“I think it is a great cheek of the Germans to try and teach the rest of the world anything about religion. They should be in perpetual sackcloth and ashes for all their enormities from Luther to Hitler.”
Evelyn Waugh, letter to Lady Diana Acton, March 15, 1963
When Kasper, the unfriendly Cardinal, suddenly becomes a voice of orthodoxy, you know how bad things are getting for the Catholic Church in Deutschland.
Fr. Goring points to my biggest problem with the German and, to be frank, the French and Italian stranglehold on the Vatican: if we are to judge a tree by its fruits, those trees are dying. I think bishops are responsible for the dioceses placed under thier authority. To be sure, inheriting a diocese in distress requires flexibility and patience. These won’t be turned around overnight but it is fair to ask “now that you’ve been the bishop for five, ten, twenty years, how have things improved?” Italy, France, and Germany are not uniquely failing but their failures are so complete and so dramatically contrasting from where they were just fifty years ago that I think it fair to ask “why should ANYONE turn to you for guidance?!” Show me a successful bishop and I am intent to know what they’ve done and what they think. Show me an 80 year old cardinal whose diocese would be bankrupt if not for State moneys and I ask “what could you possibly have to share that I should emulate?”
The German Bishops are pretending that capitulation to the zeitgeist is renewal of the Church. All they are doing is ensuring the death of Catholicism in Germany.
Father Goring mentioned the true reason why the German Bishops wish to deviate from orthodoxy.
“To appease people who want to go the way of the world.”
Agreed.
Jesus might as well be saying to the German Bishops as he once said to St. Peter; “Get behind me Satan.”
The poor idea of bending to the fashionable ideologies of the day only make the faith a fraction of what it truly is. Weak minded Bishops make poor leaders.
To say they are being pastorial to the fringe groups is not true if what they are preaching is contrary to Catholic teachings. Fashions change…however the Holy Catholic Church remains steadfast in her teachings.
The best advice to German Bishops is to spend a full year asking St. Boniface to take an axe to the culture of Relativism that has taken root in the hearts of their fellow Bishops.
Case in point;
https://www.wsj.com/articles/german-catholic-leaders-support-blessings-for-gay-couples-challenging-pope-francis-11633107983