Dorothea Schmidt
July 7, 2023
kath.net
Why are we actually still surprised by the many people who are leaving the Church today? For the Catholic Church itself has been hard at work on this outcome for years. First, it failed to do a good faith-formation. Theology little by little moved away from core teaching and deprived believers of a relationship with Christ. Now it is about to dissolve in a cocktail of ideological sentimentalism. By rejecting morality and ethics, it indulges in paganism and offers itself willingly to the State.
Instead of being there for the people, the Church even closed its doors in the Corona period and denied people the Eucharist. It was simply not there for the sick (they died lonely and alone) and neither baptized nor married. In short, it abandoned the people. Pleasing the state and the world in general and being praised was and still is higher on the agenda.
And now it seems that the Catholic Church in Germany, apart from a few exceptional bishops, has nothing more to say, except: defy Rome's limits, do your thing, bless same-sex couples, say goodbye to the order of creation, demote women to the female reproductive role, ordain them as priests, but abolish the priesthood (contradiction or not), and mount the "chief chairs" of the bishops. The new joyful -- no, super-fun -- message is: Enjoy life! God wanted sex: so, go to it, ladies and gentlemen, consecrated or unconsecrated -- the main thing is that both (or more?) agree.
Faced with this, one would like to think that the Church knows itself no longer. It is sinking into nihilism, as if it would make nihilism respectable again. The facts speak a different language: the Catholic Church in Germany lost almost 523,000 believers in 2022. And this trend will continue if the Church does not succeed in getting out of the swamp. The only thing that pulls it out is Christ Himself. One overlooks Him easily only if one sits on a high horse (even in the midst of the swamp).
No wonder that people run away from you! Manipulation and defamation are easier in the churches than in politics, where one rather plays into the politicians' hands. Bishops beat each other up, especially those who have a lot to answer for themselves. Bishop Bätzing, for example. He, who has to answer for some misconduct in dealing with abuse, talks to his Cologne brother bishop as if he's a pariah. While courts do not attest to Woelki's misconduct and are re-examining allegations, Bätzing thinks Woelki has failed in the matter of "abuse" and probably did not understand that it would be better to finally step down from the stage.
Why does Bätzing, as chairman of the German bishops, not himself resign first, in an exemplary manner, but instead participates with his anything but clean slate in this media-effective campaign led by Catholic (?) media makers and fellow believers (?) against the cardinal, whose main offense appears to be being truly Catholic? During the house search the other day, a diocese insider is said to have said about the confiscated cell phone and laptop that one will now soon look into further abysses.
But we are already looking into abysses -- into the abysses of unchristian togetherness, which even ignores principles of the rule of law. This no longer even has a hint of ethics. The whole procedure is moreover absurd and grotesque, and shows the whole drama: War is now being waged against the Church established by Jesus. And this war is being waged by people from the Church's own ranks, with, among others, Bätzing in the lead. He himself once said that the implementation of synodal resolutions would not bring more people into the Church.
For once, he was right on target. But what is his motivation, then? When the Church is no longer what it should be, when pastors are not there for the faithful, when they do not lead them but mislead them and insult each other, when the processing of abuse only serves to cover up one's own mistakes and innocent people are mobbed for it -- then, of course people run away!
The only good thing about it, if you can put it that way at all, is that almost 300 euros less per year per person who leaves the church end up in the hands of lobbyists and propagandists who, instead of proselytizing, go after their own Church. And somehow they don't even notice how the Catholic Church is crumbling under their own hands.
Joseph Ratzinger saw this coming. As early as 1958, he said, "The appearance of the Church of modern times is essentially determined by the fact that it has become, and is still becoming more and more, the Church of the pagans in a completely new way: not, as once, Church of the pagans who have become Christians, but Church of pagans who still call themselves Christians but have in truth become pagans."
And these pagans elevate majority opinion to the opinion of the Holy Spirit. The sensus fidei fidelium cannot err, says a text of the synodal way. But, it errs very quickly when it places itself above the perennial Magisterium. This aspect, listed in the Council texts, was neatly omitted: The people's sensus fidei is beneath the Magisterium, not above it.
For Ratzinger, it was clear that the Church must always make the effort "to break away from this secularization of hers and become open to God again" if she wanted to fulfill her true mission. He instructed young people to "evangelize the young men and women who wander in this world like sheep who have no shepherd." They should invite others to "experience faith, hope and love, and to encounter Jesus in order to feel truly loved and accepted, with the full possibility of being realized."
Thank God we still have shepherds who share the same opinion. Cardinal Woelki and three other bishops who vetoed the Synodal Committee are now atoning for it with white martyrdom. This gives us courage! These four bishops have shown what it means to be bishop and shepherd, that is, Jesus's messenger instead of Jesus's sovereign. They act on behalf of Jesus, not at their own discretion or according to the will of the people, but according to the will of God. They are guardians of the tradition and committed to God alone. And they are to prepare us for participation in the Kingdom of God by explaining and administering the sacraments, admonishing and comforting us, explaining doctrine and encouraging us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and above all: to know Him and let Him enter our hearts.
The message to be delivered is greater than the bishop. Ratzinger summed it up thus: "It is by this fidelity that he is measured; it is his mission." Bishops must proclaim the truth. Only when they no longer do so are they spared persecution.
