German Church on the edge of the abyss

 To tell the truth, the place chosen was a bit disconcerting: while the Protestant Reformation had been set in the churches and fortresses of Thuringia, it was in the heart of the exhibition district of the financial capital of Germany that the Synodal Path, this kind of constituent assembly set up in 2019, organized its fifth and last plenary assembly. And this more particularly in the premises of "Kap Europa", a futuristic convention center built in the middle of other convention centers, wedged between the Grand Tower, the Skyline and Tower One... And beware of anyone who got the date wrong : arrived a day too early, they found themselves at the Congress of Thrombosis and Haemostasis; a day too late, they still could visit a Reptile Fair or the World Fair for Renewable Energies. Fortunately, the sight of the first Roman collars brought a reassuring je ne sais quoi to these places and friendly hostesses could then guide you to the huge conference room, intended to accommodate some 200 members of the Synodal Path, the press and a drum kit (to accompany, in rhythm, the celebrations of Mass). 

But it is not Luther who wants to. In any case not Monsignor Bätzing, President of the German Episcopal Conference and great organizer, with the President of the ZdK (central committee of German Catholics), of the Synodal Path. And the Kap Europa is not the Chapel of Wittenberg on the door of which the Lutheran monk had posted his provocative theses either. Indeed, over the course of the debates, the feeling very quickly prevailed that the divisions had been prepared in advance, in order to allow the majority of the Bishops (who have a power of veto) to adopt redacted texts  and thus avoid a break with the universal Church. Therefore, at the end of the three days, the Synodal Assembly decided not to abolish ecclesiastical celibacy but only to ask Rome to reflect on the possibility of ordaining married men. And a similar request was made with regard to the diaconal ordination of women, when many voices had called for their access to the priesthood. Finally, if the Synodal Assembly approved almost unanimously the possibility for women to deliver the homily (in violation of the Code of Canon Law), the blessing for all couples "who love each other" (in violation of the Catechism) and the modification of the baptismal registers for the "transgender" faithful (in violation of natural law), these innovations are not really new, because they are already implemented in a certain number of dioceses with the consent of the bishops concerned. Thus, when the final press conference ended, we had to face the facts: the expected schism had not happened. 

The fact remains that the Synodal Path, whose work will continue through a “Synodal Commission” made up of around a hundred members leaves the Church in a situation of extreme confusion, from which it is possible to identify certainty and several uncertainties. The certainty is that there will not be, at least in the short term, a formal schism of the German Church, and this for the reason that a schism only exists when it is canonically sanctioned by Rome. Now and while Pope Francis has tolerated the German bishops joining a project openly intended to challenge Catholic moral theology and ecclesiology, it is truly unthinkable that he should depose, a fortiori excommunicate some three-quarters of the members of the German Bishops' Conference. This is all the more so as several themes carried by the Synodal Path will be discussed at the next Universal Synod. Let us add that the delegates of the Synodal Path preferred to postpone the only text whose adoption would have constituted a real casus belli with Rome, namely a text providing for the creation, at the level of each diocese and each parish, of a "Synodal Council endowed with decision-making power, with the consequence of depriving bishops and parish priests of their powers respectively. In short, as a Bishop encountered in the corridors of the Synodal Path could confide, "in this matter, there is nothing to expect from Rome". As for the uncertainties, they obviously relate to the practical consequences of the decisions taken by the Synodal Path, in particular on the point of knowing whether the "Synodal Commission" will override the Roman prohibition and finally institute these famous Synodal Councils endowed with decision-making power. But these uncertainties also concern – and this aspect is perhaps the most interesting – the capacity of reaction of German Catholics wishing to remain faithful to the Magisterium. While they have long remained paralyzed by the ongoing process, in particular because of the unrebellious nature of the German spirit and an underdeveloped traditionalist network, several clues point to an evolution. Thus, more and more lay people, gathered in associations like Neuer Anfang or Maria 1.0, declare themselves willing to no longer pay the Kirchensteuer (Church tax), in order to drain the finances of a Church whose wealth is precisely judged as a cause of its dislocation. More fundamentally, a parallel Church could develop in the future, largely clandestine, made up both of bishops refusing the conclusions of the Synodal Way, of priests sanctioned for their fidelity to the Magisterium and of the faithful refusing Bishop Bätzing's invitation to become “differently Catholic”

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