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German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller arrives at St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass on the World Peace Day on January 1, 2016 in Vatican City, Vatican.Franco Origlia/Getty Images

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ROME (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has once again condemned the German bishops’ “Synodal Way” as an “anti-Catholic” endeavor that was “doomed from the start.” 

Reacting to the Vatican’s July 21 statement in which the Holy See clarified to the German bishops that the “Synodal Way” could not operate on its own apart from Rome without violating ecclesial communion, Müller, who formerly served as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told EWTN Vatican in an interview that the “Synodal Way” is effectively “over,” and that it was “doomed from the start” regardless of the fact that “its initiators haven’t realized it yet.” 

READ: Cdl. Müller: ‘Nobody can change’ Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is ‘grave sin’

Continuing to use direct language, Müller referred to the German’s “Synodal Way” as “anti-Catholic” and on the “wrong track,” while calling the program’s leaders’ attempted rebuttal to Rome, in which they accused the Vatican of refusing to engage in a “conversation” with them, “intolerable.” 

“[The Holy See’s condemnation of the ‘Synodal Way’] really has nothing to do with synodality and collegiality, nor with respect for the episcopal office,” Müller said, clarifying that the move was merely about a “simple principle of Catholic ecclesiology.” 

Müller then said that the “Synodal Way in Germany” was never about “synodality” or a “way,” but was, from the start, constructed in a way one would expect from a “political organization” that considers itself to be the “vanguard of the universal Church.”

“Revelation is entrusted to the Church for faithful preservation, and not, as the Synodal Way meant at the beginning, that this virtually randomly assembled body somehow has the right and authority to override the Church’s sacramental constitution and reinterpret Revelation according to its meaning,” charged Müller, going on to describe this attempted “vanguard” as a “birth defect of this body.” 

“What is being pursued here is nothing other than division,” added Müller. “It is a so-called reform with a crowbar.” 

In the concluding part of the interview, Müller responded to a statement made by Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) – which along with the German Bishops’ Conference makes up the Synodal Presidium – in which she said access to “abortion” needs to be “ensured” across “the board.” 

“Whoever wants to guarantee these crimes, area-wide for the entire population, cannot pose as a reformer of the Church,” stated Müller. “After all, the Church is not the object of our reform. The Church is founded by Christ, cannot be reformed, is unsurpassable; only we can go the way and must go the way of repentance and renewal.” 

“We must reform and renew ourselves in Jesus Christ and thus give the answer to the challenges of today.” 

READ: Cdl. Müller: Father James Martin’s LGBT propaganda is ‘heresy’

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the “Synodal Way” is a highly controversial movement within the German Catholic Church which was launched by the bishops in 2019. The movement is bringing together Germany’s bishops and laypeople with a view to change the Church’s teachings on priestly celibacy, the role of women, sexual morality, and abortion. 

While many prelates have spoken out against the initiative, Müller in particular has been one of the strongest critics of the heretical movement, consistently reminding the German bishops and the faithful that “Nobody can change” Catholic doctrine regarding fundamental issues like homosexuality.  

“This is absolutely clear, and nobody can change the doctrine of our Catholic faith that homosexual behavior is a grave sin,” Müller told LifeSiteNews editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen in an interview last month.  

“Nobody has authority to change or to falsify the revealed Catholic faith according to the Word of God and the doctrine of the Church.”

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