German Catholics Shrug at the Pope’s Heresy

Most German Catholics don't care. Most because they are no longer Christian, let alone Catholic, the rest because they ARE Catholic.

From One Peter Five

By Luisa-Maria Papadopoulos

The internet tells me that Anglophone Catholics are engaged in a heated debate as to whether or not Pope Francis has committed heresy in Singapore. I don’t claim to know what is inside the man’s mind. Usually, in such cases, I try to find a non-heretical, though certainly not acquitting, interpretation of the Pope’s words and leave the rest up to God. Some would accuse me of popesplaining, and frankly: I’d probably have to plead guilty. Shortly after Singapore the Vatican released a video statement, for which I didn’t find a meaningful defense. And I found that I could hardly care less.

Having lived in Germany all my life, I am used to priests, even bishops, uttering heretical statements, both from my own experience and the daily news (examples will follow). On the rare occasions that some of the more harmless “German issues” make it into American Catholic media, they are treated as horror stories. For me they are part of daily life – and the following examples are only a tiny fraction of it all.

Speaking on the subject of Church teaching regarding homosexuality, Bishop Bätzing, head of our Bishops’ Conference (pictured above), said this: “I would describe myself as conservative because I love this church and enjoy devoting my life and my strength to it. But I want it to change.”  

The Bishop Dieser of Aachen had this to say:

Science shows that homosexuality is not a breakdown, not a disease, not an expression of a deficit, and incidentally not a consequence of original sin either. Then I have to say: The world is colorful and creation is diverse. And then I can also accept a diversity in the area of ​​sexuality that is wanted by God and does not violate the will of the Creator.

In America that would be scandalous. If I am in an particularly good mood, I will laugh at such nonsense, otherwise a tired shrug will be my likely reaction.

At the last session of the “synodal path” a performance was held in Frankfurt’s main church, which at the time petrified me. By now, I have seen so many crazy “liturgies,” blasphemous Lenten Veils and other sacrilegious art that even those things barely touch me anymore. They have become mundane. They shouldn’t be mundane, but I have seen too much of it, I am tired of being upset about them. Some of them have been in Austria, but that’s close enough to make German headlines.

For instance, there was a frivolous statue of Our Lady in labor. (Someone has beheaded it by now.)

Then, the Lenten Veils of Innsbruck, a pig’s heart in a condom. A petition to the bishop was answered with a brochure on the meaning of if all.

In Aachen, Our Lady was dressed in a survival blanket.

When you enter the wrong church on the wrong day, you may encounter a clown giving a homily on how bad the Church is.

I remember a “mass” I attended, where the priest, having forgotten the wine, used orange juice. In an ecumenical service where I sadly was present, the Protestant pastor was allowed to handle the consecrated chalice that is normally used for the holy sacrifice and make practical jokes with it.

Oh, by the way: Anyone brave enough can watch the Mass at the end of 2022’s “Catholics’ Day” here. I attended it live.

One of these days a friend told me: “Hardcore popesplaining wouldn’t be possible in Germany.” Of course we have avid defenders of Pope Francis, all of them Neo-Cons, but among the Trad Community the necessity for Popesplaining is in fact long gone. If tomorrow Pope Francis were to publicly deny the Holy Trinity, making clear he knew what he was doing and rejecting rebuke, all a German Trad could say (who hasn’t been living under a rock), would be this: “I guess there need be no further scruples about the emergency powers argument. So be it.”

Of course there is no definitive teaching as to what would happen in the case of “papa hereticus.” I don’t really think that all German Trads would instantly become sedeprevationists. A few might even go on to obey the man in certain disciplinary matters, but being used to heretical shepherds many of us would probably not care much and do what we are best at: ignore heretical hierarchy.

A German Catholic news site informed me about a statement made to the participants of a Mediterranean Sea Conference by Pope Francis via video on September 17. I found the original video, which was in Italian, and asked a friend to translate it for me. This is part of what Pope Francis said:

Imparate insieme a leggere i segni dei tempi. Contemplate la diversità delle vostre tradizioni come una ricchezza, una ricchezza voluta da Dio. L’unità non è uniformità, e la diversità delle nostre identità culturali e religiose è un dono di Dio. Unità nella diversità. Crescete nella stima reciproca, come testimoniano i vostri antenati.

Together, learn to read the signs of the times. Contemplate the diversity of your traditions as a richness, a richness willed by God. Unity, not uniformity, and the diversity of our cultural and religious identities are a gift of God. Unity in diversity. Grow in mutual valuing each other, as your  forefathers exemplified.

I did some research and found that the Church hosts said conference. Could it be that the part about various religious identities being a gift from God applies to the way that Catholics in different countries live their faith? Maybe. A big maybe. I cannot fathom why anyone would say what Pope Francis said if he meant “the different ways that Catholics live their faith in their respective cultures.” With big stomach aches I might use this interpretation as an excuse. Then again, Catholics aren’t really the majority on the Mediterranean Sea. If anyone but the Pope had made this statement, nobody would even think of making up an interpretation alternative to the obvious one. My first thought was this: “Blimey, this time I’d like to see the Popesplainers find an explanation for this. I, for one, don’t see any.” The second thing that came to mind was this: “Well, even if the Pope were a heretic – which I won’t make a judgment on – would it really matter this much?”

I am used to agents of the Magisterium acting as anything but what they are supposed to be. I am used to bishops uttering plain nonsense. In Germany, elderly priests are sometimes forbidden from publicly celebrating Mass in their former parishes, no matter how direly they would be needed. Why? Well, most likely so there can be more lay services. I know about a bishop who blasted members of his flock for protesting the relocation of a priest, who was too Trad in the bishop’s eyes. The first time you hear it, you are shocked, and the second time, you cringe. When stories like that have become daily routine, emotions tend to lay low.

In Germany, people don’t just “do their own thing.” We are a people that is lost without a leader to look up to. Some of us have found their niches. A faithful priest who has become a “private pope” for some. The dangers are apparent. I know a young couple who is leaving the church for Eastern Orthodoxy because “they know a nice priest.” And then there are those few who have lost all faith in our leaders. We only ever look to Christ the King – not out of disdain for the hierarchy, but as a matter of emergency. Ironically this attracts followers who want us to be their leaders.

Sheep without a shepherd, that’s what we have become. Rome has done nothing meaningful to save us from the treacherous shepherds who guide us towards an inevitable abyss. Talking, yes, lots of talking, but what is that? The Rock of Peter for us has become a thing that exists in name only. I don’t condone sedevacantism, but in our daily lives, we German Catholics certainly act as if there is no pope. We would hardly know the difference. I, for one, have ceased to care.