Will Pope Francis Stand Against Catholic Schism?

Courtesy of Catholic News Service

The Vatican rejects, for now, the radical reshaping of Catholic moral teaching and practice demanded by the German Synodal Path, but who will break faith first?

August 24, 2022 by Fr. Gordon MacRae

I have often said that in the Universe of Catholic life, I write from the “Oort Cloud,” that vast field of the Solar System’s castoff debris — asteroids, comets, and meteors — far out beyond the orbit of Pluto. It was named in 1950 for the astronomer who discovered it, J. H. Oort of Leiden, Holland. It’s an especially cold and exiled place from which to write, but it also offers a panoramic view of things, a perspective not always available to those entangled in the culture wars of Earth.

On August 11, 2021, I published “A House Divided: Cancel Culture and the Latin Mass.” Pope Francis had seriously wounded Traditional Catholics by imposing severe restrictions on offering the Traditional Latin Mass that had grown in popular preference among conservative Catholics in recent years. Its popularity, in part at least, is a reaction to the encroaching accommodations to secular culture that have invaded Catholicism.

For conservative and traditional Catholics, the timing of the Pope’s imposed restrictions could not have been worse. For the previous two years in America and across the Western World, Covid-19 brought invasive government restrictions on offering any Mass at all. Even when courts declared some restrictions unconstitutional, a number of Catholic bishops re-imposed the same restrictions. This gave rise to a concern about the proper and expected role of bishops, a concern given voice in my post, “The Faithful Departed: Bishops Who Bar Catholics from Mass.”

The last two years have been a rough time for faithful Catholics and more so for priests who openly support Catholic fidelity. The appointment of progressive bishops has created an appearance of forced compliance with their ideology among priests. The sexual abuse crisis opened pathways for bishops to discipline and even remove priests for virtually any reason or none at all. This gave rise to an initiative of the laity who in response in the U.S. created the “Coalition for Canceled Priests.”

Nowhere in Catholic life, however, has the modern wave of cancel culture been more visible or vocal than in Germany. For many months, some of the bishops of Germany have responded to the Pope’s emphasis on “synodality,” a term from the Greek meaning an ecclesiastical assembly, to promote a ‘woke’ agenda.

The agenda of the German Synodal Path includes a radical revision of Catholic moral teaching and sacramental life. It demands the ordination of women priests, a reconsideration of priestly celibacy, an accommodation for a married priesthood, sacramental recognition for same-sex unions, and the promotion of homosexuality and LGBTQ+ lifestyles as normative expressions of human sexuality.

It is interesting that more recently in the United States, parents have sought to limit some of these same influences in the education and indoctrination of children. While the bishops of Germany promote their demanded revisions as expressions of the “Census Fidelium,” the sense of the faithful, parents in America have been mobilizing to vote the proponents of LGBTQ+ education out of office on public school boards across the land.

On July 21, 2022, in a surprising and hopeful gesture of support for Catholic unity, Pope Francis took a step to rein in the fractious “German Synodal Way” that for the last year has moved ever closer to the precipice of Catholic schism. The Vatican Declaration, which was unsigned, stated that the German Synodal Path has no authority to oblige bishops or the faithful to assume new ways of governing or new approaches to doctrine or morals. This clarification was made “in order to protect the freedom of the people of God and the exercise of episcopal ministry.”

Courtesy of Catholic News Service

George Cardinal Pell and a Patron Saint for Germany

It feels ironic beyond measure that I first decided to write this post on August 9, 2022 the day the Church remembers Edith Stein, better known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. On the day before deciding to write this, I asked our editor to republish on social media a post I wrote several years ago: “Saints and Sacrifices: Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein at Auschwitz.”

To write this current post, as I now feel I must, I also need an extended excerpt from one that I wrote many months ago entitled, “Benedict XVI Faced the Cruelty of a German Inquisition.” The following excerpt is a necessary prequel for this post:

“While reading from Cardinal George Pell’s book, Prison Journal Volume 2, Cardinal Pell wrote candidly about his concerns for the direction of the Church in Germany. In an entry from his prison cell on August 9, 2019, he wrote of Edith Stein, now known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who, like St. Maximilian Kolbe a year earlier, was murdered in Auschwitz by the Nazi regime in 1942.

“Cardinal Pell wrote that Edith Stein was German by birth, and he asked readers to pray for her intercession for the Catholic Church in Germany. He quoted German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a position once held by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:

“‘The Catholic Church in Germany is going down. Leaders there are not aware of the real problems. They are self-centered and concerned primarily with sexual morality, celibacy, and women priests. They do not speak about God, Jesus Christ, grace, the Sacraments, faith, hope, or love.’ (Prison Journal 2, p.75)

“Later in the book, Cardinal Pell wrote about Vatican concerns for the growing possibility of a German Catholic schism over the very issues identified by Cardinal Müller. If such a progressive schism were to occur, it would sweep much of the European Union where (with the exception of Poland) Mass attendance is at its historically lowest point. Cardinal Pell cited a September 17, 2019 Catholic Culture article by Phillip Lawler, ‘Who Benefits from All This Talk of Schism?’

Lawler argues that the prospect of a schism is remote, but becoming less so. He cited that Pope Francis has spoken calmly about such a prospect saying that he is not frightened by it, something that Lawler found to be frightening in and of itself. Cardinal Pell added that The New York Times has been writing about the prospect of a German Catholic schism by ‘the John Paul and Benedict followers in the United States.’ Cardinal Pell wrote that Lawler’s diagnosis is correct. Cardinal Pell added:

“‘The most aggressive online defenders of Pope Francis realize they cannot engineer the radical changes they want without precipitating a split in the Church. So they want orthodox Catholics to break away first, leaving progressives free to enact their own revolutionary agenda.’

“In light of this, it comes as no surprise that some progressive U.S. bishops have pushed Pope Francis into divisive restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass and other traditional expressions of the faith. These efforts, and German Catholic steps taken recently to demean Pope Benedict, a stalwart of Catholic orthodoxy, may well be designed to encourage a conservative split from the Church. Embracing and promoting fidelity at this juncture has never been more urgent.

“Faithful Catholics must never accede to the desired end that German progressives seek. Handing the Church over to them would leave ‘Satan at the Last Supper’ while Jesus is removed from the room.”

(End of excerpt)

Courtesy Catholic News Service

Raymond Cardinal Burke Weighs In

Not everyone among German Catholics is in support of this path. One bold German Catholic disseminated my post above to many others in Germany, including many priests. It is interesting that at the same time this began to happen, Facebook started actively suppressing my blog, Beyond These Stone Walls to limit its being shared among various Catholic groups with a presence there to promote Catholic fidelity and unity.

In a May, 2022 interview, American Cardinal Raymond Burke spoke strongly about the direction of the Synodal Path being promoted by some of the German bishops who in the process seek to abandon traditional Catholic doctrine. Cardinal Burke responded boldly:

“The bishops doing this are abandoning the flock and they are showing themselves to be not shepherds, but hirelings who are trying to accommodate the Church’s teaching to the ways of this world, a secular way of thinking, a godless way of thinking. To hold what they are saying regarding unnatural sins against the 6th and 9th Commandments is heretical. They are leading people, to their great harm, into heresy at a time when the world needs the Church to proclaim her teaching with clarity and courage.

“[The Holy Father] must ask [the German bishops] to renounce these heresies and positions against the sound discipline of the Church. If they will not renounce their errors and correct themselves, then he would have to remove them from office. This is the situation in which we’ve arrived.”

— Statement of Raymond Cardinal Burke

In April of 2022, an open letter signed by six cardinals, 19 archbishops and 78 bishops expressed alarm over “the confusion that the Synodal Path has already caused and continues to cause, and the potential for schism that will inevitably result. In its effect the Synodal Path displays more submission and obedience to the world than to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.” Among the signatories of this letter were Joseph Cardinal Zen, George Cardinal Pell, Raymond Cardinal Burke, Francis Cardinal Arinze, and Wilfred Cardinal Napier. It should be noted that the first two names on this short list of cardinals are now considered by many to be white martyrs.

Bishop Georg Bätzing, second from left, is President of the German Catholic Bishops conference, pictured here at the opening meeting of the German Synodal Way.

The German Bishops Respond

The response of the German bishops has been largely voiced by one person, Bishop Georg Bätzing, an appointee of Pope Francis who became President of the German Bishops Conference in 2016. He showed no sign of backing down from the path he and the Synod have been on. Many found his response to be arrogant and alarming:

“Yes, the pope disappoints me. Even in the Catholic Church, even with all the right that would be his, he is not the one who could turn the Church from its head to its feet which is what we would like … He is initiating a process where all these questions are put on the table.”

Bishop Bätzing went on to describe the matter of women’s ordination as “like an iceberg,” meaning that there is more substance and clamor for it below the surface than can be seen from above. He said that he is moved by the “sensus fidelium” on this, but the sensus fidelium — the sense of the faithful — must be universal and not merely a fractious German consideration. On the day I am typing this, this blog had 850 visits from Germany alone. I wonder if Bishop Bätzing’s measure of the sensus fidelium includes them.

The state of the Church in Germany — where Catholic identity and Mass attendance are at their lowest points in history — does not reflect Catholicism in the rest of the world. It is the height of hubris to suggest that the political positions of Germany should take precedence and be imposed upon the faithful in Poland or Africa or the United States where many Catholics embrace fidelity to Sacred Tradition.

Like the American Episcopal church of the 1990’s, Bishop Bätzing would be willing to shatter the Church’s unity to satisfy the transient “woke” in Germany. Even if they had the Church that they want — one in which Christ takes a back seat to pop culture — there is no evidence that their practice of their faith would be any more faithful than it is now.

The most telling response of Bishop Bätzing was a statement that he would personally leave the Church if he had the impression that none of his agenda would be realized. He would lead the German Catholic church into a progressive schism if Traditional Catholics did not accede to it first.

Cardinal George Pell’s suggestion that Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, would be the best intercessor for Catholic Germany is prophetic. Upon her arrival in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, she took her younger sister by the hand and said, “Come Rosa, Let us go for our people.” Then, in full Carmelite habit, she walked to the Nazi gas chamber refusing to renounce either her Jewish heritage or her Catholic faith.

Pray for her intercession for the Catholic church of Germany being led astray by its bishops. And pray for Pope Francis that the Blood of the Martyrs still speaks to him with sacrificial clarity about the faith for which they surrendered their lives.

+ + +

Note from Fr. Gordon MacRae: Thank you for reading and sharing this post.

You may also like these related posts:

The Once and Future Catholic Church

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and the Homosexual Matrix

The Faithful Departed: Bishops Who Bar Catholics from Mass

Saints and Sacrifices: Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein at Auschwitz

+ + +

Catholics to Fr James Altman: ‘We Are Starving Out Here!’

Fr James Altman was removed from his assignment sparking protests from the faithful in unprecedented numbers. Does this signal a growing distrust of some bishops?

I was recently informed by a reader that her parish priest launched into a tirade against her and other parishioners for their dedicated pro-life activity. He reportedly stooped pointing to the ground shouting, “Of all the issues facing the Church and country right now, abortion is way down here!” In another incident, the same priest launched a tirade at a college-student parishioner in the confessional insisting that her involvement in pro-life causes is badly misguided.

Both incidents, and others like them, resulted in letters of concern to the diocesan bishop. Weeks later, the bishop replied that he has instructed the priest to cease allowing his political views to invade his pastoral ministry. Political views?

The last time I looked, the Church’s pro-life position and activity reflect a moral mandate of grave concern and utmost importance. The pro-life centricity of Catholic moral teaching has been clearly articulated by Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis.

I dread writing any criticism of Catholic bishops. In over 600 posts of the last twelve years, only a few have had such content. Pope Francis has recently spoken against clericalism in the form of careerism in the Church, and he has also spoken recently of a concern for the morale of priests. The concern is well placed, but the former very much impacts the latter. Bishops have nearly ultimate authority in their own dioceses, but bishops who aspire to more prestigious positions sometimes find themselves bending to the will of some other bishops with more clout.

Pro-Catholic, Pro-life, Pushed Out

On Friday, May 21, 2021, Father James Altman was instructed by La Crosse, Wisconsin Bishop William Patrick Callahan to resign from his parish over the Bishop’s concern that the volume and tone of his “political” rhetoric has rendered him divisive and ineffective. Father Altman — who until weeks ago had been pastor of Saint James the Lesser Catholic Church in La Crosse — has said some very challenging things in his preaching on the Gospel but nothing he has said to date contradicts Church teaching.

In his now notorious “Memo to the Bishops of the World,” Father Altman called on the U.S. Bishops to stop issuing guidance for the care of our physical health at the expense of care for our souls. He called for the bishops to present faithful and unapologetic adherence to and promotion of Church teaching.

But volume and tone may not have really been at the heart of Bishop Callahan’s expressed concerns. Though unstated, it seems that a small minority of Catholics dismissing Father Altman’s rhetoric as “dabbling in the political” clearly wanted him silenced, and it seems that his bishop obliged. It is also now widely suspected that pressure came from other bishops who were uncomfortable with Father Altman’s growing fame in his homiletic broadsides against abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender ideology, and, most recently, the shuttering of churches, first by politicians and then by some bishops, during the Covid pandemic.

I admit that I have sometimes grimaced at Father Altman’s tone in his fiery homilies, and thought he could be more effective if he lowered the volume just a bit. Nonetheless, in recent posts, I have said some of the very same things he has said. (See, “The Faithful Departed: Bishops Who Bar Catholics from Mass” and “A Year in the Grip of Earthly Powers.” )

I have written about all of these things, but a small voice from the wilderness of prison is a lot easier to ignore than a YouTube video homily gone viral. Some of Father Altman’s more fiery prophetic witness has drawn the attention of faithful Catholics across the continent and around the world. When he announced his imminent removal during a Pentecost homily this year, there were audible gasps from his congregation. Father Altman explained to them,

“For the record, through my efforts at preaching the truth ... somehow the truth has gone viral over the past eleven months and people all over the globe — as far away as Borneo — have written over 4,000 letters and cards — even more than that in emails — all saying the same thing: ‘We are starving out here!’”

— Father James Altman

However, something far more interesting than Father Altman’s reaction to his removal has occurred. A crowd funding page was established online to assist in retaining a canon lawyer to appeal his removal to higher ecclesiastical authorities. A funding goal of $20,000 was set. In less than a week, the fund grew to $250,000. A week later, it rose to $650,000. On the day this is posted, the fund is approaching $700,000 while an online petition garnered nearly 100,000 signatures.

The Church, the Bishops, the Eucharist

Instead of silencing Father Altman, the bishops might ask themselves why so many are listening to him so intently. This is a different sort of Sensus Fidelium — the sense of the faithful — than the Church is accustomed to. The bishops would be wise to listen. The setting aside of this one priest over what has been dismissed as “political” activism may signal a far greater concern about the bishops’ collective ability to discern between moral and political issues.

It seems no mere coincidence that Father James Altman was removed from ministry just in time to accommodate those who want the rhetoric on another development lowered to a mere whisper. You likely already know what has transpired regarding a simultaneous embarrassment among our bishops, but here is the short version.

On the day this is posted, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is scheduled to meet to discuss what is turning out to be a heavily manipulated agenda. The meeting “may” include “the drafting of a formal statement on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church” and its application to pro-abortion Catholic politicians who receive the Eucharist. That any of our bishops may actually need such clarity on this is alarming in its own right.

That clarity has recently come from two sources, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop Thomas Olmstead of Phoenix. I recently wrote of Archbishop Cordileone and his defense of religious liberty. Since then he has published, Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life.

In my post, some readers challenged me in comments stating that I overlooked the fact that this concern should have been raised by the Bishops “when it really mattered” before the 2020 presidential election. I will get back to that in a future post after the results of the USCCB meeting become public. Suffice it to say that it also really matters now.

I wrote above that clarity on the meaning of the Eucharist “may” be on the agenda because a group of 67 U.S. bishops — representing only 15-percent of the USCCB’s voting members — has lobbied USCCB President Archbishop José Luis Gomez to remove this topic from the agenda. All the bishops are careful not to say it, but this entire discussion is about the controversy of a pro-abortion activist who has presented himself as a devout Catholic and now occupies the White House.

Two of the signatories have since asked to have their names redacted from the letter saying they had not fully been informed of its purpose and were manipulated into signing it. Others have since stated that they never agreed to sign this letter and do not even know how or why their names were added.

The protest letter seems to have been spearheaded by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, DC, who reportedly composed the letter on his letterhead. He has gone on record to insist that he would not deny the Eucharist to pro-abortion Catholic President Joe Biden. The letter was also signed by Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago. Cardinals Cupich and Tobin met in Rome with Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, SJ, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, just prior to the letter being sent to the USCCB President.

As this post was being written, it was just announced that Pope Francis planned to meet or otherwise confer with President Joe Biden on the day before the U.S. Bishops’ meeting. This had raised some alarm among many faithful Catholics who support the bishops’ effort to develop a uniform policy on Communion for Catholic politicians who openly promote abortion, legislate to restrict religious freedom, and support same-sex marriage and transgender ideology. President Biden, who professes to be Catholic, has promoted all of these. He has also stated his intent to repeal the Hyde Amendment which since 1974 has protected taxpayers from forced violations of their consciences by using taxpayer funds to promote and provide abortions.

However, in the eleventh hour, there has been a new development. On June 15, the day before we publish this post, Catholic News Agency issued the following statement: “The President’s entourage had originally requested for Biden to attend Mass with the Pope early in the morning, but the proposal was nixed by the Vatican after considering the impact that Biden receiving Holy Communion from the Pope would have on the discussions the USCCB is planning to have during their meeting starting Wednesday, June 16.”

I suggest reading the rest of the brief CNA article. However, it requires a little reading between the lines. It seems that it was President Biden's Administration that requested the meeting with the Holy Father to take place after the G7 Summit while the President is still in Europe. Once the Vatican agreed to the meeting, it seems that President Biden's entourage made a subsequent request for Biden to attend Mass with the Holy Father. The timing of this leads me and many others to believe that the real objective here was for a photo-op of Biden receiving the Eucharist from the Pope on the eve of the U.S. Bishops' meeting on that very subject.

Vatican officials saw through this and declined to allow the Mass to take place. It seems that the Biden Administration then cancelled the meeting because its real objective had been negated.

The Two Father Jameses

Father Dwight Longenecker has written an intriguing post entitled, “The Tale of Two Fr. Jameses.” He contrasts the activism and public statements of Father James Altman and Father James Martin, SJ, two priests on polar ends of the Catholic theological and political spectrum. He contrasts the two priests thusly:

“Both priests have somewhat of a prophetic voice in the Church — Fr. Altman from the conservative side and Fr. Martin from the liberal. Fr. Altman castigates Catholics who voted for Joe Biden. Fr. Martin openly supports Biden. As such, the two Fr. Jameses are poster boys for the two Catholic Churches in America today. Fr. Altman for the traditional, orthodox, strict version of Catholicism. Fr. Martin for the accommodating, relativistic, and subjective version of Catholicism. Fr. Altman: doctrinal. Fr. Martin: pastoral. Fr. Altman: Rational. Fr. Martin: Sentimental.”

The article is brief, but I have a fundamental disagreement with a part of it. Father Longenecker went on to characterize Father Altman as one who “campaigns against a Catholic hierarchy that is in bed with the Democratic Party” while Father Martin, “in manipulative and disingenuous ways has used his media platform to promote the blessing of same-sex unions and to encourage homosexuality.” Father Longenecker asks an important question:

“Fr. Altman ... has fearlessly upheld the traditional Catholic faith and has never come close to preaching anything contrary to the Gospel. His sin? To be ‘divisive.’ Why, may I ask, has no one suggested that New Ways Ministry and Fr. Martin (who have scandalized thousands of Catholics) are divisive?”

Father Longenecker went on to suggest that the clash between the two churches (left and right) in America today recalls the Jansenist-Jesuit conflict in 18th Century France. As the faith came under attack by Protestantism and the Enlightenment, French Catholics lapsed into Jansenism, a kind of “Catholic Calvinism.” He suggests that Fr. Altman’s style is an example of this Catholic Calvinism. I disagree.

The reason I disagree is laid out in a post of mine entitled, “The Once and Future Catholic Church.” It makes a case for why the traditional stress on Catholic orthodoxy and fidelity is the most pastoral approach a priest can take in a society drifting rapidly toward “Cancel Culture” socialism. Father James Martin seems to not want to rest until American Catholicism breaks from Rome and becomes indistinguishable from the Episcopal church and its determination to tear the Worldwide Anglican Communion asunder.

In these pages recently, priest and canon lawyer, Father Stuart MacDonald, wrote “Bishops, Priests, and Weapons of Mass Destruction.” He wrote of the trajectory from the U.S. Bishops adoption of “zero tolerance” in 2002 to a policy emerging now in which bishops may discipline and remove priests for any vague cause whatsoever. And believe me, it will be the Father Altmans, and not the Father Martins, who are subjected to this policy. It is difficult to believe that Pope Francis has allowed this while at the same time speaking of his concern for the morale of priests.

This policy transforms the Holy Father into an Orwellian Big Brother and our bishops into enforcers of Orwell’s progressive GroupThink. Such a policy is beloved of “Cancel Culture” progressivism. It lends itself to the suppression of rights. It promotes witch hunts, and at its heart it is far more Calvinist than Catholic.

+ + +

Note from Father Gordon MacRae: Please visit our Special Events page. You may also like these related posts:

The Once and Future Catholic Church

Bishops, Priests, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Joe Biden, Cardinal McCarrick and the Betrayal of Life