Cologne, Germany, Feb 3, 2020 / 11:30 am (CNA).- A leading lay Catholic in the German city of Cologne has openly condemned his own archbishop for voicing concerns over the ongoing “binding synodal process” underway in the country.
Tim Kurzbach, chairman of the Diocesan Council of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cologne issued a public denunciation of Cardinal Rainer Woekli on Monday, accusing the cardinal of “destroying the authority of his episcopal office” by failing to support the so-called “synodal way.”
The statutes for a “synodal way” were formally adopted by the German bishops’ conference in September last year, despite repeated warnings and interventions from the Pope Francis and the curia. The two-year process proposes to debate and reform issues of universal Church teaching and discipline, including clerical celibacy, Church-approved blessings for same-sex couples, and the sacramental ordination of women.
After months of controversy, including several interventions by the Vatican, the synodal assembly met for the first time last week in Frankfurt. Speaking after the session, Cardinal Woekli said that speeches at the meeting had made it clear to him that the assembly was not functioning as a Catholic body.
“I basically saw all my fears confirmed. We witnessed the implementation of a de facto Protestant church parliament,” Woekli said in an interview Feb. 1.
“The essential prerequisites of an ecclesiological nature with regard to what the Catholic Church is were – in my opinion – ignored in many speeches,” the cardinal said, explaining that the hierarchical communion of the Church was being set aside for a democratic reinvention of the faith.
“That was already the very clearly defined image when entering the [liturgical] service, when bishops and lay people all processed in together and thus it was expressed that everyone is equal. And that actually has nothing to do with what the Catholic Church is and means.”
In his statement on Monday, Kurzbach said that Woekli and a few “traditionalists” were “overwhelmed by the fact that suddenly everyone can speak with equal rights in the ‘synodal way’,” and accused the cardinal of refusing to listen to those demanding reforms and insisting on the authentic teaching authority of the Church and bishops.
Calling the synodal discussions “fearless,” Kurzbach said that bishops like Woekli had to convince the assembly of their defense of traditional Church teachings and that “he should have long since recognized that the office [of bishop] alone no longer establishes true authority.”
In an interview Saturday, Woekli was asked about the seating in the synodal assembly, in which all participants were seated alphabetically and not by group or status. “I can live with that,” said the cardinal, but explained that the so-called synodal process was proceeding in a way which undermined the teachings of Vatican Council II.
The seating arrangements were just one of “many other small sings” which “simply make it clear that the hierarchical constitution of the Church, as documented again in Vatican Council II and expressed in Lumen Gentium, is questioned,” Woekli said.
Pope Francis and curial officials issued repeated warnings to the German bishops last year ahead of the synodal process.
In a June letter to the whole Church in Germany, the pope warned against a false synodality rooted in making the Church conform to modern secular morals and thought, which he called “a new Pelagianism” which seeks “to tidy up and tune the life of the Church, adapting it to the present logic.”
The result, Francis said, would be a “well organized and even ‘modernized’ ecclesiastical body, but without soul and evangelical novelty.”
In response, Woelki urged the other bishops in Germany to “take the pope very seriously.” He told the plenary session of the German Episcopal Conference in September that the Church in Germany must begin by “re-evangelizing itself” as an “indispensable prerequisite” for its wider mission, noting that Francis’ letter made clear that this required the bishops to remain rooted in the essential unity of faith, in Christ, and with the whole Church.
“This is the indispensable sign for our synodal way, which has to run like a thread through it, so that the Synodal Way can bear true fruit. The Pope’s letter leaves no doubt about that,” the cardinal said at the time.
Different curial heads also made explicit interventions, first in private, then in public, telling the German bishops that their synodal plans were a challenge to the universality of Catholic teaching and discipline and not valid.
A legal assessment of the German synodal plans from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts concluded that the German bishops’ plan confers to the synod’s membership the ability to make new policies for the Church in Germany. This, the Vatican concluded, is not acceptable.
The Vatican letter also said that the proposed make-up of the synodal assembly is “not ecclesiologically valid.” It cited the bishops’ proposed partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics, a lay group that has taken public stances against a range of Church teachings, including on women’s ordination and sexual morality.
The Vatican assessment noted with concern that the Central Committee of German Catholics only agreed to be involved in the process if the synod assembly could make binding policies for the German Church.
“Synodality in the Church, to which Pope Francis refers often, is not synonymous with democracy or majority decisions,” wrote Archbishop Filippo Iannone, head of the PCLT.
“The synodal process must take place within a hierarchically structured community,” the letter added, and any resolutions would require the express approval of the Apostolic See.
On Jan. 27, the secretary of the German bishops’ conference gave a pointed interview insisting that it is “unacceptable” that Rome continue to have full discretion over universal teaching and discipline.
Instead, Fr. Father Hans Langendörfer, SJ, called for other regions to follow the German’s example and effectively force through a new federal model on the Church.
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Fr Ortega’s point is valid. I mentioned elsewhere Ouija [boards] crystals, channeling of the dead, crystal balls, talismans are prohibited [condemnable] by the Church because they’re an entree to the daemonic.
When the two little Navajo girls and Mother knocked on my door that Halloween mentioned in my comment on Rachel Hoover’s ‘In defense of trick-or-treating’ they weren’t costumed. They were dressed in ordinary Navajo attire, made no demand, simply said Happy Halloween.
There’s the other side, some validly referencing the Christian dimension of the eve of All Saints day as a Christian celebration, that kids engage in innocent fun. If contained as such it seems fine, otherwise the celebration has deteriorated with a closer association with dark spirituality and the daemonic. Parents have a responsibility to instill a healthier religious sense of the meaning of Halloween.
Since it’s Halloween theological pastoral exploration from a traditionally Catholic perspective [one seems to have a number of options these days as to what Catholicism actually is, although the Synod is apparently making a wider, continuous effort at resolution – this writer will stay with the Apostles] should be propitious.
The reader if he hasn’t already should read Begone Satan, now popularized by Amazon, the 1928 account of exorcist Fr Theophilus Riesinger OFM Cap in Earling Iowa then Diocese of St Cloud now Diocese of Des Moines. The possessed young woman was the victim of her own father and his mistress who are alleged to have arranged her possession. Her father’s hate that she wouldn’t commit incest with her father.
At that time and years after the woman and family lived in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn NY, she, sent by the Diocese of Brooklyn to Iowa to preserve anonymity. Following the woman’s temporary release from Satan [she was periodically possessed by the Demon] Fr Riesinger requested that Msgr Francis Cassano residing in Brooklyn advise and monitor her condition. Msgr Cassano was my spiritual director until his death. All the parties involved in that terrifying event are deceased.
Msgr Cassano was situated to confirm the bizarre events that are described in the original account written by Fr Vogel. For those of us who haven’t had personal experience some of those events may help us realize the dangers of the occult, the penalty for sin. During the exorcism the young woman’s father apparently made himself known as one as the actual participants in her possession. Along with his mistress who concocted the means, a satanic ritual for her possession while they were all living. At his death her father sarcastically refused the attendant priest’s anointing. This he revealed during the exorcism. His mistress was also present, stating that her condemnation was due to her killing ‘little ones’, apparently abortions or worse.
When confronted with such evil at home so to speak rituals, Pachamamma worship, perhaps jokingly feigned when her effigy was regaled with dance and smiling cardinals singing into the sanctuary of St Peter’s, the serious Vatican Lawn worship by prostrating religious is taken more seriously. The ease since with which homosexuality has been introduced into the Church and discussed in terms of approbation – as if that practice has nothing to do with the transgender abomination, and the avocation of new horizons during a Synod that continues to suggest that what’s occurring mimics the increasingly darker manifestations of Halloween.
What separates the Earling Iowa exorcism by Fr Riesinger was its length, 23 days, whereas most complete within 1 to 3 days. And the presumed presence of Judas, and Satan. The young woman, noted for piety and innocence. The satanic seemed to make this case a battleground for victory against Christ’s Church. Perhaps it’s banal for some. Although it serves as a stimulant at an exceptional time when we’re being slowly numbed to the bizarre and unholy.
When would we previous to 2013 virtually take in stride that being rigorous regarding doctrine is sinful? That, alleged by a Roman pontiff. When would discussions about a Synodal Mass, an Amazonia Mass be discussed when the traditional Latin Mass is prohibited? It seems in context that the Devil’s efforts to challenge the Church, indeed to exert his influence within has met with success.