The Polish Bishops to the German Bishops: Be Converted! Return to the Church!

25 Febbraio 2022 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti

Marco Tosatti

Dear friends and foes of Stilum Curiae, it seems interesting to me to reprint and offer to your attention this article published by a site you know well, Korazym.org, by our friend and colleague Vik van Brantegem. Enjoy your reading.

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The Polish Bishops exhort the German bishops to be converted and return to the faith of the Catholic Church. Polonia semper fidelis

23 February 2022 Editor’s Blog, Highlights

by Vik van Brantegem

The Polish bishops, concerned that the Church of Germany will influence all of Europe, are criticizing the German “Synodal Way” in the strongest way. With a letter signed by their President, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, Metropolitan Archbishop of Poznań, the Polish Episcopate is asking the Bishops and Catholic faithful of its neighboring country not to yield to the pressure of the world or to models of the dominant culture, and exhorts them to return to the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church. Finally, there is a strong and structured opposition from a national Episcopate against the heretical and schismatic deviation of the Church in Germany. Polonia semper fidelis.

In the letter to the President of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), Bishop Georg Bätzing, Bishop of Limburg, published yesterday 22 February 2022, on the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, on the Polish Bishops’ Conference website [HERE], the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP) expresses the “profound concern” of the Church in Poland about the path that the German reform is taking and opposes the central arguments and decisions of the “German Synodal Way.”

“Faithful to the teaching of the Church, we must not yield to the pressures of the world or to models of the dominant culture. Let’s avoid repeating banal slogans and standard requests like the abolition of celibacy, the ordination of women as priests, communion for the divorced and remarried, or blessing same-sex couples,” writes the President of the Polish bishops.

In the Letter of Fraternal Solicitude of the President of the Episcopate on the German “Synodal Way” addressed to Esteemed Monsignor Georg, Archbishop Gądecki refers above all to the teachings of Saint John Paul II and the words of Pope John Paul II and the words of Pope Francis. Furthermore, it highlights the doctrine of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality.

One of the temptations of the Church today, writes the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, is “to constantly compare the teachings of Jesus with the latest progress in psychology and the social sciences.” The present positions on homosexuality are thus comparable to the scientific positions on racism and eugenics that were held at the beginning of the 20th century. The change of approach towards sexuality is attributable to “ideological delusions.” Despite “outrage, ostracism, and unpopularity,” the Catholic Church cannot “accept, to say nothing of blessing or promoting, a false image of humanity,” Archbishop Gądecki said.

In the lengthy letter, Archbishop Gądecki emphasizes the link between the Church in Poland and the Church in Germany. “The Catholic Church in Germany is important on the map of Europe, and I am aware that it will radiate its faith or its disbelief through the entire Continent,” said Archbishop Gądecki. The crisis of faith, he writes, is one of the reasons that the Church has difficulty in “proclaiming a clear theological and moral teaching.” Many Catholics in Germany, as in Poland, live “under the pressure of public opinion,” which gives them an inferiority complex. But we ought not to give in to this pressure. In the same way, the loss of many faithful and the reduction of the number of priests should not lead to “entrepreneurial thinking” in the Church, nor should the Church be guided the [erroneous] maxim “Where there is a lack of personnel, one needs to lower the criteria for recruitment.”

The authority of the Pope and Bishops is more necessary “when the Church is going through a difficult moment and when she is pressured to deviate from the teachings of Jesus,” Archbishop Gądecki continues. Referring to the defense made by Pope Paul VI in the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae, he emphasizes that it is not the Church’s task to lower moral standards, but rather “to find effective means to lead people to repent.” In this, he says, God’s mercy also resides.