Posted on 10/20/2020 11:59:01 AM PDT by ebb tide
Despite Pope Francis’ warnings, the leaders of the Church in Germany have refused to back down on their promotion of intercommunion or to change the course on their much-criticized ‘synodal path.’
VATICAN CITY — As reports emerged recently of Pope Francis’ “dramatic concern” about the state of the Catholic Church in Germany and news that he received Germany’s apostolic nuncio for private talks on Monday, the country’s bishops pressed ahead on their goal of shared Communion with Protestants despite strong objections from the Vatican.
The leaders of both churches said their intercommunion proposal “still needs to be clarified” even though the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said last month that differences in the Catholic and Protestant understanding of the Eucharist were “still so grave” that they ruled out attendance at each other’s services.
The increasing divergence between Rome and the German bishops, amplified by the ongoing Synodal Path — a two-year reform program of German bishops and laity that questions some of the Church’s established teaching on faith and morals — demonstrates the real dangers of the Church in Germany one day breaking with Rome.
In September, a leading German prelate raised the possibility of schism for the first time.
Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne warned that the “worst outcome would be if the Synodal Path leads to schism” and that the “worst thing” would be if a “German national church were to be created here.”
Such a prospect is something Pope Francis appears increasingly concerned about, despite his own efforts to grant more autonomy to bishops’ conferences on doctrinal matters which critics have warned has sowed the seeds of a kind of “doctrinal anarchy” in the Church.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Any so-called concern about schism the Francis is expressing is just crocodile tears. He opened this Pandora's box, has refused to close it, and even once boasted, “It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.”
Ping
I surmise that Pope Francis is sincere now in wanting to avoid schism in that it has no doubt been pointed out that many other groups would also defy Rome. The result would be a collapse in papal authority with devastating effects on Vatican finances.
These Germans have form rebelling from Rome. Just finishing the job Martin L. started...
The German money is a corrupting influence at this point. If they split off it might be the theological equivalent of amputating a limb with gangrene.
Probably his biggest concern is that the German lefties will split off and leave him stuck running the remnants of the church that aren't communist activists.
Pope Francis is now confronting the same predicament that his hero Peron ran into: in the long run, Leftism does not work and consumes any country or institution that embraces it.
Francis tastes his fruit and it is bitter.
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