Posted on 02/02/2026 5:05:42 PM PST by ebb tide
Cardinal Gerhard Müller has said that the heretical German Synodal Way wants “totalitarian ideological dominance” in the German church.
In an interview with kath.net, Müller, who is the former bishop of Regensburg, addressed the recent Synodal Conference of the German bishops in Stuttgart, Germany.
“At the so-called Synodal Conference in Stuttgart, it was reported that there was no mention of the triune God, of Christ, His Son and sole mediator of grace and truth, of the proclamation of the Gospel to all nations, of the sacraments as means of grace, or of the salvific necessity of the Church as the sacrament of salvation for the world in Christ,” the former prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said.
“The only issues that were debated and argued about were structural questions, i.e., the distribution of power and financial resources and, above all, totalitarian ideological dominance, which excludes not only other theological opinions but also the sole validity of the Catholic faith in the Catholic Church.”
The German cardinal was also asked how a potential new president of the German Bishops’ Conference should act, given that Bishop Georg Bätzing announced he would serve a second term in the position.
“Above all, he should see himself for what he is, namely only a moderator of the assembly and not a party leader or sect founder who imposes or foists an ideological program or secularist agenda on his followers,” Müller stated.
“Anyone who wants to sell blatant contradictions to the Catholic faith, i.e., ecclesiological and anthropological heresies, to an astonished audience as ‘a different kind of Catholicism’ is using the attribute ‘Catholic’ to perpetrate a shameful deception of the faithful,” he continued.
READ: Pro-LGBT head of German bishops’ conference says he wants to ‘found the Church differently’
“No one can call themselves Catholic according to their own taste or ideological guidelines, in contrast to the definition of Catholicism with regard to the one and entire doctrine of the faith and the full sacramental constitution of the visible Church, which is led by the bishops as successors of the apostles in full communion with the Bishop of Rome as the personal successor of Peter.”The sixth synodal assembly in Stuttgart took place at the end of January, three years after the conclusion of the first five assemblies, and is meant as an opportunity to evaluate the “reform process.”
Two prominent critics of the German Synodal Way, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, refused to attend the meeting.
The German Synodal Way is famous for proposing heretical changes to immutable Catholic teaching. The heterodox “reform” project was launched by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), a lay organization, in December 2019.
By 2023, an overwhelming majority of the members of the Synodal Way, including more than two-thirds of the German bishops, voted in favor of heretical documents calling for “women deacons,” “blessings” of homosexual relationships, changing Church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts, and even “transgender” priests in a text replete with pro-transgender ideology.
In addition, the heretical German bishops plan to establish a permanent “Synodal Council” with the ZdK, which would strip the bishops of their sole authority and officially involve laity in decision-making. This change would be contrary to the sacramental constitutions of the Catholic Church and could cause an open schism, critics have warned.
READ: Schism fears arise as Catholic Church in Germany aims to put laity on ‘same level’ as bishops
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