Fierce attack on Synodality and all its wicked fruits
On 1 June 2023, katholisch.de reported that the 27 German bishops will have to make groundbreaking decisions at the next meeting in Berlin (meeting of the Permanent Council) on 19 and 20 June 2023. It is about the establishment and financing of the so-called "Synodal Committee", which - according to the "decision" of the Synodal Path - should lead to a permanent "Synodal Council" in 2026.
No competence to establish a Synodal Council
With the letter of Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and two other Cardinals of the Curia of 16 January 2023, the Vatican issued a directive that should actually have given direction to the German bishops at the last plenary meeting of the Synodal Path in March 2023: Neither the Synodal Path "nor a body appointed by it" (i.e. the so-called Synodal Committee) "nor a bishops' conference" has the competence to "establish the `Synodal Council' at the national, diocesan or parish level". Pope Francis has affirmed this letter in a particular way. The task of guiding the people of God in matters of faith and morals - according to the Second Vatican Council - belongs to the bishops. As early as July 2022, the Vatican Secretariat of State had clarified in a letter that bishops and the faithful must not be committed to "new forms of governance". The Vatican rejects both the Synodal Committee and the planned Synodal Council. This is because these two institutions contradict canon law as well as the Catholic understanding of the Episcopate and Synodality.
In contradiction to the Second Vatican Council
Preliminary work for a "Synodal Council" contradicts a clear instruction of the Vatican. These two institutions (Synodal Committee and Synodal Council) are based on an understanding of synodality that is contrary to the Second Vatican Council as well as to Pope Francis and Canon Law. As a purely democratic instrument, a "Synodal Council" would disregard the competences of the bishops and the Bishops' Conference. The general canon law and the sacramentality of the Church are not taken into account. The "Synodal Path" in Germany is - according to a Vatican declaration of summer 2022 - "not competent to commit the bishops and the faithful to the adoption of new forms of governance and new orientations of doctrine and morals". Notwithstanding this clear statement of the Holy See, the plenary assembly of the "Synodal Path" in autumn 2022 passed a resolution "which intervenes very strongly in the forms of church governance" (Markus Graulich, Gut beraten oder auf dem falschen Weg?, in: Welt & Kirche, 9 February 2023, p. 2).
The freedom of the bishops must be preserved
In the action text "Strengthening synodality sustainably: A Synodal Council for the Catholic Church in Germany", the Synodal Assembly in Frankfurt decided "to establish a Synodal Council by March 2026 at the latest". However, the statutes of the Synodal Path state: "Decisions of the Synodal Assembly do not of themselves have legal force. The authority of the Bishops' Conference and of the individual diocesan bishops to issue legal norms and to exercise their teaching office within the scope of their respective competence remains unaffected by the resolutions" (Article 11.5 of the Statutes of the Synodal Path). The problematic action text "Strengthening synodality sustainably" continues: "For the preparation of the Synodal Council, a Synodal Committee is appointed by the Synodal Assembly" (with 74 members). Where is the freedom of the Bishops' Conference and the individual bishops, guaranteed by the Statutes, to decide whether they want to participate in this committee and later in the Synodal Council at all?
Pope Francis' understanding of synodality
As with the Synodal Path as a whole, with regard to the establishment of the Synodal Committee and the Synodal Council, "there is a strange equalisation of the Bishops' Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics which is not covered by the constitution of the Church" (Graulich, p. 3). This equalisation "is already inconsistent in itself" (ibid.). According to the adopted action text, through the Synodal Committee and later through the Synodal Council, "the togetherness of bishops and faithful at the inter-diocesan level ... is to become a permanent practice" (ibid.). The concept of synodality on which this is based "corresponds neither to that of canon law nor to the ideas of Pope Francis" (ibid.). According to the action text, synodality consists of deliberating and deciding together. "But this is precisely not what constitutes synodality" (ibid.). Synodality actually requires "joint deliberation (the mutual listening that goes beyond hearing, of which Pope Francis always speaks), but leaves the decisions with the competent authority, i.e. the bishops, the bishops' conference or the Pope" (Graulich, p. 3). Synodality must not - according to Pope Francis - be confused with democracy. Synodal assemblies are something different from a parliament.
The Sacramental constitution of the Church must be respected
According to the action text "Strengthening synodality sustainably", the Synodal Committee has the task of deciding on those texts prepared for the Synodal Path by the Synodal Forums which could no longer be decided in the Synodal Assembly. In addition, the Synodal Committee has to prepare the establishment of the Synodal Council by 2026, which is at the same time intended as a consultative and decision-making body "on essential developments in the Church and society" and "on this basis make fundamental decisions of supra-diocesan significance on pastoral planning and future issues of the Church which are not decided at the diocesan level". Thus the task of the Synodal Council would go "even beyond the competence of the Bishops' Conference" (Graulich, p. 4). The general law of the Church, its sacramental constitution and the bishops' very own tasks would fall by the wayside here.
The bishops - already involved in the dynamics of synodality
The Second Vatican Council and current canon law "have strengthened the ordinary and immediate authority necessary for the exercise of the episcopal office" (Graulich, p. 4). This episcopal authority is already integrated into the dynamics of synodality in the current canon law order. An implementation of the action text on the Synodal Committee and the Synodal Council in the form adopted would restrict the bishops' authority "in a way that is neither compatible with the Catholic understanding of the episcopal office nor with canon law" (ibid.). An implementation of the aforementioned action text would represent a commitment to a new form of leadership that "not only undermines the sacramental structure of the Church, but above all does lasting damage to the office of bishop" (ibid.).
.jpeg)
Comments