Bishop believes Synodal Path breaks with Catholic Truth

Synodal Path aggravates Crisis of Faith

Bishop Oster speaks plainly: The decisions of the Synodal Path break with Church teaching. The sacramental constitution of the Church is also at stake. And the Synodal Way is not synodal either.

Bishop Stefan Oster sees the fundamental substance of the Catholic Church affected by the resolutions. They are not "gradual additions to existing doctrine", but something "essentially different".

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau comes out of hiding: in an article for the international Catholic magazine "Communio", the Bishop expresses his concern that the crisis of faith will not be remedied by the Synodal Path, but will be exacerbated by it. The decisions of the so-called reform process would mean a break with the teachings of the Church, not a further development, "certainly not cautious further development, as some Bishops also want to see it but actually rather a break". Also pilloried: the procedure and structure of the Synodal Path.

Essentially different

For Oster, the resolutions are not "gradual additions to existing doctrine", but "essentially different". In particular, he said, the theme of "sexuality" pervaded the texts of all the forums and reversed the relationship between the sexes. According to Oster, the Synodal Path runs the risk of "ultimately at least touching the sacramental constitution of the Church or, in the long run, even undermining it". 

Synodal  Path: Pope puts his foot down

The bishop went on to explain that at the heart of the matter were fundamental anthropological questions that were being changed. As a result, "a different ecclesiology unfolds from the anthropology and, naturally, connected with this, for example, a different doctrine of grace and salvation".

Wrongly understood repentance

The Synodal Path leaves nothing of the Biblical call to conversion, to integration, to participation in the new life, especially when the blessing is demanded and decided "generally for all possible 'couples who love each other' and who desire the blessing".

Much of "what is negotiated under the keyword 'love' in this broken world, and thus also in the much-invoked world of people's lives or also in the scientific analysis of sexuality", needs purification from the point of view of faith and must be thought of from "crucified love", "that is, from this nuptial act of giving that is the heart of the new covenant".

Believers distance themselves from the ZdK (Association of German Catholic Laity)

Regarding the structure of the Synodal Path, Oster reiterated the doubts he had already expressed on several occasions that its composition did not correspond to "the actual majority situation, for example, among those Catholics in Germany who participate in church life on a fairly regular basis". 

The "conservative minority within Catholicism in Germany, which is not easy to assess in terms of numbers", vociferously distances itself from the Central Committee and denies its claim to represent them as lay people in the Church.

Minority is intimidated

The Bishop also did not mince his words about the treatment of the minority in the synodal assembly: there were "intimidating external conditions" and there was a lack of a culture of listening. This contradicts what Pope Francis says about synodality. The Pope considers "protected spaces for the discernment of spirits a prerequisite of synodality".

According to Pope Francis, everyone must be able to say what is on their mind, "and if possible without looking for approval or majorities or the media, without political calculations and without tactics. Why? Because in the Pope's opinion, only then can the Holy Spirit work and guide", Oster clarifies and adds: Everyone is allowed to have a say and participate, but "at the same time, this Church is hierarchical and episcopal, which is why essential decisions are to be made by the bishops or the Bishop of Rome".

Breakup instead of rupture!

This "protected space" has "never existed in the Synodal Assembly and thus it has never been and is never an assembly that discusses exclusively along the lines of the matter at hand, beyond church-political agendas, alliances and goals". Representatives of the minority position would have felt excluded from the discussion in the synodal forums, because at some point the basic text drafts would have "made a basic decision for a certain direction".

Which direction is the right one is again reminded by Pope Francis, who wrote the preface to the current version. In it, he emphasises that the signs of the times are not to be confused with the spirit of the age and that the Church needs a spiritual renewal, "not a rupture, but a spiritual awakening". 

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