After Bishop Stanislaw Gadecki’s press release published on the website of the Polish Episcopal Conference (CEP) revealing Pope Francis’ disapproval of the German Synodal Path, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni made a clarification whose content is rather enigmatic, as was to be expected.
After the revelations of the CEP press release, Vatican communication had to face up and pick up the pieces. It was hard to do otherwise. The Pope having confided to a bishop, who had just severely criticized the Synodal Way to the President of the German Episcopal Conference (DBK), that he was “taking a step back” from this same Way, there was an urgent need to calm the spirits .
It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of the bishops in question, not to mention that of the laity who had recently heard from Bishop Georg Bätzing that Rome had not always understood Germany well.
To save the pope, Matteo Bruni referred to the Letter to the people of God pilgrim in Germany of June 2019. Francis’ position on the synodal path has not changed since this Letter, he said. said, assuring the Catholic Press Agency by commenting on the press release of the CEP.
On the other hand, the Vatican spokesman did not confirm whether the pope had responded to Bishop Gadecki’s concerns. “The content is confidential,” Bruni said. But one thing is certain, for the CEP the remarks did not appear confidential.
For the record, on February 22, 2022, Bishop Gadecki made public the letter he had addressed to the president of the DBK. The Synodal Way is widely criticized there. The President of the Polish Episcopate expresses his concern and asks the Church in Germany to return to the Catholic faith.
Bishop Bätzing responded to Bishop Gadecki in a letter published March 24. It fully justifies the synodal movement launched in Germany.
Meanwhile, the German bishops continue to upset revealed morality by attacking the catechism. Thus, Cardinal Reinhard Marx declared in an interview published on March 31 in the newspaper Stern, that the catechism of the Catholic Church “is not engraved in stone” and that, therefore, “one can doubt this what he says”. In itself, this proposition is aberrant.
The catechism is nothing other than the teaching of the Church, dogmatic and moral, made available to the faithful. She is normally the object of the care of bishops and the papacy. But it is true that the post-conciliar period has sown confusion, as in the case of the Dutch catechism.
Cardinal Marx was answering a question on “how Catholic education should take into account homosexual, queer or trans people”. He replied that “the inclusive ethic we envision is not about being permissive, as some claim. It’s about something more: meeting at eye level, respecting the other.
“The value of love manifests itself in the relationship; by not making objects of each other, by not using or humiliating them, by being faithful and trustworthy to each other. The catechism is not carved in stone. One can also doubt what he says.
Cardinal Marx adds a very interesting precision: “At the synod on the family, we discussed these questions, but there was a reluctance to fix anything. At that time, I said, “There are people who have an intimate romantic relationship that is expressed sexually. Are we really going to say that it has no value? There are people who want sexuality to be limited to procreation, but what do you say to people who cannot have children?’ »
Which is a perfect sophistry, since there is a major difference between an accidental event – such as a couple formed by a man and a woman who cannot have children – and an essential situation: it is strictly impossible for a homosexual couple to have children on their own. It’s the difference between deprivation and denial. But the cardinal doesn’t care.
