Plymouth, England, Oct 18, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In 2018 one of England’s historic monasteries will celebrate the millennium year of its foundation, offering a prime example of the contribution of monastic life to society amid an increasingly fast-paced world.
For the Benedictine monks who inhabit Buckfast Abbey in Devon, reaching such a significant anniversary means “we are the inheritors of a great tradition,” Abbot David Charlesworth told CNA.
“Place matters for Benedictines, so the fact that we are in a place that has been established for many centuries before we came is important.”
Not only to Benedictine monks take the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they also make an additional vow of stability, meaning that when they are assigned to a monastery, they stay there. While they might travel or even spend time in other monasteries, they will always be attached to the original, as an individual would be to their family home.
Charlesworth, who served as Abbot at Buckfast from 1992-1999, and was re-elected in 2009, said that in general, human beings “like the idea of roots.”
The concept of monasticism is ultimately rooted in the Gospel and expressed through the Rule of St Benedict, he said, but it is also rooted “in place, in a place, and it is from there, out of that place, that we then live our Baptismal vocation expressed through our monastic vocation.”
When it comes to living this vocation in modern times, the millennium landmark “helps to sort of galvanize our approach as to what we’re doing for the future,” Charlesworth said. This, he added, encompasses “what we’re doing personally, what we’re doing as a community, and what we’re doing as members of the Church of the Southwest of England.”
The abbot spoke to CNA about the millennium anniversary during a sit-down interview inside one of the two main guest houses at Buckfast Abbey, located in Buckfastleigh, about 25 miles northeast of Plymouth.
The abbey was founded in 1018 during the reign of King Cnut and entrusted to care of the Benedictines.
The monks who inhabited the monastery followed the “Regularis Concordia” rule, which was drafted in Winchester around the year 970 for all Benedictine monasteries in an effort to re-establish, in a sense, monastic life.
Just over 100 years later, in 1147, Buckfast became a Cistercian monastery. The Order was founded in 1098 by a group of monks seeking to live a simpler life in more strict observance of the Benedictine Rule.
Under the Cistercians Buckfast thrived, exporting wool to Italy by the 14th century. By the 15th century, the monastery had in essence become a wealthy landowner, while continuing to run an almshouse and school, and support local parishes in the area.
But in 1539 was shut down by the commissioners of King Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries in a bid to confiscate the wealth of the country’s religious institutes during the English Reformation.
The monastery was immediately vacated, stripped and left to decay. During the more than 300 years that Buckfast was without monks, the monastery changed hands four times, eventually landing in those of Dr. James Gale in 1872, who decided to sell the property, but wanted it to go back to a religious community.
Just six weeks after putting an advertisement in the paper, Buckfast was purchased by monks, who moved in shortly after, bringing a close to the 343 year gap in monastic presence at the abbey.
That first group of monks who returned to Buckfast were Benedictines who had been exiled from France and had made their way to Ireland. They moved to Buckfast in 1882 after acquiring the abbey, and began the process of restoring the property.
As the work was being carried out, the ruins to the original Cistercian design from the 1100s were discovered, and the monastery was constructed in its modern form from the ancient layout. The abbey was consecrated in 1932, with the final stone of the large bell tower being laid in 1937.
Now in 2017, the monastery is again a thriving presence in Devon. Not only does Buckfast represent a silent spiritual hub for tourists or visitors who want to get away for a day of prayer, but it also boasts of several other major activities available for people throughout the area.
The Buckfast monks essentially serve as the board of trustees for the St. Mary’s grade school that sits on their property, and the abbey hosts a center for evangelization called the School of the Annunciation, which was established as a response to Church’s call for a new evangelization.
The school offers formation to adults from all walks of life, and it also holds the status of a Catholic Institute for Higher Learning, providing distance-learning opportunities for students to obtain Master’s Degrees in Catechesis and Evangelization, validated by the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
Buckfast also has a large conference center where they host various congresses and retreats throughout the year, including for non-Catholic groups.
The monastery also offers two refurbished guest houses for pilgrims and tourists to stay. They also have private houses available to rent if people want a longer get-away.
Buckfast also has a cafeteria and an adoration chapel open to visitors. Monks also offer pilgrims the opportunity to pray Vespers with them every evening.
The abbey is known throughout the UK for a tonic wine they brew called Buckfast Tonic Wine. Originally brewed for medicinal purposes, the wine is controversial in some areas of the UK due to its unique recipe, which contains high amounts of alcohol infused with high levels of caffeine.
Reminiscent of the monastery’s early centuries, Buckfast, which is strategically placed beside the River Dart that runs through the area, also generates their own power with a water turbine that provides enough energy not only for their own grounds, but for locals in the nearby area who want to purchase it for their own homes and neighborhoods.
Another means of income for the monastery is renting grazing ground for local farmers.
Several acres of land had been purchased for Buckfast when it was established in order to preserve the silence of the monastery and ensure that the monks were truly removed with few distractions. However, since the swath of land owned by Buckfast largely serves as a buffer-of-sorts from the outside world, they rent out certain patches to local farmers who need fresh grazing land.
And while Buckfast can’t quite claim to be celebrating 1,000 years of having monks on the property, the millennium anniversary of the monastery’s foundation is recognized as a monumental event not only for the abbey, but the entire region.
Preparations for the anniversary have been underway for 10 years. According to Charlesworth, “not only do we reassess the physical environment of the monastery, but we reassess our spiritual lives as well.”
“Everything is integrated, it’s an integrated system,” he said, noting that while the monks themselves have had retreats and meditations to reflect on, the structure of the monastery itself has also been cleaned and renovated, from the base of the Church floor to the top of the bell tower.
Paintings depicting the history and reconstruction of the monastery have also been produced, and vestments woven in honor of the upcoming anniversary. Exhibits on Buckfast and monasticism are also set to be unveiled, and study workshops are scheduled exploring the role of Christian monasticism both in the past and in the present.
The famous image of Our Lady of Buckfast that greets visitors as they approach the monastery was also redone. Crafted by a local artist with her neighbor and her neighbor’s baby as models, the statue depicts a smiling Mary holding a smiling infant Christ in a relaxed pose on her hip.
Based on the medieval original, which was destroyed during the sacking of the monastery in the 1500s, the statue, according to Charlesworth, is meant to depict “the joy of motherhood.”
“You don’t typically see statues like that,” with Mary’s soft but full smile, and her relaxed pose, he said, explaining that when he initially commissioned the statue in 2012, “I specifically asked that be emphasized…the smiling motherly face of Mary and child.”
When pilgrims arrive, he explained, they see Christ “smiling and looking at them as a child – because he was a child – and there is Mary looking at her Son in the joy of motherhood.”
Various liturgical events are also set to take place, with three major Masses scheduled throughout the year. The first will take place on the May 24 feast of Our Lady of Buckfast, which will mark the diocesan celebration.
The bishops of England, Wales, and Scotland will all be invited to the Mass. Parish priests and representatives of parishes in the area will also be invited.
The next major liturgical event will be the singing of Vespers by the abbey choir on the July 11 feast of St. Benedict. Members of both civil society and the Church of England will be invited for a civic and ecumenical celebration of the anniversary.
Another Mass will be offered on the Aug. 25 feast of the Dedication of the Abbey, which will be more of a community celebration for the abbey parish staff and their families.
On Oct. 27 a Votive Mass will be offered for the Oct. 27 feast of Saints Simon and Jude, which will be celebrated by the Benedictine Abbot Primate, Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey in Missouri, who will come in from Rome for the celebration.
The Mass will primarily be for the monks and nuns o the Benedictine family, particularly those from France and in Germany, since the first monks to re-settle Buckfast in the 19th century were French and German.
With around 120 employees on staff and 3-400,000 visitors a year, Buckfast is far from a small presence in the area. However, there are only 15 monks, including Abbot Charlesworth, who live in the enclosed monastery of the abbey.
But according to Charlesworth, “the vitality of a monastic community witness does not depend so much on the age or number of members as on their manner of living the monastic life.”
Going into the future, he hopes Buckfast Abbey is able to offer a concrete service based on “Christ-centered hospitality” to the mission of the Church as a whole, but specifically the pilgrims who come.
“The monastic life itself is our way of participating in the mission of Christ and his Church,” the abbot said, adding that it offers both the Church and the world “a strong clear sign of the very nature of the Christian life.”
Though the monks are enclosed, that doesn’t mean they are inactive or that their presence isn’t felt, he said, because if lived properly through a life of prayer and asceticism, monastic life “assumes an evangelical importance, being the attitude and behavior which demonstrates our faith at the point of contact with each other and the world.”
“To witness the contentment and pleasure that others experience here is a great joy,” he said, noting that for many of Buckfast’s visitors, the monastery is a place “where they are uplifted and find peace,” which in itself is “an important source of encouragement.”
This opportunity for peace, joy and renewal is a primary way to evangelize, particularly amid a busy and often hectic rhythm, he said.
Evangelization, he said, “should seek to orientate our human freedom towards God, who is the source of truth, goodness and beauty.”
Because of this, a life of prayer is also a mode of evangelization, he said, explaining that “the Spirit given to us in prayer and the sacraments encourages us to spread the Good News of Jesus in word and deed” to the community, and to visitors.
“For us, the three-fold mission of liturgy, hospitality and evangelization helps us to express our commitment, through our monastic calling to the life of the Gospel,” Charlesworth said, stressing that “we do not have to work away from the monastery to bear witness to Jesus.”
“Within the monastic enclosure, if we are willing to cooperate with each other and collaborate with those who share our vision, we have the resources to bring hope and joy to those in need.”
[…]
Hi ho, hi ho, y’all clap yer hands for the German block party! Not synod, but sin-nod…
Bishop Franz-Josef Bode announces that all things, even ecumenical councils, have a “context!” The “tyranny of relativism” under a new name! The sin-nod apparently would normalize McCarrick’s actively homosexual priests, plus radical secularism’s gender theory, and ordination of women as priestesses (resuscitating what, according to Tacitus, was the “barbarian” German attribution “to many of their women prophetic powers and, as the superstition grew in strength, even actual divinity”).
Behold, the “fundamental equality of all believers”! The German bubble-universe would define the mythical Procrustean Bed as dogma. If too tall, then vestments to be shortened by a head; if too short, then a stretch on the rack (as Maltese Cardinal Grech literally explains about lengthening moral theology, “to stretch the grey area”).
And, what about that dead white dude, John the Baptist who, in the presence of Christ, found himself “not worthy to untie the straps of His sandals” (Lk 3:16). Culture-bound reject! Obsolete! Never even heard of today’s high-heeled shoes that don’t even have straps! And what, too, about synthetic polyester pants on the altar? After all, during an earlier Reign of Terror a prostitute, the ordained Goddess of Reason, danced nude on the altar of Notre Dame.
That went well. And, now, open-collared Bishop Batzing also has a problem…it’s about eating crow and not about a white dove with a German accent:
“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful” (Pope St. John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994).
So does this mean that American Bishops can finally vote the Latin Mass back in?
A weather vane the German Synodal Way gains momentum bishops falling in line with the trend. Turbulence though welcome is overstated. Surprisingly, perhaps not, Cardinal Kasper offered a powerful theological rebuttal [recent article shown here]; Thomas Aquinas could not have done better [an exaggeration].
Kasper’s strong arguments, citing both ecclesiology and theology have referential content to themes openly proposed by Synod on Synodality [SS] relator Cardinal Hollerich [member of the three Synodal Francis aficionados including Cardinals Grech and Farrell] though there hasn’t been word in rebuttal from Kasper. Perhaps SS is the more elite corps of the German suicidal march toward a Hazel Motes Church of Christ without Christ as described by some on Flannery’s classic Wiseblood and by some in Germany and without.
Unfortunately, as much as I’m edified by Cardinal Kasper’s repudiation of the Synodalweg, and here I hope I’m wrong, that he really may be using a foil strategy, downplaying of heterodoxy, while similarly playing the keys ever so expressively in a not uncommon dissonance.
In June, Kasper remarked that:
“there could be no ‘Synodal Council,’ given Church history and theology: ‘Synods cannot be institutionally made permanent. The tradition of the Church does not know a synodal church government. A synodal supreme council, as is now envisaged, has no basis in the entire history of the constitution. It would not be a renewal, but an unheard-of innovation.’”
Is Kasper actually opposed to a permanent and rolling synod or, by offering this wording, is the same ol’ Kasper deliberately rendering such a thing thinkable and, through a “foil strategy,” advancing the innovative (!) “new paradigm” where a rolling council or process replaces the deposit of faith? As with Hollerich, and with Grech who reassures that they only want to “stretch the grey area” (as in moral theology).
The orchestration seems abundantly obvious to this reader. Too much like smoke-and-mirror politicians.
But, as with Councils, synods also are only what the Church DOES, and not what the Eucharistic Church IS. Unless, of course, nominalism and historicism are the new doctrine…as in the still-okay but exploitable Evangelii Gaudium (2013): “realities are more important than ideas; time is greater than space; [and] unity prevails over conflict; and the whole is greater than the part.”
You described well what is too evident [despite hope for otherwise] to ignore, never mind dismiss as some do who believe the Church cannot be misguided. All done peripherally and by stealth. What with the agenda of the great Synod orchestrated by Cardinal Hollerich produced by His Holiness and the theater of absurd come to life, should I say come to an abhorrent finale?
German Catholicism is no longer recognizable if this Synodalweg represents the majority of Germans, which it appears to.
“Catholics in Germany seek to remain faithful to the Church’s magisterium. These doctrinally faithful Catholics consider themselves a small minority within Germany. ‘The schism is coming out in all its brutality’, said Bernard Meuser, a founder of the lay group Neuer Anfang” (Ed Pentin NCReg 02.21.22).
At this critical stage a public admonition to the Synodalweg should be pronounced by His Holiness Francis. The universal Church must hear from him, that this sinful, heretical path will not be tolerated. Otherwise, it will be perceived as an informal approbation of the serious, soul killing errors held by Synodalweg, and its majority supporters in Germany – and elsewhere in the universal Church. Fear of aggravating a break with Rome is no longer an issue – the break is evident. They are not simply in schism, which is defined as an obstinate disagreement on an issue with the Roman pontiff. What’s occurred in Germany is apostasy.
Kasper is not a friendly ghost…..er, spirit…
Father Morello:
As an 80-year-old practicing Roman Catholic I am very distressed to find that the spirit of Luther and Calvin are still alive and actively functioning in Germany. I firmly believe that the sitting Holy Father comes only through God Almighty. The Holy Father speaks on behalf of Almighty God, His only Son Jesus our savior and all Roman Catholics here on earth. How difficult is that to accept for ordained mortal men? I am sorry to say that SCHISM, again, is in the air and on the rise in Germany. All that we mortals can do is pray and hope that The Holy Roman Catholic remains intact! However, I do feel revolution within is well on it’s way.
PRAISE GOD FOR HIS MERCY in this matter!
We pray for that Henry, that is all the faithful need to pray for Christ’s Mystical Body, again suffering crucifixion. Tomorrow is the Feast day Exaltation of the Holy Cross. At this trying time Christ calls us to share the bearing of the Cross with Him. A priority intention is to pray and offer sacrifice for those whose souls are in jeopardy, many being misled to believe that what was always judged sin has now become acceptable. This intention gives us a cause to fight for that is purely charitable, and most pleasing to God. It brings interior joy rather than despondency.
Get on with it and join the Lutherans. When you find what you’re looking for, issue a report on it.
Cue the Holy Spirit.
The Gates of Hell in a full court press…
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2016/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20160913_for-a-culture-of-encounter.html-
Golden words indeed from the Holy Father ,in the above homily 6 years ago to the date and Feast Day of today , narrating beautifully what encounter is…’Each encounter returns people and things to their place.’ – Thus men and women to be in their place and roles ..
Encounter which involves compassion,’that returns to each person , their dignity as children of God , the dignity of living ‘, on how ‘every time that Jesus finds pain , a sinner ..he looks at them .. returns them to His Bride ‘.
http://www.preghiereagesuemaria.it/DV-inglese/THE%20BLESSED%20VIRGIN%20MARY%20IN%20THE%20KINGDOM%20OF%20THE%20DIVINE%20WILL%20%20FINAL%20EDITION%202014.pdf
Came across recently, in the above the rather surprising words on what false pity that make persons rebel against God’s Holy Will can do as well – given on the meditation of Wedding at Cana –
‘ Marriage is the substance from which life of all human generations arise …There are so mnay souls that find themselves filled with passions , weak, afflicted , unfortunate and wretched . Although they pray and pray, they obtain nothing becuase they do not do what my Son asks of them – heaven it seems is irresponsive to their prayers . And this is the cause of sorrow for your mother , for I see that as they pray , they greatly distance themselves from the source that contains all blessings , namely the Will of my Son .’
The focus given by the Holy Father on our Bl.Mother , her intercession to help overcome the effects of the rebellions of the human will .. to bring other in conformity to the Divine Will …and same as measure of holiness , such as the beatification of Bl.John Paul 1 recently ..
the reverse too , such as the prayers of the rebellious, moving them away from God..
? what we are seeing in Russia, Germany .. the pandemic itself , in our contraceting culture as the chastisement of keeping persons away from each other ..even the stars said to move away from each other ..
Thank God for our Mother and the intercession of holy angels and Sts , that we can offer ourselves to the Heavenly Father , through all the wounds of Jesus Christ , with sorrow deep and true , adoring His Wounds – esp.also on the Feast of the Holy Cross .
https://flameoflove.us/wp-content/uploads/FlameOfLoveCenaclePrayersReversed.pdf
What he give the impression of believing when he reads from a prepared script and what he actually believes are two different matters, actually many different matters because they are subject to his changing moods of the day, the week, the month, the year, as well.
Or the Church of England, which is in freefall, by all reports.
The documents approved will be voted on in spring 2023; however the document on changing the sexual ethic and morals of the church teachings failed 60/40% did not get two thirds majority. A lot of great holy things happening in Bavaria by young adults and new evangelization (Adoratio 2021 @ home, Bishop Stefan Oster and Eucharistic adoration). Just like the first reformation brought forth the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church, so even in this evil age “all time, all ages” belong to Christ who sends the Holy Spirit to renew.
That’s very good news Miss Edith. Thank you so much for sharing this!
So many important saints have come from Germany. I know they are praying for the future of the German Church & for Germany’s young people.
Good news Edith. I assumed the document on sexual ethics, although rejected earlier was still included in the final. Also, the faith in Bavaria, the largest [I believe] Catholic region as you say is growing. I had an internet friend, Alexandra, a young Bavarian lady who had a wide, impressive breadth of knowledge. She later entered a contemplative community. She mentioned Bishop Oster of Passau as a highly commendable Catholic bishop. Hopefully Woelki, Voderholzer and other German prelates will restore Catholicism.
Father Peter, the main document of “Sexualmoral” had a 61 yes and 39 no and did not get the two third approval necessary. It is still a disastrous and rebellious majority of German Bishops adopting all other documents. We shall see how it continues in spring 2023. I grew up in Bavaria and I am happy that under the banner of Mary many good things are happening there. I read the German SSPX news too because they bring it as it is at Katholisches.info. God bless you
I meant to write 61% to 39%
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. Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness.
“If it ain’t broke, dont fix it”, goes an old saying.One which too few Popes have heeded, with disastrous results for the church. V2 resulted in an emptying of our churches, a crisis level loss of religious priests and nuns, and a battlefield regarding the Latin Mass which continues. Now we have the absurd synods of…whatever its supposed to be. With Germany, as I have predicted, schism is on the horizon. Nothing less. They seem VERY intent on sexualizing the church. Too few Bishops voted against their proposals. And what to say of the outright cowardly Bishops who “abstained” in the votes for gay relationships and women priests. Why? Was the potential for sin and loss of traditional teaching not evident enough to them? Its a sad, sad day for the church. Especially since I do not expect the current pope to do a single thing to stop this precipitous slide to oblivion. He never seems to be able to take a stand for the church when it really matters. Look at his non-action with Biden, Pelosi, gay rights, or this. My feeling is that the Germans will barrel ahead with this into schism and found a new “liberal” church, which might as well be Protestant. ( Although, one notices that the super liberal Protestant denominations are losing members fast and furious. So, betraying your principals in favor of “niceness” is evidently not the way to go for a healthy church.) The only thing that MIGHT stop them is a truly clear and fierce set down by the Pope telling them such changes in the church will not be allowed, either globally or in Germany alone. Not if they wish to remain in union with the Catholic Church. Immediate discipline is called for and some unambiguous meetings with the German Bishops to lay down the law before this goes any further. Having said that, sadly, I do not expect any such meetings to happen.I imagine the heart of Jesus is bleeding right now.