CNA Newsroom, Feb 22, 2023 / 08:30 am (CNA).
Ahead of the German Synodal Way’s final meeting next month, four prominent participants — all of them women — officially announced they were quitting the controversial process on Wednesday.
The theology professors Katharina Westerhorstmann and Marianne Schlosser — together with philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and journalist Dorothea Schmidt — raised fundamental objections about the direction and the conduct of the German event on Feb. 22, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
The Synodal Way was “casting doubt on central Catholic doctrines and beliefs,” the women said in a statement published by the newspaper Welt. They also accused organizers of ignoring the Vatican’s repeated warnings and interventions.
What is more, the departing delegates — three of whom are university professors, and two are Ratzinger Prize winners — accused the process organizers of using pressure tactics not commensurate with synodality.
In response to a request for comment from CNA Deutsch, the communication directors of the Synodal Way, Britta Baas and Matthias Kopp, offered a brief statement on Wednesday: “The presidium of the Synodal Way has noted the decision with regret.”
In December of last year, however, a key architect of the German process freely admitted that the Synodal Way was designed to create “pressure” on the Church to change Catholic teaching.
Thomas Sternberg, former president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said the controversial process from the outset wanted to achieve changes to the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, the ordination of women, and other topics.
The German Synodal Way is scheduled to conclude with a final meeting in Frankfurt from March 9–11.
While delegates have voted for several controversial demands — including the ordination of women priests — previous meetings have also led to tumultuous scenes, making it clear that not all participants agree with the organizers’ agenda.
However, the four women on Feb. 22 said they could no longer in good conscience participate in a process that was “more and more” separating the Church in Germany from the universal Church.
“The resolutions of the past three years have not only called into question essential foundations of Catholic theology, anthropology as well as Church practice, but have reformulated and in some cases completely redefined them,” the women said.
“We cannot and will not share responsibility for that.”
‘Fixation on ordination’ of women?
The 2018 Ratzinger Prize winner Marianne Schlosser has previously raised concerns, identifying a “fixation on ordination” of women at the process.
A professor of theology at the University of Vienna, Pope Francis appointed Schlosser as a member of the International Theological Commission in 2014. She was also appointed a member of the study commission investigating the female diaconate in 2016.
In an interview with CNA Deutsch last year, Schlosser pointed to several problems with the process, in particular, demands for the ordination of women to the priesthood.
She warned that the sacrament of holy orders could not just be conflated with hierarchical positions of power.
Vatican concerns ‘not forwarded’
In their Wednesday “departure note,” Westerhorstmann, Gerl-Falkovitz, Schmidt, and Schlosser also said the Vatican’s concern about introducing a permanent synodal council in Germany “has not been forwarded to the members of the synodal assembly nor otherwise brought directly to their attention.”
Pope Francis and other Church leaders have expressed serious concerns about the idea. Such a body would function “as a consultative and decision-making body on essential developments in the Church and society,” according to a Synodal Way proposal.
More importantly, it would “make fundamental decisions of supra-diocesan significance on pastoral planning, questions of the future, and budgetary matters of the Church that are not decided at the diocesan level.”
Last month, in response to warnings from Rome about taking such a step, the president of the German bishops’ conference suggested he would pursue a “fallback option.”
In their statement, the four signatories on Wednesday said they saw “the need for a profound renewal of the Church, which also has structural relevance.”
“At the same time, we are convinced that there is a renewal worthy of the name only in the preservation of the ecclesial communion across space and time — and not by rupturing from it.”
So far, no bishops have opted out of the controversial process. In 2020, Auxiliary Bishop Dominikus Schwaderlapp of Cologne renounced his participation in the synodal forum on sexual morality.
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Where Papa is involved, controversy is a participant. When the women “raised fundamental objections”, does it surprise anyone? Where are the men with backbone who will stand up with these godly women for Christ?
2 Timothy 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
Philippians 1:1-30 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. …
This thing about “pressure”….when four women leave the chamber, the question must be asked: “if there obviously is no consent–then is de synodale weg less than consensual, and therefore a metastasized an institutionalized form of rape?”
The correct response to past sexual abuse in Germany most probably isn’t textual abuse pressured upon the universal Church. So, why was this non-synod awarded a place at the synodal European Continental Assembly? Perhaps Cardinals Grech and Hollerich have a scripted answer?
Its good the women saw the handwriting on the wall and opted out. Hopefully others will follow them. However, as far as their suggestion the church was in need of ” profound renewal”; we were already hit with Vatican 2, whose negative effects are still being felt. Argue all you want about what it was supposed to do, or what happened which was never authorized in explicit terms. Deal with the reality of what DID happen. Priests and nuns fled by the tens of thousands, and many churches were stripped of their essential beauty and ability to spiritually inspire. Church attendance is WAY down. I am not hopeful any major POSITIVE changes will happen in the church anytime soon. Certainly it will not improve by giving the OK to behavior which has been acknowledged as sinful for two millennia.
Having witnessed DOZENS of latecomers entering Mass late this past Sunday and again on Ash Wednesday,I questioned a priest friend yesterday why public note wasnt taken of this and a request to parishioners phrased in an encouraging manner to come to church on time?? He rolled his eyes and asked if I had a job and housing available to him, as his firing by the Bishop would surely follow such a mild reprimand. Parishioners would complain loudly he said, some would stop attending church totally, etc. How sad. I would suggest if the church is so weak,that a priest dare not tell parishioners they owe it to God to get to church on time, if the Bishops are so bought and sold to secular values as this, we are not far from having to close up shop anyway. “Do your own thing” is not a proper way to run a church nor is it a proper way to honor God.You are cheating the faithful when you fail to instruct them on basics. If they dont want to hear the truth, too bad. Let the chips fall where they may.
I overcame my atheism while still a young man, but my delays in entering the Church had a lot to do with being mystified of why it seemed that few of the Catholics I encountered seemed to think of themselves as sinners. Blind defenders of VII never demonstate and willingness to come to terms of how the humanistic optimism of VII had an effect on the ecclesial culture of producing little to no-fault Catholicism. They still don’t give anything more than a shoulder shrug about shriveled up confession lines.
“The presidium of the Synodal Way has noted the decision with regret.” Good grief! Could these people be any more pompous? Or culturally Marxist?
You’re right. That does sound rather grandiose for a venue supposedly created for everyone to have their equal say. But that’s usually the way it ends up.
🙂
The Germans are at it again. The last time they had their way with the church Michael Davies became a household name. Brakes are in order here. Emergency brakes if available!
How powerful! Four women!
A victory against Francis’ Orwellian Catholicism. (He is not opposed to the German Synod. Politically, he needs to pretend a little that he is.)