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Dominican theologian to German Bishop Bätzing: Support for gay agenda is ‘modernist heresy’

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg at a press conference of the German "Synodal Way" / Synodaler Weg / Max von Lachner

CNA Newsroom, Nov 23, 2022 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Father Nelson Medina, a Dominican priest who holds a doctorate in fundamental theology, has harshly criticized the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, who persists in supporting the gay agenda.

Medina, a native of Colombia, is an influencer in the Spanish-speaking world with a presence on Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. He has 63,000 followers on Twitter and 442,000 subscribers on YouTube.

In a press conference in Rome following the ad limina visit of the German bishops, Bätzing told journalists that there was no departure from Catholicism intended by the Synodal Way. Instead, he said, its supporters wanted to remain Catholic, “but we want to be Catholic in a different way.”

The German bishop also said that he will not prevent the blessing of homosexual couples, something that occurred en masse in May of this year despite the explicit prohibition of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was issued in a 2021 Responsum.

Father Javier Olivera Ravasi, an Argentine priest who directs the apologetics project “Que no te la cuentan” (“don’t believe everything you hear”), said on Twitter that “‘Catholics in a different way’ is called ‘Protestant,’ your heretical excellency.”

For Medina, Bätzing’s persistent pro-gay stance “is yet another belch of modernist heresy, which, like all great heresies, never really dies out completely.”

The Dominican priest then explained that “the blessing that the sinner really needs is the charitable but clear and firm call to conversion. Without it, the supposed ‘blessing’ confirms the error and is a form of contempt and cruelty towards those who live in sin.”

According to fraynelson.com, the Dominican “teaches at the Studium Generale of the Dominicans and as a member of the Faculty of Theology at Santo Tomás University. He has held chairs in fundamental, dogmatic, and moral theology as well as logic.”

Father Juan Manuel Góngora, a Spanish priest who has more than 56,000 followers on Twitter, explained that “sin cannot be blessed. The bishop should go back to the seminary to study or go over to the Protestant Deformation and stop annoying people.”

The German Synodal Way

The Synodal Way is a controversial multiyear process that began in December 2019 and involves German bishops and laity in addressing issues such as the exercise of “power,” sexual morality, the priesthood, and the role of women in the Church, issues on which they have expressed, publicly and on various occasions, positions contrary to Catholic doctrine.

These positions have given rise to various accusations of heresy and fears of schism.

What the Church teaches about homosexuality

Catholic teaching on homosexuality is summarized in Nos. 2357, 2358, and 2359 of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” which state that homosexuals are called to holiness and chastity.

The Catechism explains that homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered” and that for homosexuals this “constitutes for most of them a trial.”

The text also declares that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and therefore “under no circumstances can they be approved.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.


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10 Comments

  1. “Bätzing told journalists that there was no departure from Catholicism intended by the Synodal Way. Instead, he said, its supporters wanted to remain Catholic, “but we want to be Catholic in a different way.”

    Batzing’s way of saying, “We only want to ‘identify’ as being Catholic”.

  2. We read from Bats-sing, that the Synodal Way “supporters wanted to remain Catholic, ‘but we want to be Catholic in a different way.’” As said the cannibal about his sorta “different” invitation: “I’d like to have you over for dinner.”

  3. No one in the Lord’s family froim the Pope down to laity be catholic in a different way.
    Discipleship as defined by the Lord Jesus
    “If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples; then you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”—- (John 8, 31-32)

    What was the command that the Lord to His first 12 disciples, who became the 12 Aspostles?
    “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” — (Matt.,28:18-20)

  4. Apparently, Batzing’s Catholicism is a version where the Lord’s Prayer has been erased from Scripture. Jesus’ instruction on how to say a perfect prayer includes the words, “lead us not into temptation.” Are the German bishops so naive they believe same-sex “marriages” will not tempt two people to engage in sterile sex. Thus, a blessing by the Church is implying that this grievous sin is actually OK with the Church. Are the Germans gullible enough to think homosexuals possess a greater ability to resist temptation than do heterosexuals? Show me the studies that support that ridiculous assertion. I’ll save you the effort — there isn’t any.

    Scripture also tells us that if anyone causes an innocent child to go astray, it would result in severe consequences. Aren’t we all children of God? Aren’t all the baptized also children of the Church? The German bishops should be very concerned about leading and encouraging people into temptation to commit sinful sterile sex.

  5. In the Our Father the “lead us not into temptation” is not a nuanced recollection from the disciples that can be reformulated.

    It is a doctrine on prayer that the Lord gave us. It can’t be changed. It is the Redeemer Lord Himself at prayer teaching us the way.

    You have to ask the Redeemer to show you. Br grateful for what little benefit with it He offers you. Smile at your God and rejoice on it.

    So, here, I am not going to go into a survey of the implications of this; I only want to lament that the Holy Father fell in with the changers.

    That was some years ago. The Holy Father retreated from the German delegations, adding more let-down, consistently; and lamentation.

  6. Bravo, bravissimo for fathers Medina, Olivera and Gongora for their clear and strong words against blessing a sin.
    With priests like them, I really feel much more at peace with my faith and with the way our Holy Father is directing our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. No room for doubts on Christ’s teachings.

    • I will pray and try to see it your way and even make a benefit of the doubt for the Holy Father; while the case, as far as I can see so far, is, we do not know what the Holy Father intimated to the Germans. The time he was in Mexico when he said in the interview to “legalize homosexual civil union”, it only was revealed later. In this present situation, where and when did he address that the blessing of the “union” is wrong?

      • ‘ From such counsels of despair, of course, people of faith must simply flee; and they must cling, even if only by a fingernail, to Christ’s assurance that He will not leave us orphaned and alone. So, why have so many of you seemingly given up? How does one account for such craven refusals to preserve and defend the teachings of the Church, teachings which the whole point of your episcopal ordination obliges you to uphold? Why this loss of faith in the Church’s mission to sacramentalize the world and thus bring the saving mercy of Jesus Christ to sinners?  

        I ask because, if that were the case, then the Church over which you preside, concerning whose governance you will answer before God Himself, would be no different from the fallen world which Christ has enjoined us all to assist Him in redeeming. The Church’s life would then be one of complete futility, thereby consigning us all to a state of lassitude and despair. ‘

        https://www.crisismagazine.com/opinion/an-open-letter-to-our-bishops

        https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-11/pope-prays-for-german-homeless-man-found-dead.html

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