The president of the Catholic Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, has intensified his criticism of the Catholic Church in Germany, saying it is going through its greatest crisis since the Reformation.
“There is a great danger that a misunderstood reform of Christianity will once again lead to a division of the Church that will spread to neighbouring countries,” Gadecki said in an interview with the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost.
Warned
Gadecki warned against adapting theology too much “to the needs of sociology”. The social sciences, he said, had “no access to the bare facts” and therefore always contained ideological elements.
This was evident in gender theory, he said. “In the biological sciences, we are certain that there are only two sexes in mammals; there is no third possibility.” Many supposed discoveries of the human sciences were based on errors. Racism and eugenics had also seen themselves as scientific.
In February, Gadecki wrote an open letter to the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Baetzing, expressing “deep concern” about the Synodal Path reform consultations in Germany. Baetzing was a “a very likeable person” with whom he had a “brotherly relationship”, Gadecki told Die Tagespost.
Sharp criticism
He said the letter, which contained sharp criticism of the Synodal Path, was written because of the common responsibility for the Universal Church. There had been no intention to make decisions on behalf of other bishops. He had only wanted to point out risks “which can bring about wrong pastoral decisions and doctrinal confusion”. The letter remained relevant, he added.
Conversely, as the general assembly of the German Bishops’ Conference in Wiesbaden is currently underway, Catholic women’s associations, reform groups and victims’ initiatives have called on the German bishops to take immediate action. “The time of stalling, of covering up, of the still slow investigation of sexualised violence and the power structures that are partly responsible for it must finally come to an end,” says the paper. In addition, the bishops are asked to “take responsibility for a Church at a crossroads”, especially “in view of the unprecedented, alarming numbers of people leaving the Church”.
Appeal
With reference to the Synodal Path project for reforms within the Catholic Church in Germany, the appeal calls to: “Implement the resolutions of the texts of the Synodal Path in Germany, which were passed with a large majority, in the individual dioceses as quickly as possible”. Many things are possible immediately without the consent of the Vatican. At the World Synod beginning on October 4 in Rome, the German bishops represented there should also “boldly” introduce the results of the German Synodal Path. Among other things, the project called for a reform of Catholic sexual morality, the ordination of women and an abolition of compulsory celibacy for secular priests.
The approximately 40 signatories and supporters include the reform movement “We are the Church”, the German Catholic Womens’ Federation and the German Association of Catholic Women, the Catholic rural youth movement, the LGBTQ initiative #OutInChurch, the Pax Christi catholic peace movement as well as the victims’ advisory board at the Bishops’ Conference and the victims’ association “Eckiger Tisch” (Non-Round-Table). The annual conference, which started on Monday will meet in Wiesbaden for four days.
Originally reported by KNA Germany.
