maranatha, i.e. may he be damned at the coming of the Lord, may he have his place with Judas Iscariot, he and his companions.
Quoted from: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm
Matthew 18:17 Fraternal Correction
“If he ignores them, refer it to the church . If he ignores even the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. I assure you, whatever you declare bound on earth shall be held bound in heaven, and whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be held loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 11:20 Reproaches to Unrepentant Towns.
Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’ For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
The eyes of the Body of Jesus’ Church are our Catholic leaders.
Luke 11:34 The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness.
There’s a great line in the movie, “The Young Victoria,” when the maneuver to install Victoria’s mother as regent has finally failed. She, and the one who would control her (John Conroy) are in the palatial residence dialoguing (!) with Victoria’s then trusted advisor, Lord Melbourne. Confidently seated, Melbourne raises his hand for a pause, and delivers the message: “Oh, I see I have not been clear….You have played the game, and lost!”
We can be thankful that there are still 21 successors of the apostles mingled among the 36 imposters, and we might wonder, of Bishop Batzing, just how “personally” he takes to the back seat.
From “whiny” and “somewhat helpless”, nevertheless saving minority faithful German Bishops to Catholic universities offering bed and more for our kids, our Church is at the high water mark of befouled inundation. That Herr Bätzing has the aplomb to take the case for the destruction of the German Church to Rome …Well, what if Martin Luther wished to make his controversial though more reasonable case to this pontiff, could we anticipate approval?
What Luther had to do, leave the Church so as to change it, Bätzing seems convinced he can achieve a more spectacularly unchristian change from within. Yes, we’ve come a long way. And the complacency is fierce.
Adiuva Nos Domine.