REGENSBURG, Germany (LifeSiteNews) – A German bishop has criticized the Synodal Way and theologians who oppose the Tradition of the Church.
In a recent interview with CNA Deutsch, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer said that such theologians care only about autonomous freedom, not truth, and reject binding dogma.
Referring to the theologians involved in the “Synodal Way” of the Catholic Church in Germany, Voderholzer said the following:
… [T]here is an attitude of resentment among not a few theologians themselves, who criticize the Church’s Tradition. I am thinking here of some texts of the “Synodal Way” in Germany. At some faculties, a “libertarianism” has established itself, especially in fundamental theology. It does not allow anything other than what can be constituted, seen, and justified by autonomous freedom. Any presupposition of a historical revelation, which is testified bindingly in dogmas, is rejected as pre-modern and unreasonable.
The prelate continued by explaining that theology needs to be focused not truth, not freedom, since only the truth can set us free.
Voderholzer made these remarks while defending the importance of apologetics in evangelizing secular society. The prelate stressed the importance of combining faith with reason, as he said: “A defiant fideism, that is, an insistence on faith without asking about its reasonableness and justifiability, will not hold up in the long run.”
READ: Catholic lay group in Germany expresses support for woman who tried concelebrating Mass
The heterodox statements of the Synodal Way
The leaders of the Synodal Way are very outspoken about wanting to change Church doctrine, especially its teaching on sexuality. Just in the past few weeks alone, they made multiple heterodox public statements.
The female Co-President of the Synodal Way, Irme Stetter-Karp, made an appalling pro-abortion statement in July when she called for “a nationwide provision of the medical intervention of abortion.”
Furthermore, the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), of which Irme Stetter-Karp is also the president, and which works closely together with the bishops on the Synodal Way, expressed support for liturgical abuse. They issued a statement of support for a woman who attempted to concelebrate a Mass in Switzerland in August 2022.
Meanwhile, the head of the Forum for Sexuality and Partnership for the heterodox Synodal Way, Bishop Helmut Dieser, gave an interview in September, in which he made numerous heterodox statements and advocated for changes to Church teaching. He said both that homosexuality is “willed by God” and that he does not believe anymore that gender is completely binary. The prelate also advocated for allowing condoms and birth control pills, saying that contraceptives “strengthen the protection of life.”
READ: German bishop: Homosexuality is ‘willed by God,’ contraception ‘strengthens the protection of life’
These are just a few recent examples of the heterodoxy displayed by the proponents of the Synodal Way.
Voderholzer is certainly not the first German bishop to publicly rebuke the Synodal Way. Cardinal Gerhard Müller has refuted the movement multiple times and described it as “anti-Catholic”. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller said that the Synodal Way leads to a catastrophe. Another cardinal, Rainer Maria Woelki, the Archbishop of Cologne, warned that the Synodal Way could lead Catholics out of the universal Church and “into some kind of German national church”.
Voderholzer has in the recent past spoken out against the German Synodal Way and the Pachamama idolatry in the Vatican. However, he also drew criticism from traditionally-minded Catholics for putting heavy restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass following the promulgation of Pope Francis’ Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes.
Voderholzer was ordained bishop in 2013 and has been responsible for the Regensburg diocese since then. In 2008 he became the director of the “Institute of Pope Benedict XVI,” which publishes the collected writings of the Pope Emeritus. From 2005 to 2013 he taught dogmatics and the history of dogma at the Faculty of Theology in Trier.