Frankfurt am Main, Germany — one of the most important aspects in the pontificate of Pope Francis is the Pastoral Policy on Marriage and the Family. In order to analyze and discuss the requirements of our time, he called a “small” meeting of bishops, held in October 2014. That Synod was supposed to prepare a “great” Synod on the Family to take place in October 2015.
Liberal Catholics have taken these two Synods on the family as very welcome occasions to advertise their own revolutionary “vision” of the Church and Her Magisterium.
The spearhead of leftist-reformist Catholicism is the “We are Church” movement. For almost twenty years, it has been fighting for an egalitarian Church and favoring a liberal moral conception of things: destroying the difference between lay people and priests, abolishing priestly celibacy, accepting extramarital sex, remarriage after divorce, “understanding” abortion and so on.
“We are Church”: Ideologically, a Very Up-to-Date Movement advocated in the temporal field by various organizations and activists of the sexual revolution of the sixties.
The controversy caused by Cardinal Kasper’s statements on a possible reassessment of the situation of divorced and remarried Catholics brought to light all the topics dear to “We are Church.” For a long time, this so-called “grassroots movement” had hardly appeared. In a way, Cardinal Kasper brought it back from oblivion. Despite its lack of activity, “We are Church” did not stop in time, ideologically speaking. In the working paper titled “Texts and Subsidies for the 2014-2015 Synod of Families,” it fully incorporates the latest advances of the sexual revolution of recent years.
Progressivists Want to Infiltrate all Field
So they now favor a positive evaluation of homosexuality and homosexual partnerships; require a positive evaluation of a “broad spectrum of sexual relationships of different intensities and forms of expression;” demand the acceptance of artificial means of contraception, etc. These requirements, found in a document titled “Sexuality as a Life- Dispensing Force,” say much about the thinking of its authors.
Likewise, their concept of family barely differs from that of gender doctrine ideologues: “One can find Christian men and women honestly engaged in family issues and partnership in different forms of life and family: well-established marriages with or without children, failed marriages and partnerships, successful second marriages, single mothers and fathers, non-structured families, homosexual partnerships with or without children, singles living in networks similar to families…”
But “We are Church” is not limited to making demands and drafting working papers. It wants to be active in all fields in order to establish a revolutionary Church. A list of nearly twenty “Local Action Possibilities” explains to its followers how to make known the movement’s ideas. A “Synod Calendar” explains the most important stages from now to the Synod’s meeting in October 2015 and coordinates the movement’s activities throughout Germany in order to obtain the greatest possible effect.
Pastors Are not Chasing Away the Wolf
In short, “We are Church” has organized a real campaign in order to introduce the sexual revolution in the Church through the 2015 Synod on the Family.
Of course, this movement is not acting only in Germany. A whole crowd of subsidized theologians has taken up the task of doing the preparatory intellectual work to dismantle Catholic morals on sex and marriage. They have their works released by renowned German publishers such as Herder or Patmos. Their writings expound almost all theses of the sexual revolution, including new developments on gender theory. In order to gather enough “arguments” for their propaganda campaign, all “We are Church” activists have to do is to read these books. A very well prepared network has been setup in Germany to destroy essential tenets of the Church Magisterium.
It is almost superfluous to say that few German Bishops refute the insolent requirements of “We are Church.” Many even support implementing Cardinal Kasper’s ideas about pastoral policy on the family. Never mind the fact that such ideas have often been rebuffed, including by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. By hook or by crook, progressivists want to adapt the Church to the spirit of the times. That, of course, is not new. What is new is the determination with which they seek to throw Catholic morals on sex and marriage overboard.
Catholics Faithful to the Faith in Poland, Croatia and Africa
We should be grateful that the Catholic Church in Germany has not gone its own way thanks largely to faithful Catholics from Croatia, Poland, and Africa. Without these Catholics, the life of the Faith would now be nonexistent in many places here, especially in big cities. Furthermore, they have become increasingly active and more engaged in the Church’s internal affairs. The Catholicism prevailing in Germany, made up of councils of reform-minded lay Catholics occupying decisive positions, is slowly finding competition.
Hope for the Catholic Church in Germany comes from countries and regions in which Faith has not evaporated as much it has among us: Poland, Asia, and Africa. From there, as well as from the United States, came most of the resistance in the 2014 Synod of Bishops against the dismantling of sexual and marital morality advocated by a segment of the German episcopate aligned with the theses of Cardinal Kasper.
But there is hope also from German Catholics themselves. For a long time they allowed the left-liberal mentality to spread in the Church. However, these Catholics are becoming more active and organizing.
Mary’s Immaculate Heart Will Triumph
The outcome of this confrontation is still uncertain. One thing, however, is certain: The Catholic Church in Germany is heading toward turbulent times. But in Fatima, Our Lady promised: “Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!