Ritually German bishops warn against
exaggerated expectations of the Synod.
Finally
Catholics may talk about sex. And then they do not know what to say to each
other. In a month, the Synod begins in Rome, but it's just strangely silent.
The conservative camp is sinking in prayer, so that the teaching should remain
unaffected. This group has earned some rest as it has been worn out in a long
campaign. Especially their top men Raymond Burke and Vitus Huonder have pounded
away for the Catholic marriage and against feminization, effeminacy, and other weaknesses
in the connective tissue of society. The liberal camp also was not idle- it has
adopted position papers. They all praise the diversity of ways of life, but
with vocabulary less than diverse. Roughly speaking, each should feel
"valued" and "accepted" in their break-ups in life.
Everyone, except perhaps Burke and Huonder.
Francis wanted a debate. What he got so
far, was a self-assurance from the combatants. The Conservatives are even
stiffer than usual, the Liberals explain the jitters to the reform movement.
The Osnabrück Bishop Franz-Josef Hermann Bode, one of the German envoys to
Rome, said in an interview with Herder Correspondence: "My great concern
is that the synod remains in the camps and there remains in the end only
winners and losers." There must be no winners and losers, for which also other
brethren in ecclesiastical office pray. Why so scrupulous? Church history is
full of victors and vanquished. The infallibility of the Pope was decided at
the First Vatican Council of 1870 also because the German bishops were
outvoted. Under protest they departed and had to henceforth accept infallibility.
Also at the Second Vatican Council, there was for all important documents
majorities and minorities. Whosoever was defeated, had to come to terms. Or construct
their own church. It is as brutal as this when the Holy Spirit is to be
captured by voting results.
Why should it now go easy? Ritually German
bishops warn against exaggerated expectations of the Synod. Courage sounds
different. In fact, the expectations of the base are rather too low than too
high: Most Catholics are beyond the sex
obsession. They look on the Synod as more sex-symbolic: Rome to make a few swings
of the hips, loosen the corset easily, that's enough. No details, please.
Francis is welcomed by the grass roots, because he does not get on the nerves
of his subjects - like his predecessor –
with narratives relating to the crotch.
Because the subject of sexual morality
neither at top nor bottom is erotically arousing, the Catholic Church should put
the matter behind them as quickly as possible. This includes the clear message:
If bishops vote in a Vatican auditorium, it is a mater of defining power.
Anyone who really wants to has to organize majorities, coolly and dispassionately.
The Conservatives have it easy. They reach a blocking minority. You do not need to win to
triumph. They hope for the weakness of the other.
The liberal camp shuns the power grab. It
hides behind the Gospel of Mercy, which Cardinal Walter Kasper has proclaimed
That sounds cute, all is well and woe to no-one. But the parable of the Good
Father can also be read in a polarizing manner: The most interesting figure is
the Prodigal son. He must accept that his brother after whoring around in a
foreign country returns home burnt out and receives from his father not a
punishment but gets a feast. As the Prodigal asks why he never received a
reward, he gets to hear: The proximity to the father was reward enough. Because
he must have felt like a loser, but he had to deal with it.
With the keyword mercy, the liberals have
the empathic view of the sinner son. They take the Catholics in
"irregular" situations, the remarried, homosexuals, the unmarried
unchaste. But mercy belongs also to
truth: it is a disgrace for the those faithful to the Magisterium. Before
Francis moved into Rome, the Prodigals got one Pope-party after the other, now
they should clean the dishes and be grateful. So what? For years, the liberals
had let themselves to be brushed up by the Magisterium liberals. Why is this so
hard for them, to draft others for dishwashing service? Do they not trust their
truth?
Papa Francisco so far knocks neither his conservative
nor his conservative-liberal sons on his shoulder. A flip side, however, is
apparent: remarried were not excommunicated, he said recently. There were
marriages, which it is not possible to save. Sticking to the rules does not
make of Christianity. If nine out of ten Catholics have no problem with
ignoring doctrine, then doctrine has a problem. Francis saw it differently, he
might have spared himself the effort of the unloved linking of marriage and sexual
morality. If the liberal camp from a
lot of trembling knees at the end of October does not gain a two-thirds
majority, Francis must do something himself. You could almost forget lots of democracy
and debate simulation. Yes: The man is
Pope.
