VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – Poland’s most senior bishop shared with Pope Francis his concerns regarding the influence of the dissident “Synodal Path” process being undertaken by the German Catholic bishops in a Monday meeting.
A communiqué from the Press Office for the Polish Bishops’ Conference stated that during Monday’s 45-minute meeting, president of the conference Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki raised his concerns about the direction of the German program, supposedly leading the Pope to deny any connection to the multi-year project.
“The Holy Father was also briefed on the difficulties caused for the universal Church by the issues raised — in the words of the Pope — by the so-called German ‘synodal way.’ Francis distances himself from this initiative,” the official communiqué reads.
The Vatican did not respond to LifeSiteNews’ request for confirmation of the claim; however, director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni on Tuesday told journalists that the Pope’s position on the “synodal process” has not changed since his 2019 letter of support to the German church on the controversial initiative, German Catholic Church media outlet Katholisch.de reported.
The Vatican and the Pope refuse to confirm the claim of Archbishop Gadecki that the Pope distanced himself from the German Synodal Path.
Now they claim the Pope still holds what he wrote in his 2019 letter to the Germans – which was wordy, but talked about evangelization.
🧐🧐🙁 https://t.co/vnbmUOql3d— Dr. Maike Hickson (@HicksonMaike) March 30, 2022
Bruni did not reveal the contents of the meeting directly, citing confidentiality.
In his 2019 letter to the German Church, Francis characterized the “synodal way” as following in the footsteps of the Second Vatican Council, lauding the lengthy process as a true expression of synodality while emphasizing that evangelization, rather than structural changes, should be at its core.
During the process, which was officially launched late 2019, preparatory documents have already defended the use of contraception, the practice of masturbation, and an active homosexual lifestyle.
Gądecki has been a vocal opponent to the many unorthodox initiatives arising from the process, which brings laypeople and clergy into discussions of a theological and ecclesiological nature, often culminating in challenges to the Church’s perennial teaching on sexual ethics and the authority of women within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Concerned with the consistently heterodox trajectory of the process, Gądecki penned a 3,000-word letter last month to Bishop Georg Bätzing, the president of the German Bishops Conference (DBK), expressing “fraternal concern” that “the Gospel is not always the basis for reflection” in its agenda.
Earlier in February, participants in the German “synodal way” voted in favor of blessing the union of same-sex couples, including a “re-evaluation” of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, and permitting women as candidates for priestly “ordination.”
Gądecki appealed to Bätzing that “we should not yield to the pressures of the world or to the patterns of the dominant culture, since this can lead to moral and spiritual corruption” in his February letter.
“Let us avoid the repetition of worn-out slogans, and standard demands such as the abolition of celibacy, the priesthood of women, communion for the divorced, and the blessing of same-sex unions,” the archbishop said.
“Despite the outcry, ostracism and unpopularity, the Catholic Church—faithful to the truth of the Gospel and at the same time motivated by love for every human being—cannot remain silent and condone this false vision of man, much less bless or promote it.”
In response, Bätzing defended the “synodal way” as a method of addressing the clerical sex abuse crisis in Germany.
“Only if we address the systemic causes of the unspeakable suffering brought upon people by representatives of the Church, mostly priests, will it be possible at all to reopen the space in which a proclamation of the Good News meets with open ears,” the DBK chairman wrote.
Bätzing argued that “the Synodal Way is by no means simply dependent on current developments in psychology and the social sciences, but rather that Holy Scripture is the highest guideline.”
He subsequently invited Gądecki to engage in “a real theological exchange about the argumentation of these texts [synodal documents], since they try to pave ways to make evangelization possible.”
The Nordic Bishops’ Conference also wrote to Bätzing, raising concerns in a March 9 letter on what they called the “impoverishment of the content of our faith” regarding the fruits of the “synodal way.”
Describing the process as a “capitulation to the Zeitgeist,” the Nordic bishops said that “the orientation, method, and content of the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany fill us with worry” while strongly criticizing challenges to the role of women in the Church and human sexuality in the Catholic tradition.