Bishop of Speyer goes ahead with same sex blessings

 

An utterly scandalous letter has been sent out from the Bishop of Speyer in Germany endorses blessing same sex couples. The letter includes a formalised rite which directly contradicts Pope Francis' responses to the dubia of the five cardinals which state:

"it is not appropriate for a Diocese, a Bishops' Conference, or any other ecclesial structure to constantly and officially enable procedures or rituals for all kinds of matters, because not everything that "is part of a practical discernment in particular circumstances can be elevated to the level of a rule" as this "would lead to an intolerable casuistry" (Amoris laetitia, 304). Canon law should not and cannot cover everything, nor should Episcopal Conferences with their varied documents and protocols claim to do so, as the life of the Church flows through many channels other than normative ones."

Exactly as was stated at the time, these responsa are ridiculous and unworkable, Cardinal Zen said it:

"is pastorally untenable. How can the Church, in such an important matter, leave the people without a clear rule and trust individual discernment? Isn’t this how a chaos of casuistry very dangerous for souls will break out?"

With the appointment of Víctor Manuel Fernández to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis has practically removed doctrine from the table: The DDF is a meaningless entity, the Church has lost its way and is in the hands of little men and their friends who have infested the Vatican. The world is just waking up to the fact that it will be a dark place without Christianity, just listen to this conversation between Jonathan Pageau and Dr Martin Shaw: Shaw states: 

"The Church needs to be Camelot again - if people don't think we are in a moment of tremendous peril they are not paying attention"

Given this from Speyer directly contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Canon Law and the recent responsa given by Pope Francis to the five dubia cardinals, can we expect an immediate Apostolic Visitation to Wiesemann's diocese as was launched when Bishop Strickland spoke out about the valid teaching of the faith?

In Speyer as of 31 December 2006, 44.5% of the population of the diocese was Catholic (you can bet that's a lot less today - Over 160,000 Catholics left the Catholic Church in 2016, while only 2,574 converted (most of them from Lutheranism). The total number of priests in Germany in 2016 was 13,856 – a fall of more than 200 from the previous year. Marriages, Confirmations and other sacraments are all in decline. The sacrament of Confession, which the DBK does not provide numbers for, has to all intents and purposes disappeared from many, if not most, parishes.)

Back in 2016 the dioceses of Aachen and of Speyer registered a rate of only 7.8 per cent of Catholics going to Mass on Sunday.

In 2022-23, there were only 48 new candidates for the priesthood in the seminaries of the 27 dioceses of Germany. This emerges from an interim report by the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), published on January 25, 2023.

In nine years – between 2007 and 2016 – there have been half as many seminarians. And between 2016 and 2022, the number has once again been halved.

The Church in Germany lost 359,338 members in 2021, through the “exit” program, from the Church. A figure to which deaths must be added. The total exceeds half-a-million.

Are the bishops leading the German Church really worth anyone listening to about the faith? They are not speaking to the culture, they live like Renaissance Princes while their people spiritually starve. 

Robert Nugent runs through the full letter here: