After months of the German Synod pushing the limits of what was permitted during the Synodal process, the Vatican has finally responded to some of the schismatic declarations emerging from the money and status obsessed German church.
In a statement today, the Holy See Press Office states
the "Synodal Way" in Germany does not have the power to oblige the Bishops and the faithful to adopt new ways of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morals.
The statement appears to have been ushered in in response to comments published in Father James Martin SJ edited Outreach website, which proposed a ‘clear readjustment’ of the Catechism. Most controversially, it also stated, ‘This is a conscious statement against the current Catholic catechism’.
The Holy See’s statement in full:
In order to protect the freedom of the People of God and the exercise of the episcopal ministry, it seems necessary to clarify that the "Synodal Way" in Germany does not have the power to oblige the Bishops and the faithful to adopt new ways of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morals.
It would not be permissible to initiate new official structures or doctrines in the dioceses, prior to an agreed understanding at the level of the universal Church, which would represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church. As the Holy Father recalled in his letter to the People of God on their way in Germany: "The universal Church lives in and from the particular Churches, just as the particular Churches live and flourish in and from the universal Church, and if they become separated from the whole ecclesial body, they become weakened, rot and die. Hence the need to keep communion with the whole body of the Church always alive and effective"[1]. 1] It is therefore hoped that the proposals of the Way of the Particular Churches in Germany will merge into the synodal path being followed by the universal Church, for mutual enrichment and a testimony of that unity with which the body of the Church manifests its faithfulness to Christ the Lord.