DENVER (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver has written again to the head of the German bishops’ conference, condemning once more the controversial “Synodal Path” and accusing the German bishops of “betraying the Gospel” by defending the movement, which he said “repudiates” the deposit of the faith.
“The Synodal Path … challenges and in some cases repudiates the deposit of the faith,” Aquila wrote in his May 2 letter to Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, head of the German bishops’ conference.
Aquila’s letter came in reaction to Bätzing’s defense of the so-called Synodal Path, after more than 70 bishops from around the world signed an April 11 letter condemning the movement and accusing its participants of leading the Church into schism.
The Synodal Path is a controversial movement in Germany which seeks to usher in radical changes to the Church’s teaching, particularly on sexual morality, and which brands itself as the answer to the sexual abuse crisis.
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Recently, an overwhelming majority of participants voted in early February to approve Synodal draft documents calling for the “blessing” of same-sex couples, the ordination of women, and changes to Church teaching against homosexuality.
In his letter to Bätzing, Aquila says that the documents of the Synodal Path “cannot be read in any other way than as raising the most serious questions about the nature and binding authority of divine revelation, the nature and efficacy of the sacraments, and the truth of Catholic teaching on human love and sexuality.”
The archbishop of Denver also accused the German bishops of using the sexual abuse crisis in Germany as an excuse to bring about their agenda of doctrinal change.
Aquila noted that the “gist” of Bätzing’s argument in favor of the movement was that “the German Church must adopt a new approach to the faith due to the past failure of German bishops to protect children.”
“This is a very strange argument,” commented Aquila.
“Why must Catholic teaching on fundamental issues of doctrine and the moral life change because German bishops have failed to teach effectively and govern honestly?” he wrote.
“The Church’s faith did not lead to the clergy abuse scandal!” continued the prelate.
“A failure to stay attached to the vine, Jesus Christ and the choice to adhere to the world rather than the Gospel led to the crisis.”
The archbishop also pointed out that the Church in the U.S. has also had to find solutions to sexual abuse, but that none of the “extensive reform” undertaken there in response to the crisis “has involved questioning either the basic truths of the faith or the Church’s settled convictions about the proper expression of human love.”
The archbishop insisted that “there can be no concordat of mutual acceptance between the truth of divine revelation and Catholic doctrine, on the one hand, and the distorted anthropology of today’s advanced secular culture, which promotes an increasingly dysfunctional sexuality, on the other.”
“There is nothing salvific in blessing destructive thought and behavior,” stressed the archbishop.
“To surrender to the Zeitgeist is not a matter of reading the signs of the times; it is a betrayal of the Gospel.”
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Aquila concluded his letter by urging the bishop of Limburg to “consider seriously what the many bishops who have voiced their concerns about the Synodal Path and its problematic results to date have put before you.”
The archbishop was not only referring to the now more than 100 signatories of the April 11 letter, but also to concerns already raised by the Polish and Nordic bishops’ conferences before that.
Aquila’s letter is only the latest development in a back-and-forth debate with the German bishops over the Synodal Path, which has been going on for over a year now.
In May of last year, Aquila published a 15-page-long commentary against the proposed changes contained in the first text of the Synodal Path.
In response to the archbishop’s concerns, Bätzing wrote an April 14 letter which Aquila said he “found in German on the internet.”