Looming Schism in Roman Catholic Germany

[Cyrillic]

‘We are not a subsidiary of Rome’: Are Germany’s bishops ready for schism over Church teaching on marriage?

Remarks last month by one of Pope Francis’ closest advisors has observers wondering if the German bishops are signaling their readiness for a de facto schism over Church teaching on sexual morality. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German Catholic bishops’ conference and a member of Pope Francis’ so-called Council of Nine, told reporters that they would chart their own course on the question of allowing Communion for those in “irregular” sexual unions.

“We are not a subsidiary of Rome,” he said. “The Synod cannot prescribe in detail what we should do in Germany.” “Each Episcopal Conference is responsible for the pastoral care in their culture, and has to proclaim the Gospel as their very own office,” Marx continued. “We cannot wait until a synod states something, as we have here to undertake in this place marriage and family ministry.”

Marx was speaking at a press conference at the bishops’ Spring General Assembly, and said that the German Church expects “new approaches” to be found at the upcoming Synod in October to “help ensure that doors are opened” for those who are in what is usually termed “irregular unions.” [...]  Asked whether the Catholic Church would ever endorse homosexual unions, the cardinal [Marx] responded, “I have also previously mentioned the question of accompanying people, to see what people are doing in their lives and in their personal situation,” and added that the desire for “life-long fidelity is right and good.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/we-are-not-a-subsidiary-of-rome-are-germanys-bishops-ready-for-schism-over

More articles on the subject.

Time to get some popcorn.

 

[wgw]

If the Germans schism, Pope Francis would surely be forced to view it as a sign of rebellion against his authority and move against them.  Which he is loathe to do.  I am inclined to write this off as posturing. 

Frankly, I dont care if the Romans remarry divorcees; ehat worries me is this becoming a conduit for a volte-face on homosexuality.

 

[Wandile]

Cardinal Muller already responded to this :

"Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has told a French paper that doctrinal, or even disciplinary, decisions regarding marriage and family are not up for determination by national bishops’ conferences.

"It is an absolutely anti-Catholic idea that does not respect the Catholicity of the Church,” Cardinal Mueller said when asked, “Could certain doctrinal or disciplinary decisions on marriage and family be delegated to the episcopal conferences?”

“Episcopal conferences have authority on certain matters, but they are not a magisterium beside the Magisterium, without the Pope and without communion with all the bishops,” he continued.

Responding to the assertions of the president of the German bishops' conference, Cardinal Mueller, who was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Mainz, remarked that “an episcopal conference is not a particular council, much less an ecumenical council. The president of an episcopal conference is nothing more than a technical moderator, and he does not have any particular magisterial authority due to this title.”

“Hearing that an episcopal conference is not a 'branch of Rome' gives me the occasion to recall that dioceses are not the branches of the secretariat of a bishops' conference either, nor of the diocese whose bishop presides over the episcopal conference.”"

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/bishops-conferences-are-not-the-magisterium-vatican-doctrine-chief-reminds-cardinal-marx-70113/

 

[Wandile]

Cardinal Marx also said :

"Next to these important affirmations of the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage and its perpetuity, Cardinal Müller also made comments that should be applied to the statement of Cardinal Reinhard Marx concerning the upcoming Synod of Bishops and his specific assertion that the German Bishops will make their own decisions concerning the allowance of “remarried” divorcees to the reception of Holy Communion, and independent of the decisions of the Synod, saying that “we are no subsidiaries of Rome.”

Müller commented, without mentioning Marx' name:


"The episcopal conferences are an expression of the collegiality of the bishops at the level of a country, a culture or a language, but this is a practical organization. The Catholic Church exists as a universal Church, in the communion of all the Bishops united under the Pope. It also exists in the local churches. But the local church is not the Church of France or Germany: it is the Church of Paris, of Toulouse, etc. They are the dioceses. The idea of a national Church would be totally heretical. Autonomy in faith is impossible. Jesus Christ is the Savior of all; He unifies all human beings" "
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/popes-doctrine-chief-under-attack-as-he-takes-strong-stand-for-marriage-and

 

[Wandile]

Double post

 

[JoeS2]

Double post

Seems the German church has always been somewhat of a rebellious one.