CNA Newsroom, Sep 29, 2023 / 10:45 am (CNA).
As German bishops wrapped up their plenary meeting on Thursday with a final press conference amid tensions over same-sex blessings and a whole host of underlying issues, the focus was clear: All eyes were turned toward the fraught relationship with Rome and the forthcoming Synod on Synodality.
Bishop George Bätzing of Limburg, president of the German Bishops’ Conference, took public issue with the apostolic nuncio in Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterović, for reminding the German bishops of statements by Pope Francis on anthropology, including gender ideology.
Citing Pope Francis, the papal ambassador had addressed the German prelates at their plenary assembly with a reminder it was “necessary to reject ideological colonization, including gender ideology” while emphasizing “that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, should be respected in their dignity and welcomed with respect.”
When asked by CNA Deutsch about this reminder, Bätzing on Sept. 28 accused the pope’s envoy to Germany of engaging in a culture war with terms such as “gender ideology” or “ideological colonization.”
“And when the Church engages in a culture war, it will always lose,” he said.
Bätzing used the German term for culture war — “Kulturkampf.” Given its bitter historical context, this is a loaded concept, amid the current concerns over the German Synodal Way, including its demand for blessing homosexual unions.
The alternative to a culture war, Bätzing added, was “not adaptation, not simply agreeing to everything and going along with everything,” but “the ecclesial principle” of “discernment of spirits.”
“This is precisely what we have tried to do in the Synodal Way,” the bishop claimed.
“The spirit of the times — ‘Zeitgeist’ — is the spirit of the world. Signs of the times are signs that God gives to people through culture, through a current development [movement], so that we can better understand what the Gospel wants.”
The president of the German bishops’ conference added: “We have to differentiate.”
Asked by EWTN Germany program director Martin Rothweiler about irritation caused by individual bishops moving forward on issues such as the blessing of homosexual unions openly defying the Vatican, Bätzing said: “Many more believers are irritated that the Church is not moving on this issue.”
Diversity, not division?
While Bätzing used the opportunity to double down on his approach, it is clear that not everyone in the Church in Germany shares his vision. For instance, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg has frequently sounded alarms over doctrinal drift. His concerns mirror those of a minority of other bishops.
Augsburg Bishop Bertram Meier, who will attend the synod in Rome, offered a nuanced view on Thursday, stressing the need for the “wealth of different positions, opinions, and creative ideas.”
Yet, the prudent prelate warned that diversity should not become division. “I also wish that from the diversity of opinions no threats stand, but that we discover the richness of what catholicity means,” Meier remarked.
Amid this diverse cacophony, Bätzing doubled down on his stance, declaring: “We are in a phase in the Church where perhaps it is not security that is the unifying and stabilizing element but rather a dynamic in certain directions.”
Conscious of mounting tensions and open defiance around issues like the blessing of same-sex unions, the assembly in Wiesbaden served as a charged prelude to more significant debates on Church governance and hot-button issues.
With the Synod on Synodality on the immediate horizon, the Catholic world will watch how Germany’s controversial Synodal Way integrates — or collides — with the global Catholic event. Bätzing’s assertion that “a dynamic in certain directions” holds the Church together now casts its shadow onto the upcoming synod.
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About reality and the diverse “dynamics” of the “signs of times,” the difference between the diversity of the “non-synod” De Synodal Weg and the “differentiated” COVID-19 derivatives is, what?
And, as for the “shadow cast onto the upcoming Synod,” to even touch a bat(zing) can be a vector for spreading rabies. Some “dynamic in certain directions,” that.
What Bätzing is saying is that Pope Francis must just let all Catholic Bishops diversify in any direction they want, while Pope Francis simply accepts all Catholic Bishops, no matter what they teach, as still in ‘Full Communion’ with the Catholic Church. Like Pope Francis has done in Putting XI Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party in full control of the Catholic Church in China, and still in Full Communion with Pope Francis, at the same time. In this way the Catholic Church suffers no division and experiences complete diversity at the same time.
Matthew 26:31
‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed’.
I have always wondered why Jesus says that He will strike the shepherd to scatter His sheep? Jesus said this when all His Disciples had Betrayed Him upon His Passion. Why would Jesus scatter His Sheep from His Shepard the Pope?
If you follow the USCCB Bible notes, which define why God scatters His Sheep from a Pope, it gives us some clues.
USCCB NABRE Bible Note for Matthew 26:31
Will have…shaken: literally, “will be scandalized in me”; see note on Mt 24:9–12. I will strike…dispersed: cf. Zec 13:7.
Zechariah 13:7 Oracles Concerning the End of False Prophecy. The Song of the Sword.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the one who is my associate—oracle of the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In all the land—oracle of the LORD—two thirds of them will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left. I will bring the one third through the fire; I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”
Matthew 24 The Destruction of the Temple Foretold