Church teaching must change on sexual morality, says German bishop

The responses to the Vatican questionnaire on the family are a clear signal that certain changes concerning the church’s teaching on sexual morality are imperative, according to Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany.

Interviewed by the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, Ackermann, 50, said the responses showed “quite clearly” that for the majority of the faithful the church’s teaching on moral sexuality was “repressive” and “remote from life.” Declaring a second marriage after a divorce a perpetual mortal sin, and under no circumstances allowing remarried divorced people ever to receive the Sacraments, was not helpful, he said and added, “We bishops will have to make suggestions here. We must strengthen people’s sense of responsibility and then respect their decisions of conscience.”

It was also no longer tenable to declare that every kind of cohabitation before marriage was a grievous sin, and “the difference between natural and artificial birth control is somehow artificial. No one understands it I fear,” Ackermann said.

As far as homosexual relationships were concerned, the church would have to appeal to people’s sense of responsibility, he continued. “The Christian concept of the human being emanates from the polarity of the sexes but we cannot simply say homosexuality is unnatural,” he explained. While the church must “hold fast” to the uniqueness of marriage between a man and a woman, it could not just ignore registered same-sex unions where the couples had promised to be faithful to and responsible for one another.

Ackermann was sharply criticized by Bishops Heinz Josef Algermissen of Fulda and Konrad Zdarsa of Augsburg.

For an individual bishop to react to the responses of the questionnaire on his own was “counterproductive,” Algermissen, 71, said. “I don’t hold with the normative strength of facts. Truth is not something that can be adjusted,” he insisted but went on to admit, “We bishops obviously have a problem. We have clearly not succeeded in putting across Catholic sexual ethics and its positive concept of the human being.” Decisions on such matters were, however, the world church’s concern and not the concern of an individual bishop or bishops’ conference, Algermissen emphasized.

Zdarsa, 70, recalled that the Catholic world catechism was “the yardstick for valid Catholic teaching. As a diocesan bishop, I see no reason to go against this World Church consensus. I never thought, however, that I’d have to explain this publicly to a brother bishop one day,” he said.

But the Bishop of Magdeburg in former Eastern Germany, Gerhard Feige, 63, came out in defense of Ackermann and sharply criticized the bishop’s critics. He agreed with Ackermann’s views on the responses, Feige told KNA, the German Catholic news agency. “The time has finally come to face naked reality. We must struggle to find fair, responsible and life-serving solutions in the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is not helpful to keep on repeating prohibitions or reservations,” Feige underlined.

Fr. Eberhard Schockenhoff, 62, professor of moral theology at Freiburg University, a member of the German National Ethics Council and one Germany’s best-known moral theologians, said he and 19 other theologians had responded to the questionnaire together and their responses were congruent with the responses of the majority of the faithful in Germany. The responses showed that there was a huge discrepancy between the church’s teaching on sexual morality and what Catholics actually practiced. The responses moreover confirmed what he and many other priests had long since experienced in their daily practice as priests.

Schockenhoff recalled that Pope Francis himself had initiated the questionnaire as he wanted as broad a spectrum of world opinion as possible. “I now expect a clear signal from the Pope that the bishops will be able to discuss these concerns freely and openly at the Synod. Up to now, Episcopal Synods have always been centrally steered. Francis must make it clear that he wants the bishops to help him formulate the Church’s teaching on the family, marriage and sexuality in such a way that the faithful will find it helpful,” Schockenhoff said.

[Christa Pongratz-Lippitt is the Austrian correspondent for the London Catholic weekly The Tablet.]

Just in time for Lent!

This article perfectly illustrates why I despise all that has flowed from Vatican II - an evil council, chock full of heresy, organized by Freemasons and Modernist heretics - and particularly those of the German stock. The fruits of this poison council have steadily undermined Church teaching, putrefied the priesthood, and corrupted countless souls through the incessant drumming of revisionist progressive vomit upon the faithful. It is no wonder that Catholics leave the Church..

This rebellious “spirit” is what we Knights of Columbus are now compelled to uphold and defend ... Really? This is the “clergy” to whom our councils are commissioned to support ... Really? Are we supposed to also believe that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will not propagate this same scandalous garbage? You see, my dear fellows, I understand that these “leaders” are all cut from the same bolt of liberal cloth - each of them being “fellow travelers” for the progressive cause: the liberalization of the Church - the teachings of Christ be damned! We will have “Liberty! Equality! and Fraternity!” in the truest spirit of “the Revolution” - which is, of course, the “spirit” of Vatican II.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann, of Trier, Germany, provides one more example as to why the “councilliar church” is a total and unmittigated disaster for the preservation and propagation of the true Catholic Faith. That such perverse commentary could ever come from the mouth of any Catholic “prince” strongly suggests that the Modern Church is in fact the Whore of Babylon, prophesied in scripture, because this demonic spirit is now everywhere in the Church, and this clueless member of the episcopate provides us with one more proof of the assertion!

I have often wondered why the most damaging opinions flow from the mouths of German Bishops. I propose the answer is connected in some way with Martin Luther. Bishop Ackermann - and probably not a few of his fellow countrymen - arrogantly spews the “party line,” in which is included the liberal acceptance of cohabitation, remarriage after divorce, and homosexual “relationships.” This game plan comes straight out of the Communist Manifesto.

It is said that the floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops ... And this “wolf in sheep’s clothing” had best recant his heretical inclinations, else he likely will provide the Devil with yet one more skull to further enhance the infernal decor!

Read the full article, and then weep ... If ever there were reason to do penance, this disgusting verbiage provides such.

Who opened the door to this monster? Why, it was Pope Francis, of course - genius that he is, and a fully-committed proponent of liberation theology! This is same man who claimed that the Church focuses “too much on moral teachings about abortion and homosexuality” ... Well, kiddies, I guess the Pope’s little dissertation on “who am I to judge” was merely the prelude to this mischievous “questionnaire,” which he so thoughtfully released to the faithful - and which is so much more clever in its capacity to wreak total havoc within the Body of Christ ... You see, Francis believes - like all the good little shepherds of liberation theology - that the Church must become “democratized.” Why? Well, because the enlightened Marxists, Modernists and Homosexualists now running the Vatican demand it be so! And you will submit - because that is to render proper Catholic “obedience.”

You can lay this not-so-little terror right at the doorstep of “religious liberty” and “freedom of conscience” and all the other similar liberal drivel ... Christ is the Son of God, the Word of God, God Incarnate - He declared as much - and proved His claim to be the Truth - not one of many truths, but rather THE one single only TRUTH. That’s the choice laid before us; and not one iota of this renegade Bishop’s scatological poppycock comes from Christ’s teaching, nor from the Magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church. Rather, this opinion - and the “asinine “questionnaire” that fomented it - is 100 percent liberalism. It is demonstrative of the demonic duplicity of the modernist mind, and of the “fruits” one can expect to reap from promulgating heretical doctrines. God is not mocked.

Regrettably, I think not. Pope Francis is just as much part of the problem that is the post-conciliar Church as is this renegade Bishop.

Actually, this “renegade” is more the norm now, because the Church has been completely infiltrated with Marxists and homosexuals at every level. The Freemasons (Read the Alta Vendetta) and Communists (Dr. Bella Dodd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isxEwBxmS5c )were totally committed to achieving that outcome, and they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

Quite honestly, Pope Francis is out of his league. He is not very intelligent - and it shows. This is why the Vatican bureaucracy no longer release his full commentaries. They parse his remarks, because Francis is such a disaster - not well educated, and too stupid to know when to shut his yap. But then, of course, the Vatican’s “controllers” knew that much when they selected him to the papacy ... You can call the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio an act of “Catholic Affirmative Action” - and it has produced the predictably similar results that its practice always demonstrates in the secular realm.

“Son of Italian immigrants”

Notwithstanding that fact, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Argentina, and is culturally Argentinian - not Italian. So the issue is that he is an Argentine national, heavily influenced by the politics and social views of the region.

Bergoglio was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentina’s Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and was created a Cardinal in 2001.

He is the first pope from South America - and, in my opinion, he is also hopefully the last pope from that region. Why do I make that statement? I do so because the Jesuits are notorious supporters of liberation theology, a heresy born of Marxism, and its practice is rampant in South America due to the heavy influence of the “social justice” ideology that is typical to communism. The doctrine is one of the many “tools” by which Communists work corruption of both State and Church. Bergoglio is absolutely committed to the doctrine, even though Pope John Paul II publically condemned it as heresy - and did so while visiting South America!

Compared to Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger) who is a certified genius, and relatively “conservative” when compared to most of the liberals now occupying positions of power in the Church, Pope Francis is an intellectual lightweight - and that is being kind to the man.

The only reason he was put on the Chair of Saint Peter was simply because the College of Cardinals was influenced by what can only be described as “affirmative action” to place somebody from the southern hemisphere into the position. Unfortunately, they chose an absolute dolt, who can barely form an intelligent sentence - and who, more often than not, puts both feet into his mouth, scandalizing Catholics in the process. He is the Church’s worst nightmare - and a very good measure of how pissed God must truly be with his flock ... The worst punishment God inflicts is to give us bad leaders, bad priests ... To wit, God has finally given us what we deserve.

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