Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at the Vatican in April 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.The German Synodal Way is in danger of “breaking its own neck,” according to a theologian close to Pope Francis, if it ignores the concerns voiced by an increasing number of bishops worldwide.
According to CNA Deutsch, a German-language news partner of CNA, Cardinal Walter Kasper also claimed that the organizers were employing a “lazy technique” that effectively constituted a “coup d’etat” and might lead to a mass resignation.
The 89-year-old German cardinal served as the Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999. He is currently the President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
On June 19, he addressed an online study day hosted by the “New Beginning” (Neuer Anfang) initiative, a reform movement that is critical of the Synodal Way.
The Church, Kasper cautioned, was not a material that could be “re-molded and sculpted to suit the situation.”
The Nordic bishops underlined their anxiety at the German process in an open letter in March, and the president of the Polish Catholic bishops’ conference expressed grave worries in a strongly written letter in February.
In his lecture, Kasper forewarned that these worries “will be repeated and reaffirmed and, if we do not heed them, will break the neck of the Synodal Way.”
He claimed that the fact that the Synodal Way did not establish itself on the pope’s letter to the Church in Germany with its “proposal of being directed by the Gospel and the basic vocation of evangelization” was “the original sin of the Synodal Way.”
As opposed to this, the German process—which Cardinal Reinhard Marx started—”took its own road with somewhat different criteria,” according to Kasper.
In a 19-page letter to German Catholics in June 2019, Pope Francis urged them to prioritize evangelization in the face of a “growing loss and weakening of faith.”
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, has repeatedly dismissed all worries and expressed displeasure in Pope Francis in May 2022.
Pope Francis reaffirmed in a recent interview that he informed the head of the German Catholic bishops that the nation already has “a very good Evangelical Church” and “we don’t need two.”
The issue emerges, according to the pope, “when the synodal manner is derived from the intellectual, theological elites and is greatly impacted by external influences.”
Bätzing is a signatory to the “Frankfurt Declaration” and the president of the Synodal Way. According to CNA Deutsch, this petition requests that German bishops publicly affirm their dedication to enforcing decisions made during the process.
Kasper criticized this call for “commitment” on Sunday, calling it “a trick and, worse, a lazy one.”
Imagine a civil official, the cardinal added, “who accepts his appointment and then refuses to carry out his lawful duties.”
He would undoubtedly be subject to civil service law actions. Such a self-commitment would ultimately be equivalent to the bishops resigning all at once.
According to the constitution, the entire event may only be referred to as a coup, or an attempted coup d’état.
Synods cannot be made institutionally permanent, Kasper insisted, thus the Church can never be administered by them.
Instead, he asserted that a synod amounted to “an unusual suspension” of routine activities.
The Synodal Way, also known as Synodal Path, identifies itself as a procedure that brings Germany’s bishops and chosen laypeople together to discuss and adopt resolutions regarding how power is exercised in the Church, sexual morality, the priesthood, and women’s roles.
Draft resolutions supporting same-sex marriage blessings, the ordination of women as priests, and revisions to Church teaching on gay behavior have received support from participants.
Cardinal Kasper has voiced his worry about the procedure numerous times.
In his sermon on Sunday, Kasper contrasted the German synonyms for renewal and innovation, Neuerung and Erneuerung, stating that one should help the Church be renewed in the Holy Spirit rather than trying to “reinvent” it.
It does not merely entail creating a brand-new Church and trying something novel.
The key to real change, according to Kasper, is to “let the Spirit of God make us fresh and give us a new heart.”
Similar to this, he said, “reform” refers to getting the church back “in shape,” specifically, the shape that Jesus Christ desired and granted to the Church.
No one else can build on top of Jesus Christ, who also serves as the cornerstone that binds everything together (1 Corinthians 3:10f) (Eph 2:20). He is the benchmark, the beginning and the end of every rejuvenation.