LifeSiteNews is on the cutting edge of life and family news reporting. Support our Summer Campaign by giving a gift of support today: give.lifesitenews.com
(LifeSiteNews) — The German Synodal Way has drawn criticism from conservative and traditional Catholics from the beginning, which is to be expected considering the radically anti-Catholic and anti-traditional proposals made by the initiative. What is surprising is the fact that more and more liberal bishops are heavily criticizing the Synodal way. Among them is Germany’s Cardinal Walter Kasper, a member of the infamous St. Gallen Mafia.
This is a man who has openly advocated for liturgical blessings for female Eucharistic ministers and lectors, a female diaconate, Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, and the abolition of mandatory celibacy for priests, and has supported governments’ decisions to ban Masses during COVID among other heterodox things.
But the German Synodal Way goes a step too far even for him. In a recent article, Cardinal Kasper said the attack on the episcopate would break the neck of the Church. He is referring to the plan of several German bishops to put themselves under the authority of the Synodal Council and thus give up their authority and responsibilities bestowed on them by the Church. Kasper said that every bishop promised at their consecration to take up these responsibilities and they will have to account for that promise one day before God.
READ: European pro-lifers celebrate end of Roe v. Wade: ‘Most evil document in human history’
Bishop Robert McElroy (right) is to be made a cardinal in August, despite his inaction on allegations against notorious ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
We all have a responsibility to speak up when serious wrongs are being brought to our attention, but McElroy didn't.
SIGN this petition to demand Pope Francis not reward a bishop who failed to report allegations against McCarrick
The Bishop of San Diego was told about serious sexual wrongdoing by McCarrick in 2016 when psychotherapist Richard Sipe, who had interviewed numerous victims of McCarrick, sent him a detailed letter, but McElroy sat on that information and is now being made a cardinal.
Appointing him to the College of Cardinals is not only an insult to those who suffered clerical sex-abuse, but also to those who are intent on ridding the Church of such evil.
This decision to make McElroy a cardinal must be reversed, and the only way to make that happen is with pressure from the laity.
SIGN and SHARE this petition to stop the appointment of Bishop McElroy to the College of Cardinals
Sipe told McElory that numerous seminarians and priests reported sexual advances and activity by McCarrick in a letter that also detailed extensive abuse by other clerics.
"I have interviewed twelve seminarians and priests who attest to propositions, harassment, or sex with McCarrick," the psychotherapist told McElroy in the 2016 letter, adding: "None so far has found the ability to speak openly at the risk of reputation and retaliation."
McElroy, who claims there was no corroborating evidence, could have brought the allegations to the pope, or even to the Papal Nuncio, but instead ended the correspondence with Sipe, himself a clerical sex-abuse victim.
It would take another year for the truth about McCarrick to slowly emerge in public.
SIGN the petition to stop Bishop McElroy being elevated to the College of Cardinals
Turning a blind eye to serious allegations of sexual wrongdoing is reprehensible in any context, but particularly when a bishop, a shepherd of souls, does so.
He also supports giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians, contrary to the Church's teaching, while he has concelebrated LGBT Masses as bishop and claimed Fr. James Martin's attempt to normalize the LGBT ideology is "fully consonant with Catholic teaching".
The sad truth is that McElroy is not fit to continue as a bishop, let alone become a cardinal.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to stop the rot that continues to tarnish Christ's Church.
We must do what we can to clean up this mess now.
More Information:
Bishop McElroy was warned about McCarrick - LifeSiteNews
Pope announces 21 new cardinals, including McElroy - LifeSiteNews
Photo: Theodore McCarrick and Bishop Robert McElroy (Lisa Bourne/LifeSiteNews & Diocese of San Diego/YouTube)
There are several things about the cardinal’s comments that are noteworthy. First of all, it is telling that the cardinal is most concerned with the bishops giving up their authority. That is certainly very concerning; however, the heretical statements on the Church’s teaching on sexuality by some German bishops seemingly do not bother Cardinal Kasper. Secondly, the German prelate acknowledges that there will be a particular judgment where everyone will have to answer for their actions before Almighty God after they die. This fact makes me even more worried about the state of the cardinal’s soul and his salvation, considering the things he has said and done, seemingly without repenting. Thirdly, the fact that someone like Kasper would criticize the Synodal Way so harshly shows how far off the rails many of the German bishops have gone.
READ: Cdl. Müller: Father James Martin’s LGBT propaganda is ‘heresy’
Kasper is not the only liberal prelate with harsh words for the German “Sonderweg” (special path). Pope Francis himself jokingly said in an interview regarding the German Synod that we do not need two evangelical churches in Germany. My own bishop, Cardinal Schönborn of the archdiocese of Vienna, not necessarily a beacon of orthodoxy in his own right, also distanced himself from the Synodal Way. Again, you would have to go really far to the left to earn the condemnation of these prelates.
Many fear that a large part of the Catholic Church in Germany is on the brink of schism. One may perhaps argue that there already is a de facto schism and that we are just waiting for an official declaration by the German bishops or the Pope to make the schism official. I hesitate to make that argument though since I do not want it to be true and sincerely hope and pray that the German bishops will repent and stay a part of the Universal Church.