A call to coherence: things we shouldn't be afraid of (Catholics in Germany, the rest of us)


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 other things). What happened over the past few days was clearly going to happen and has been clear for the past 2-3 years. Faithful Catholics wrote a letter, with collected signatures, to Pope Francis two years ago asking him to take firmer and more direct action on things. Yet here we are. 

I can't help but think of Pope Benedict and how for some time I have understood some of his writings as being deeply rooted in his own experience as a Catholic in Germany. In particular with reference to truth and coherence. Pope Benedict was a fundamentally honest intellectual and he was the first to recognise that the Church would become smaller. AND we should not be afraid of a smaller Church. The Church will continue to exist but only in small, well-formed, communities, that are aware of what the Church really teaches and accept it as such. That is ok and much better than trying to retain a visibly larger church but which is internally divided and broken.

One of my housemates in Germany was no longer a Catholic though she was brought up Catholic in the US midwest. She told me she had stopped calling herself Catholic because she didn't agree with the Church's teaching on sexuality and the usual social issues (here understand is as western social issues and not economic issues as would be the case for the developing world). She was coherent with her thinking and respectful of what she knew to be the Church's teaching. That is what we are all called to be: honest with ourselves about what we think and about what the reality out there is in reference to systems of belief. We had no problem sharing an apartment nor being friends. We both lived coherently in the life we both had knowingly and freely chosen. 

Out of coherence all the Germans (and for that matter any other Catholic out there who agree): priest, bishops, religious, and laity that agree with the document that has come out of the synodal pathway should leave the Church. If they are honest with themselves and want to live coherent lives then they will recognise that what they want for the Church goes against the truth about what the church teaches about the human person. Instead of wanting to force their preferences on all other Catholics and on the magisterium itself, they should recognise that their way of thinking and desires are no longer in line with Catholic thinking and life. For their own good and that of the Church (community of people, body of Christ) they should accept they are effectively no longer Catholic, be coherent and leave as my housemate did. 

While this is inevitably sad and painful for the rest of us who believe in saving even the last sheep, there comes a time when we must recognise that the sheep cannot be forced into salvation. God made us free to choose Him, he did not force us to Love and choose Him. We cannot force these former Catholics to acknowledge God and their own God-given nature, they must find it themselves and choose it as well. Until then all we can do is pray for them and pray for those that remain in the Church. 

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