De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

How do you know that the Pope's spin doctors are mendacious and self-interested? Well, a really good clue is if something really big is going on which contradicts their consistent narrative and they completely ignore it. The German bishops are doing this right now, ignoring the pope, ignoring the Vatican, ignoring the curia and setting up their own "binding synodal process" which will lock in fundamental changes Catholic teaching, including: A reduction of clerical power Changes  regarding clerical celibacy Church teaching on sexual morality Issues they are justifying by linking them to the sex abuse crisis. The Vatican has written to the Germans stating that this new synodal assembly is not ecclesiologically valid. However German bishops appear determined to push through a new morality, despite it constituting a de facto break with Catholic authority and doctrine. We can see how this has progressed: the intercommunion debate forwarded by ze Germanz was...

Daddy Pig                                                                                Cardinal Marx "The most terrifying words in 21st-century Catholicism are “I’m from the German Church and I’m here to enter into a synodal dialogue about new doctrinal insights.”" ~ Dan Hitchens It's true for GK Chesterton as always, when he stated: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” What better example could there be than the opulent, bloated German Church? These men have been pushing a particular agenda their whole lives. It consistently leaves people cold, disinterested & apathetic. It has destroyed vocations and wrecked Mass attendance . They so lack insight, intelligence & self-awareness that the only reaso...

The National Catholic Register reports that on Sept 11th, Archbishop Georg Gänswein (Prefect of the Papal Household and personal secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), spoke at the presentation in Rome of an Italian translation of the book The Benedict Option, by U.S. journalist Rod Dreher. Archbishop Gänswein said that he regretted how only 9.8 percent of German Catholics go to Mass on Sunday, and stressed how the “so-called ‘Sunday Obligation’” is ancient and actually “the most precious distinguishing sign of Christians.” It struck me that, given the collapse of the Church in Germany, it is rather surprising how influential German prelates are with the present Pontificate. What amazes me is that pretty much everyone recognises that this is about money. In Germany, about 70% of church revenues come from church tax (Kirchensteuer), also called worship or cult tax (Kultussteuer) when referring to non-Christian religious bodies. This is about €9.2 billion (in 2010). The ch...

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes Lifesite News carries the story that Cardinal Cordes has rebuked the head of German bishops: We can’t ignore Christ’s teaching on marriage (Lifesite's report in red with my emphasis [and comments]): German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, who headed the Papal Council Cor Unum until 2010 and was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, has publicly opposed the words and direction of the German Bishops' Conference . In a Letter to the Editor to the German newspaper Die Tagespost on March 7, 2015, Cardinal Cordes contradicts the words of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops' Conference, as well as Bishop Franz-Joseph Bode (Osnabrück). After the Bishops of Germany had had their conference in Hildesheim, Northern Germany, Cardinal Marx said words that provoked the resistance of Cardinal Cordes. The latter cardinal has responded out of concern that Marx caused confusion among the faithful. First of all, Cardinal Cordes rebuked Cardinal...