CNA Newsroom, Mar 23, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).
The Vatican and the German bishops have announced they will work together to resolve the controversial German Synodal Way.
In a joint press release, the two parties on March 22 said further meetings would “develop concrete forms of synodality in the Church in Germany, which are in accordance with the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, the requirements of canon law, and the results of the world Synod, and which will subsequently be submitted to the Holy See for approval.”
According to the press release by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) and the Holy See on Friday evening, the meeting lasted “the entire day.” It was characterized by “a positive and constructive atmosphere.”
The press release continued: “It was possible to discuss some of the open theological questions raised in the documents of the Synodal Way of the Catholic Church in Germany,” saying “differences and points of agreement were identified.”
“A regular exchange” between German bishops and the Vatican “on the further work of the Synodal Way and the Synodal Committee” was agreed.
The next meeting is to take place before the summer.
Friday’s statement did not mention the German Synodal Council by name, and it is unclear whether this controversial project has now been scuppered, suspended, or could ultimately be submitted to the Holy See for approval.
On the Vatican’s side, the participants were the prefects of the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith (Victor Fernández), for Promoting Christian Unity (Kurt Koch), for Bishops (Robert Prevost), for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (Arthur Roche), and for Legislative Texts (Filippo Iannone).
Bishops Georg Bätzing, Stephan Ackermann, Michael Gerber, Peter Kohlgraf, Bertram Meier, and Franz-Josef Overbeck represented the German Bishops’ Conference.
The Synodal Way — “Synodaler Weg,” sometimes called Synodal Path — is not a synod. The event brought together Germany’s bishops and selected laypeople to debate and pass resolutions based on a 2018 sexual abuse study.
Participants have voted in favor of draft documents calling for the priestly ordination of women, same-sex blessings, and changes to Church teaching on homosexual acts.
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Reminds me of Tolkien’s road that goes ever on. If there wasn’t a stop sign en route we can expect mutual accommodations. Not good for the universal Church although fitting for the envisioned polyhedral no longer Catholic Christianity. Whatever transpires we know in the end Christus Vincit.
WHAT IF Bishop Batzing had been summoned to Rome two years ago when it was advised, or what if Cardinal Marx’s resignation had been accepted; rather than the “mess” now after the snowball from hell has become an avalanche? What if pigs had wings?
THIS from the threatening and also ignored wisdom of 17th-century Balthasar Gracian:
“Think ahead: today for tomorrow, and even for many days beyond; the wisest of precautions, to take time for this: for to the ready there are no accidents, and to the forewarned no dangers: do not wait to think until you are overcome, but be more forehanded: anticipate with matured reflection the worst outrages of destiny [….] [S]ome act first and think afterwards, which means that they concern themselves more with the excuses for, than the consequences of their acts: other think neither before, nor after, when all life should be continuous thinking, in order to hit upon the right way: it is reflection and foresight that assure freedom to life” (Gratian’s Manual, ca 1630-1653, n. 151).
The thoughtful Gracian was a Jesuit(!), AND always in danger because under the SURVEILLANCE of Jesuits–of him the Provost General wrote to the Provincial in Aragon: “Watch him, keep him in sight, at unexpected moments look into his cell and his papers and allow him nothing under lock and key therein.”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same” (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849).
When formal heresy and pastoral heresy meet in March for a bit of private Synodaling, comparing notes over a good Roman pasta, they can conceive a rich, new religion – perhaps soon, on a hot summer day. Why are such meetings always fruitless? Sterile? Money and aesthetics – what more could be needed? It would be a shame if the two parties didn’t come together. Bless this union!