Germany: New Disappointment for the Synodal Path

Source: FSSPX News

St. Liborius Cathedral in Paderborn

The laity will not be able to participate in the election of their bishops: so decided by the Holy See. In less than a month, the ambitions of the German progressives have been disappointed twice. But it will take more than that for the Synodal Path cantors to sing a swan song.

During April, do not put away your winter coat. The adage is true this year on the banks of the Rhine surprised by the biting effect of a cold current coming from Rome.

The first squall took place before Easter, on March 29, 2023, as reported by FSSPX.News: Cardinal Arthur Roche – hardly suspected of an excessive attachment to Tradition – addressed a seven-page letter to the president of the German Episcopal Church (DBK) conference, to warn them against synodal practices incompatible with the doctrine of the Church or canon law.

On April 12, it was through Msgr. Joachim Göbel’s voice, provost of Paderborn Cathedral, that the faithful learned of the Holy See’s refusal to accede to one of the most emblematic requests of the German Synodal Path – that which concerns the power, for the laity, to participate in the nomination of the diocesan bishop.

In September 2022, in synodal euphoria, the diocese of Paderborn supported a proposal for reform by which fourteen lay people were to be drawn by lot in order to participate in the selection of several candidates for the office of bishop, in concert with the fourteen clerics of the cathedral chapter.

A timely project, since Msgr. Hans-Josef Becker had announced his resignation on October 1, 2022, leaving vacant his episcopal see of Paderborn, located in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Alas! The progressives pretentions have just been seriously dowsed: Msgr. Göbel announced, without hiding his disappointment, that the Berlin nunciature had made known the response of the sovereign pontiff, a “clearly negative response.”

According to the declaration of the provost of the cathedral, the Holy See justified its decision by relying on the terms of the 1929 concordat which regulates relations between the Church and the State, as well as episcopal appointments. A justification that would allow Rome to “flag the play” without having to argue on the merits, and confront head on the progressives in charge of the Synodal Path.

Let us recall that the diocese of Paderborn plays a pioneering role for the other German dioceses, because it is the first to have become vacant after the Synodal Path decision to reform the procedure for episcopal appointments, in the name of an ever more “democratic” governance of the Church on the banks of the Rhine.

It is likely that the cold snap of April 2023 will make more than one German progressive sneeze, and discourage the dioceses tempted to deviate from the line laboriously drawn by the Holy See.

Like that of Osnabrück, towards which all eyes are turned, since at the end of March, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of its bishop, Msgr. Franz-Josef Bode, a prelate also open to synodal trends.