Vatican clamps down on German Synodal Nightmare

Pope Francis dropping the hammer on the #SynodalWay, with an ultra clear statement its present path is to schism, unless it abandons its errors. https://t.co/8WJaxqiORL pic.twitter.com/s6dj0T7Dn0

— Scott Smith (@hf_222222) July 21, 2022

Not really a hammer, more of a vague telling off, published today on the Vatican website here.

My translation:

In order to protect the freedom of the people of God and the exercise of the episcopal ministry, it seems necessary to specify that the "Synodal Path" in Germany has no power to oblige the Bishops and the faithful to adopt new ways of governing and new approaches to doctrine and moral. It would not be lawful to initiate new official structures or doctrines in dioceses, before an agreement agreed at the level of the universal Church, which would represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church. As the Holy Father recalled in the letter to the people of God who are on their way in Germany: "The universal Church lives in and of the particular Churches, just as the particular Churches live and flourish in and from the universal Church, and if they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence the need to keep communion with the whole body of the Church always alive and effective ". Therefore it is hoped that the proposals of the Way of the particular Churches in Germany will converge on the synodal path that the universal Church is taking, for a mutual enrichment and a testimony of that unity with which the body of the Church manifests its fidelity to Christ the Lord.