Germany for the Win!

It seems that Germany is still ahead in the Heresy and Schism Sweepstakes in the German speaking lands.

From One Mad Mom

Austria really tried to take the lead, but it looks like Germany has succeeded in this year’s pew clearing competition!

When are we going to stop listening to the German bishops and cardinals who have devastated the Church in their country? Can we stop putting them in charge of every get-together that comes out of the Vatican? Maybe the point is to get people to leave, but if it’s supposed to “draw in the marginalized”, let me let you in on a little secret. It ain’t working. It never has and it never will.

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/05/26/record-numbers-leave-church-in-munich-archdiocese/

CNA Staff, May 26, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- A record number of people left the Church in the German Archdiocese of Munich and Freising last year, a local statistical office said Tuesday.

The Munich statistical office told CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, May 26 that 10,744 Catholics formally withdrew from the Church in 2019. It noted that this was a fifth higher than in 2018, when 8,995 people left.

Statisticians said this was the first time that annual departures had surpassed the 10,000 mark since records began. Previously, the highest figure was 9,010, set in 1992.”

Did you see that, Cardinal Marx? A RECORD NUMBER of people have left the Church in Germany. More than any of the years since the stats have been kept. They can’t get away from you and your ilk fast enough!

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the 66-year-old Archbishop of Munich and Freising, announced in February that he would not stand for re-election as president of the German bishops’ conference. He cited his age and his desire to spend more time in his archdiocese, in the Catholic heartland of Bavaria, which he has led since 2008.”

Yeah, spending more time in your archdiocese. That ought to do it, that is, if “it” is having another record breaking year.

In March, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bavaria’s public-service broadcaster, reported that people gave a variety of reasons for leaving, including a desire to stop paying church tax, the clerical abuse scandal and the position of women within the Church.

Uh, hello! The reason is that they don’t have any faith. Why is it they have not faith? Cardinal Marx and friends. If they had faith, they’d stay, and the last reason shows it is a lack of faith vs. a simple lack of confidence. They don’t even know the Faith after years of Cardinal Marx and company. And, if they had Faith, they wouldn’t be forced to give to the Church, they’d want to give.

The Church in Germany is largely funded through a tax collected by the government. If an individual is registered as a Catholic then 8-9% of their income tax goes to the Church. The only way they can stop paying the tax is to make an official declaration renouncing their membership of the Church. They are no longer allowed to receive the sacraments or a Catholic burial.

And since they don’t have any Faith in Germany, they can now afford a nice vacation. There is no downside for them in leaving because they don’t know the Truth.

While the number of Catholics abandoning the faith has increased steadily since the 1960s, the Church’s income has risen. In 2018, the Church’s income rose to 6.64 billion euros, while 216,078 people left the Church, according to a report by the German bishops’ conference.

So, while the faithful had to pay to claim Catholicism, the German clergy was abusing a bunch and re-doing their homes.  Couple that with not knowing a darn about the faith, and why would they stay?

Last year the German bishops announced plans for a two-year “Synodal Way,” bringing together lay people and bishops to discuss four major topics: the way power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women.

They said the process would end with a series of “binding” votes — raising concerns at the Vatican that the resolutions might challenge Church teaching and discipline.

And all those pie in the sky promises didn’t do a darn thing. Cardinal Marx pretty much told them they’d be free to live whatever lifestyle they wanted or achieve whatever ecclesiastical career they wanted. (And I do mean career.) They all still walked away. They gave them no authentic reason to stay. They gave them protestantism. Wonder what would happen if they gave them, say, belief inthe Real Presence? I guess that’s hard to do when you don’t believe it yourself.

In June, Pope Francis sent a 28-page letter to German Catholics urging them to focus on evangelization in the face of a “growing erosion and deterioration of faith.”

I guess the Holy Father didn’t realize that the German bishops themselves were the cause of the “growing erosion and deterioration of faith?”

“Every time an ecclesial community has tried to get out of its problems alone, relying solely on its own strengths, methods and intelligence, it has ended up multiplying and nurturing the evils it wanted to overcome,” he wrote.

Uh, where’s the proof they wanted to actually overcome evils? On the contrary, they seem quite enamored with them. “Heresy? No problem. Immorality? Love it. We’ll give them whatever they want to keep the euros flowing in.” Sadly, they didn’t see that plan going awry.

In September, the Vatican sent a letter to the German bishops declaring that their plans for the synod were “not ecclesiologically valid.”

And? Oh, yeah. They seem to be doing it anyway.

After a back and forth between the bishops’ conference and Vatican officials, the first synodal assembly took place in Frankfurt at the end of January. The second meeting is expected to go ahead, despite the coronavirus crisis, in September.

And the Vatican is saying what? “Don’t you do it! I mean it! I mean it this time. I really mean it this time!” Parents know this doesn’t usually end well. Moving the line of obedience means you’re about to get trampled.

In an interview May 22 with Der Spiegel, Cardinal Marx discussed his tenure as bishops’ conference president and his new book “Freiheit” (Freedom), published May 25.

He said that, despite being portrayed as liberal, he felt conservative.

Oooh! Sorry! I probably should have warned you not to take a drink before you read that one. I don’t know. Maybe in Germany that is considered conservative? If so, I can’t imagine what a liberal would look like.

“As a 15-year-old, I did not like the fact that after the Second Vatican Council old ceremonies and images were abolished in many places,” he explained. “Traditions are also something important.””

I’m not omnipotent, but I have a few guesses about Cardinal Marx. I think he wants what he wants, but he also wants to be able to put both hands on his chest and say in the most innocent way he can muster, “What???? I wasn’t in charge.” I think he understands perfectly well what Traditions are doctrinal, and he can’t wait to do away with them. To do this, he has been leading people to believe they can “evolve” (code word for making them non-existent). I don’t think he’s in any way conservative, because when you are, you don’t take a wrecking ball to doctrine and morality. He actually sounds a lot like our bishop from many years ago. After decades of persecuting any priest or laity with a shred of orthodoxy, he had the gall to say that he’d love to retire to my parish and spend his days saying the Extraordinary Form Mass. Not genuine at all.