The Shadow Synod of Switzerland and Germany Has a Follow-up. In Two Books

They say that the divorced and remarried and homosexual couples are not waiting for “mercy,” but for recognition of the goodness of their condition. A critical reply from the vicar of the diocese of Chur

ROME, September 4, 2015 - The previous article from www.chiesa demonstrated the growing resistance, on the part of numerous cardinals and bishops, to the radical changes in the Catholic doctrine and pastoral care of marriage brought into discussion with the synod on the family:

While the geographic epicenter of the resistance is above all in Africa, that of the innovators is central Europe, in particular Germany, France, and Switzerland.

The presidents of the episcopal conferences of these three countries organized last May 25 in Rome, at the Pontifical Gregorian University, a sort of shadow synod whose ambitious ideas were afterward published in three languages on the website of the German episcopal conference:

> Giornata di studio in vista del sinodo dei vescovi / Journée d’études en vue du synode des évêques / Gemeinsame Tagung im Vorfeld der Bischofssynod

Among the bishops who spoke at the shadow synod were the German Reinhard Marx, a cardinal, the Frenchman Georges Pontier, and the Swiss Jean-Marie Lovey.

While among the theologians and biblicists were Eberhard Schockenhoff, Thomas Söding, François-Xavier Amherdt, Anne-Marie Pelletier, Francine Charoy, Eva-Maria Faber, plus the Jesuits Bernd Hagenkord, Hans Zollner, and Alain Thomasset.

One of them, the Swiss Eva-Maria Faber, a former rector of the theology faculty of Chur and a professor of dogmatic theology, has now returned to asserting its ideas in a multi-author book published in Switzerland this summer:

> "Familienvielfalt in der katholischen Kirche. Geschichten und Reflexionen [Diversity of families in the Catholic Church. Stories and reflections]"

The book has been published in German by Theologischer Verlag in Zurich. And it had as creators and editors Hanspeter Schmitt, professor of ethical theology at the theological faculty of Chur, and Arnd Bünker, director of the Swiss institute of pastoral sociology of St. Gall and secretary of the pastoral commission of the conference of Swiss bishops.

Bünker is a leading representative of the “official” Swiss Catholic Church. He was the one who wrote for the bishops of his country, in 2014, the preparatory report for the first session of the synod.

But he is responsible in particular for the execution and final report of the survey conducted last winter among the six thousand Catholics who constitute the structure of the Swiss Church - pastoral workers, catechists, parish councils, women’s and men’s associations, groups and communities - a survey that touched on all the burning questions of the synodal discussion, from divorce to homosexuality.

The twenty pages of the report can be downloaded in Italian, French, and German from this page of the website of the episcopal conference:

And those who read it will discover that in comparison the parallel report published by the bishops of Germany - as shocking as it is - seems like it was written by prudes:

The Swiss report, in fact, retains practically nothing of the current doctrine and pastoral care of the Church in matters of marriage.

To indissolubility - as just one example - almost all of the faithful consulted say goodbye. They no longer consider it “as an absolute value, but rather under certain circumstances find in it the danger of falsehood, hypocrisy, or remaining in a situation of life unworthy of the human person.”

As for homosexuality, “the presumption that homosexual persons should live chastely is rejected because it is considered unjust and inhumane. Most of the faithful consider as legitimate the desire of homosexual persons to have the relationships and relations of a couple, and a large majority hope that the Church will acknowledge, value, and bless them.”

Last May 8 the blog Settimo Cielo published a commentary critical of the report, made by a member of the Swiss hierarchy in evident disagreement with most of his fellow bishops and theologians, the vicar general of the diocese of Chur, Martin Grichting:

Grichting was also the author of a commentary published by www.chiesa in June of 2014, on the conditions necessary for receiving sacramental communion:

But now he is making another contribution here - as he has already done in the German Catholic newspaper “Die Tagespost” of August 25 - with a critical review of the book edited by Bünker and Schmitt.

But before hearing from him, it is helpful to point out the recent release in Germany of another book that also moves in the same “revolutionary” direction, published by Herder, with a preface by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, an essay by Antwerp bishop Johan Bonny, and contributions from various theologians, including Peter Hünermann and Thomas Söding, another participant in the shadow synod at the Gregorian:

“Zerreissprobe Ehe: Das Ringen der katholischen Kirche um die Familie [Marriage tug-of-war. The Catholic Church’s struggle over the family]”

“A triumph of sociology over theology, history over metaphysics, the subjective over the objective, and – fundamentally – Becoming over Being,” was the response to this book, after perusing it, from no less an expert than the Jesuit Joseph Fessio, founder and director of Ignatius Press, an historic member of the Ratzinger Schülerkreis.

The secretary of the pastoral commission of the conference of Swiss bishops, Arnd Bünker, and the professor of ethical theology at the theology faculty of Chur, Hanspeter Schmitt, have edited in view of the next synod of bishops a multi-author book entitled: “Familienvielfalt in der katholischen Kirche. Geschichten und Reflexionen [Diversity of families in the Catholic Church. Stories and reflections].”

The book adopts the classic strategy of “coming out.” First the focus goes to the realities of life that deviate from the prevailing order. After this it is demanded that these realities be recognized as normative by the competent authority.

“Coming out” needs concrete cases, like a divorced and civilly remarried couple, a couple that already cohabited like husband and wife before marriage, or a lesbian couple living in a parish house in the canton of Aargau, diocese of Basel.

Alongside such “stories” there are then presented “reflections,” the general tenor of which leads one to think that Catholics in Switzerland already accepted some time ago the “diversity of families.”

But on account of the upcoming synod, the authors do not want to content themselves with this. Their objective is “that family diversity must not exist only de facto (vorkommen) but must come out (hervorkommen) officially,” as Professor Schmitt explains, alluding precisely to the strategy of “coming out.”

The intention of the authors is to leave behind the classical ecclesiastical doctrine on marriage and family, which they turn into a caricature. “The traditional idealistic ecclesial vision of the procreative sexuality of marriage (althergebrachte kirchliche Idealistik ehelicher Fortpflanzungssexualität),” Schmitt calls it.

With this they consider themselves to be on the side of Pope Francis. “He does not tell the world how it must be, he instead asks the world how the Church must be, so that he can help it,” writes pastoral theologian Rainer Bucher, from Graz.

Immediately afterward, however, the authors contradict the pope. He in fact, as is well known, places at the center of marital situations and couple relationships the mercy of God. But the authors refuse to appeal to this. For most people - they note - remarrying civilly is no longer connected to sentiments of blame. So to speak of mercy in this situation would be difficult, writes Eva-Maria Faber, former rector of the theology faculty of Chur and a professor of dogmatic theology. In the case of heterosexual and homosexual family diversity there would no longer be any issue “of the question of mercy, but of the question of recognition,” as the moral theologian Stephan Goertz concisely summarizes the intention of the book.

So it is not mercy that the book proposes, but the ecclesial recognition of the “human qualities of sexual love even beyond marriage and procreation” (Schmitt). As members of a religious community, we would in fact want to receive recognition from this in whatever situation we may find ourselves (Faber).

That against the background of these ideas the pastor of the cathedral of St. Gall, Fr. Beat Grögli, says he is ready to bless same-sex couples in church therefore can come as no surprise. The pastor of Aesch, diocese of Basel, Fr. Felix Terrier, also interviewed, already gives such blessings and moreover brings into question “if the sacrament of marriage can really be administered only once.” The judicial vicar of the diocese of St. Gall, Titus Lenherr, finally asks in accord with Cardinal Walter Kasper for a simple ecclesiastical procedure for the legitimation of a civil “second marriage.”

All of these requests would have to be satisfied once sexuality need no longer fulfill a natural purpose. The ethics of the Church “blocked by natural law” (Schmitt) should therefore be left behind. Sexual morality would have to be rebuilt from the ground up, and sexuality considered as something that is expressed in a relationship based on mutual respect. This would apply equally to heterosexuals and homosexuals (Goertz). What in this regard is taken as already a pastoral reality would therefore also have to be “recognized officially by the Church” (Schmitt). The Church’s position on marriage, on sexual morality, and on contraception would have to be “adapted” “so that the profound rift between modern-day doctrine and practice should not get even wider” (Grögli).

If these requests should not be satisfied, Eva-Maria Faber foresees an emigration from the Church “of enormous dimensions.” And her colleague at the theological faculty of Chur, Schmitt, prophesies that “the internal and external emigration from the Church” will be “rather widespread and protracted.” In the face of these alarming tones, it is comprehensible that the corporations of ecclesiastical right of the cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Lucerne, Nidwalden, and Basel-Landschaft should have supported the publication of the book “with generous financing,” of more than fifty thousand euro. As agencies commissioned to collect ecclesiastical taxes, in fact, they have an interest in a Church that - if necessary even at the expense of its content - should continue to enjoy the approval of the majority of society. The diocese of St. Gall also supported this project financially.

The chapters of this book betray a profound inferiority complex toward contemporary post-Christian society and the desire to be like the others. The authors evidently no longer believe that Jesus Christ knows what is in man (Jn 2:25), nor that the Church also knows this as the body of Christ. Themes like the living relationship of the baptized person with Christ who sustains him in his marriage, or trust in the grace and the promise of God received with the sacrament of marriage, are not even touched upon.

This book therefore represents a farewell to the Christian identity as a force shaping the life of the individual and of society. And it is also a farewell to the Church’s missionary mandate to be the salt of the earth. It has to be asked, in fact, how many pagans the Irish monks would have brought to Christ in Switzerland if they had shared Schmitt’s claim “that the existing realities of life must no longer be discredited in the magisterial texts and in the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Romano Guardini, in his book “The end of the modern world,” brought to light the fact that through divine revelation there arise in man forces that, although being natural in themselves, do not develop outside of this context. With the obfuscation of faith in God, therefore, the “secularized Christianities” would soon be declared sentimentalism and set aside.

In relation to the institution of marriage, this means that this institution, already by its nature oriented toward the indissoluble union between man and woman, becomes concretely realizable in a context of Christian life. That is, under the “arch” of the Christian faith - as Guardini calls it - that which is natural in itself becomes realizable. If, however, this Christian faith is lacking, man is no longer capable of living that to which marriage is oriented already at the natural level. And in fact, in the societies of the Western world, ever more estranged from God, the Christian faith is gravely obfuscated. The result is a not-yet-concluded dissolution of that which is signified by marriage.

This development tragically proves Guardini right. He would have been surprised, however, and probably frightened as well, by the fact that not only in society but also in parts of the Catholic Church a grave obfuscation of faith in God is taking place. This has made it such that - as the book in question shows - indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman even in parts of the Church is being declared an outdated bit of sentimentalism: marriage is seen as on its way to being a “sacrament relegated to the niche,” and perhaps is even already a “residue of the history of the Church” (Bünker).

The volume “Diversity of families” also shows clearly that those who uphold in the Church the point of view of post-Christian society don’t even want to hear about the mercy of God, as Pope Francis preaches it, because it is taken as representing just a pittance that does not lead to the official recognition of the diversity of families in the Church. And they also don’t want to see the Church’s recognition of the civilly “remarried” go only to extraordinary individual cases, as in the hopes expressed by Cardinal Kasper.

At least on this the secretary of the pastoral commission of the conference of Swiss bishops and the professor of ethical theology at the theological faculty of Chur, together with their coauthors, have made themselves clear in an unmistakable manner.

Thus no one will be able to say he has not had the chance to evaluate the true scope of what is on the agenda next autumn at the synod of bishops.

“IS THE SYNOD RIGGED” is a new book out written by the Rome correspondent who is occasionally a guest on EWTN. His appearance with Raymond Aroyo aired this week on The World Over program and it was such an interesting discussion.

The author revealed that the African cardinals are prepared this time, for this October synod. They will have none of it, with the funny business.

Thanks be to God there are those who God has stood up as our firewall to what is being attempted. Sorry this is so vague, I didn’t take notes, but I am buying the book to learn more about what happened last Synod.

This year of Mercy can mean just about anything in this slippery era. It can mean a welfare state, it can mean giving a pass to license, and it is strangely political to those of us who see the Church become protestant against itself.

Geez, thank you for the needed correction. I guess it’s pretty obvious, I was totally distracted while listening. I appreciate you jumping in and delivering the accurate title. Thank you so much.

thank you for the needed correction.

Not meant to be a correction. :)

Hadn't heard of this book before you mentioned it. Sounds interesting.

I was going to try to get out this afternoon and see if I could get the book at my Catholic bookstore. The interview between Aroyo and the author was very important for understanding the stakes, and the African cardinals are awake and ready for the synod battle. The Western Church is mute, as far as I can tell, except for dear Cardinal Burke, the banished one, to Malta! I was encouraged by the African contingency and it motivates me to pray for these blessed souls who will fight for the faith.

Yes, I think you will find this book part page turner and part thriller and the witnesses and sources are splendid. Thanks be to God.

I believe it (The Rigging...) will have only an e-book version. Not enough time to get a paper version out and distributed before the Synod.

Check on that. I will too. I believe the book was available at Ignatius Press, and could be ordered there online.

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