De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  The German Synodaler Weg has dominated headlines for years, promising reform, dialogue, and a new vision of synodality. But behind the rhetoric, the process has quietly spiraled into disarray. Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki has withdrawn from the sixth assembly, citing overreach and the risk of exceeding the process’s legitimate authority. Bishop Georg Bätzing continues to insist that Rome’s approval is forthcoming, yet the Vatican’s repeated cautions suggest otherwise. What does this mean for the German Church — and for the wider project of synodality? In our latest article, we trace the unfolding crisis, revealing the structural arrogance, the presumption of inevitability, and the missteps that have brought the Synodal Way to the brink. Germany is no longer just experimenting with reform. It is testing the limits of communion itself. This is not a local quarrel. The German Synodal Way represents a warning for the whole Church: once dialogue and process are detached from doctrina...

In an interview on EWTN, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone explains why he signed the letter to the German Church . His contacts in Germany tell him the faithful in Germany are pleading for help as too many German bishops' reject scripture and tradition on gender and sexual morality. This is another sad example of how impotent Pope Francis is in his role as the point of unity for the Church.

Almost a week ago I posted on the present situation in Germany where, following a correction from the CDF on the validity of blessing same sex relationships, there was a huge backlash with many bishops and priests openly flouting Church teaching and flying the "gay pride" flag. This is simply a symptom of the situation discussed in my post yesterday : as every parent knows well, if you don't teach and explain why something is wrong to your children, you can't be surprised when they go off in the wrong direction. Moreover, the Pope has been sending out strong pro-gay signals since he took office and has done nothing up to now to address the increasingly blatant flouting of this teaching throughout the Church (our own Cardinal has been at it for decades ). Pope Francis himself blessed a gay couple in July 2015 to later have Ciro Benedettini, the Vatican Spokesperson, asserting that in no way is the letter “meant to endorse behaviours and teachings unfit to the Gospel”....

Fr Mark Goring speaks to Alexander Tschugguel ( who pitched Pachamamma into the Tiber ) about what's going on in Germany & Austria right now. Alexander provides some valuable insight into the comments of Cardinal Schönborn, which have encouraged those seeking to resist the teaching of the Church - quite extraordinary when you think about it! It does demonstrate how we've got to this place. These subversive strains of the Church have been facilitated and allowed to proliferate by men like Schönborn who clearly compromised in this area, despite being credited with the authorship of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Indeed, his involvement with that volume shows how well these men hide in high office and are quite prepared to say things completely at odds with the agenda they seek to promote, depending on who is in charge. The very same game has long been played by our own Cardinal, Vincent Nichols .

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...

Vatican tells German Bishops they've exceeded their authority. Completely unsurprisingly, news broke this morning that the German Church appears to have broken with Rome: "German bishops revolt against Rome" — The diocese of Regensburg published on Saturday an alternative draft statute to the synodal way, one that reportedly corresponded to the #Pope 's wishes, but it was rejected by the German bishops' conference permanent council by 21 to 3 votes https://t.co/aC0U2hmSbx — Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) September 14, 2019 What's happened is this: On Sept. 4, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, wrote to Cardinal Marx as head of the German bishops’ conference, expressing concerns at the German plans to form a Synodal Assembly as part of the “binding process” announced by Marx earlier this year. The letter was accompanied by a four-page legal assessment of the German plans by the Pontifical Commission for Legislative Te...

Yesterday it emerged that the Vatican had rejected the German Bishops’ Proposal for intercommunion for Protestant spouses (a.k.a. heresy). Sources confirmed that, with the Holy Father’s approval, the Vatican’s head of doctrine had thrown out the bishops’ pastoral guide allowing Holy Communion for some Protestant spouses, but the Pope wished the rejection letter to remain secret. (It seems even when he does something right, he messes it up). Now German bishops deny that Vatican has rejected Protestant Communion plan. The German Bishops’ Conference has now issued a statement saying the reports are “false”. They added that the Pope has agreed to meet Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the conference’s president, in Rome. How interesting to note how Cadinal Marx gets instant access to the Pope to challenge decisions & try to force a change of outcome, but other Cardinals, Bishops and Priests can ask for meetings or write multiple letters and get no response on serious Doctrinal questions....

I read an interesting article this morning from Germany in which a retired German priest asks   "are German bishops leading the church into a "priestless desert"?" Indeed he is correct; they are. The number of Catholic priests in the country is rapidly plummeting as older priests die or leave ministry and they aren’t replaced by newly ordained ones. Since 1990, the number of priests in Germany has dropped from 20,000 to 14,000. On 18 March, Cardinal Reinhard Marx — Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising and President of the German Bishops’ Conference — spoke at a diocesan meeting and revealed a stunning fact. In the year of 2016, only one new seminarian entered the diocesan seminary of Munich. According to the Austrian Catholic website Kath.net . Although Fr. Fleiner has correctly identified the vocational crisis in Germany, his solutions seems old, tired, liberal and extremely short sighted: Priests should be allowed to marry. I have a dea...