(LifeSiteNews) — Despite serious threats to the future of the Catholic Church in Germany, threats which very much come from its own hierarchy, there remains a remnant of faithful, traditionally-minded Catholics that gives us all hope in these trying times.
LifeSiteNews journalist Andreas Wailzer joins me on today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, filmed in Regensburg, Germany, to update us on the state of the Church in Germany and share what faithful laity are doing to fight back against the corruption of the faith.
P.S. Be sure to watch out for a special appearance by faithful German bishop Rudolf Volderholzer, who has been one of the few prelates in his country to openly denounce the destructive, false teachings and rhetoric spilling out from the so-called “Synodal Way.”
Wailzer, a good friend of Alexander Tschugguel who reports on European politics and the Church for LifeSiteNews, characterizes the situation of the Church in Germany as “dire.”
“Well, it’s sort of a few bishops and faithful Catholics against everyone else,” he says, adding that the Synodal Way’s efforts to “change” settled Church teaching on homosexuality, marriage, and the ordination of women are tantamount to a “new Reformation.”
WATCH: Alexander Tschugguel warns of ‘severe’ threats to life in Catholic Austria
But lest we be consumed by doom and gloom, Wailzer notes that not all hope is lost. Although the situation is indeed “dire,” he has noticed “small awakenings” of faithful Catholic priests and laity, many of them belonging to younger generations.
“There are many lay initiatives of lay Catholics, and some of them are supported by priests who are coming up that are saying, ‘No, we want to be faithful to the Church,'” he explains. “And they are opposing … the things that the bishops are teaching that are not in line with Catholic teaching.”
Wailzer says that although the Latin Mass movement may not be as large as the ones in the United States or France, the desire for traditional liturgy and good preaching among younger people is still strong.
Echoing the late Pope Benedict XVI himself, Wailzer adds that a smaller but more faithful “core” of the Catholic Church may be the “way forward.”
“The future belongs to the young, more-traditionally minded Catholics, I think,” he says. “We’re going to see some shrinking, but [there are] even calculations that say by 2040 or 2050 there will be more ‘traditional’ priests who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass than those older priests in France, for instance. Which is a very sad reality, because [it is] not only because those traditional priests are growing, but because the other numbers are collapsing, which is very sad. I’m not happy about this at all …”
He continues: “But in a way, I think there’s no way forward without a shrinking and becoming a more faithful core of the Catholic Church, I think. Because under the surface the damage is, I’m afraid, already done. So of course we’re always praying for conversions, but I think that the future belongs to more traditionally-minded and faithful Catholic youth.”
For more from Andreas Wailzer, listen to or watch today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show. Be sure to check out his LifeSiteNews author page here as well.
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