Learning to write in the tropics

I think all of us watching the implosion of a huge part of the church in Germany where only a small minority remain faithful to the church's teachings on all subjects (even including the second reading on a Sunday) have wondered: where to from here? Ever since I entered the adult world of work I have felt pulled between working in secular institutions or focusing on faith-based ones. In recent years, encountering people brought up Catholic in different countries one commonality stands out: their lack of formation that is deep, well-informed, and aligned to the actual teachings of the Church. Sometimes full lack of formation has been less damaging than the poor and diluted formation that is sometimes received in some parishes or communities.  One thing became clear to me living in Germany, that a society as broken with people as emotionally scared and stunted as the German society is, could only be a product of spending so many decades walking in darkness. Only a small group of Germ...

Over the past couple of days, I have been following, as much as possible other commitments allowing, the fifth meeting of the synodal way. This has been going on for some time, I have been hearing about it since 2019 from one of the women theologians who stepped away from the process and even left the country. These past few days the reporting of several from EWTN has made the daily interactions in Frankfurt available to many. Having lived in Germany and having had an overall good experience of faith life amongst a group of Catholics belonging to movements such as the Emmanuel Community and Communion and Liberation (there were also some from Opus Dei, and Nightfever organisers, Neocats, and many foreign Catholics) it saddens me to see what is happening under the auspice of the synodal way. Admittedly it also angers me a bit with the Vatican which should have stopped this some time ago, it appears so passive in the face of blatant disobedience (while it is quite happy to clamp down on o...