How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024
We are going through one of the most terrible storms that the Mystical Bride of Christ has ever suffered in her history. The doctrinal confusion, whose horrible effects have been felt for half a century, affects dogma and morals. Moral heresies are being propagated and imposed on the faithful.
New Manifesto: How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024 - Read the full version: [in English, click here | in German, click here | in French, click here | in Dutch, click here | in Portuguese, click here] *Other languages will be released soon.
The German Synodal Way, closed on March 11, 2023, is perhaps the most typical example. The proposals, approved by a large majority of the bishops present, included liturgical blessings for homosexual "couples," adaptation of the Church to "gender" and "transgender" ideology, and the female priesthood, among others.
According to members of the more leftist wing, the German synod should serve as a model for the universal Church, especially in view of the World Synod on Synodality, scheduled for October 2023 and 2024 in the Vatican. The preparatory documents for this event are already beginning to arouse serious objections, because many of their propositions are diametrically opposed to the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the divine constitution of the Church.
New Manifesto: How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024 - Read the full version: [in English, click here | in German, click here | in French, click here | in Dutch, click here | in Portuguese, click here] *Other languages will be released soon.
The German Experience
Ever since it began in December 2019, the German Synodal Path has been a cause of grave concern among Catholics faithful to the Church’s traditional teachings. From the beginning, both clerics and laymen involved with it have declared their intention to change the Catholic Church’s teachings on morals as well as destroy the Church’s hierarchical structure.
The Synodal Path is an assembly of 230 members divided equally between clergy and laymen to “discuss” and vote on what it considers pressing issues in the Church. It is a new, parliamentary form of Catholic Church governance that eliminates Catholicism’s hierarchical structure and authority vested in the Pope and the bishops. At their meeting in Frankfurt in February 2022, it passed resolutions that called for the Catholic Church to allow women’s ordination, establish the lay election of bishops, create a blessing ceremony for homosexual “unions,” change the Church’s sexual morality to approve of homosexual acts and end clerical celibacy.
The leader of this attack on Catholic orthodoxy has been Bishop George Bätzing, the Bishop of Limburg and President of the German Bishops’ Conference. Bishop Bätzing has openly endorsed the same heretical positions and reacted with defiance when other bishops or the Vatican voiced opposition to his proposals to change Church teaching on sexual morality, women’s ordination, and clerical celibacy. In an interview in May 2022, he said that he would like to “turn the Church from its head onto its feet” and said that he might even leave the Catholic Church if he “got the impression that nothing would ever change.” Bishop Bätzing made an ominous statement at a press conference in November 2022, where he said that the German bishops did not want to depart from the Catechism, “but we want to be Catholic in a different way.”
A few cardinals in the Vatican and some German bishops have raised objections to the Synodal Path, but it has faced no serious, organized opposition within the German church. This has contributed to the impression that the vast majority of German Catholics support it. The very idea of “synodality,” in fact, is to “listen” for the indications of the Holy Spirit among ordinary Catholics.
New Manifesto: How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024 - Read the full version: [in English, click here | in German, click here | in French, click here | in Dutch, click here | in Portuguese, click here] *Other languages will be released soon.
A silent but discontented majority
Shocked by these developments in Germany, faithful Catholics and TFP volunteers launched a campaign of filial resistance to the innovations by distributing copies of a manifesto in all the parishes of the dioceses of Aachen and Limburg.
For several weeks, volunteers distributed thousands of leaflets with the Manifesto before and after Masses. In Aachen Cathedral, for example, volunteers distributed leaflets before and after every weekend Mass, as well as during daily Masses.
The biggest surprise was the level of support for the campaign. "Finally, someone is doing something!" was a common response from German Catholics who received a flyer. In Aachen, about 80% expressed support for the campaign. A significant number of priests also expressed their agreement with the Manifesto and their opposition to the Synodal Way imposed on them and the German Church from above.
On February 28, the leafleting campaign ended with a rosary rally in front of Aachen Cathedral to make reparation for an obscene post on the diocese's official social media and to ask God to protect the Catholic Church in Germany from heresy against its moral teachings. About 50 local Catholics attended, opposed by about 90 pro-homosexual activists.
In Limburg, the reaction was similar: Although some parishes in the diocese displayed rainbow flags and other pro-homosexual propaganda in full public view, many others did not. When talking with ordinary Catholics while distributing flyers after Mass, a large number agreed that the German Synodal Path was bad for the Church. While many supported Bishop Bätzing and his "reforms," Catholic public opinion was by no means unanimous. This was especially evident in the largest parishes in the city of Frankfurt. A significant number of clergy and laity supported the campaign.
New Manifesto: How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024 - Read the full version: [in English, click here | in German, click here | in French, click here | in Dutch, click here | in Portuguese, click here] *Other languages will be released soon.
Progressive Catholics were furious with the campaign. While distributing leaflets in front of one of the main churches in downtown Frankfurt (which displayed a sign saying "All are welcome"), a Franciscan priest angrily shouted at the volunteers handing out leaflets.
A new international campaign
Encouraged by these reactions and concerned about the direction of the Synod preparations, the volunteers prepared a new manifesto and decided to launch a new mass distribution campaign to the faithful, this time on an international level.
Our volunteers have already visited 80% of all the parishes in Luxembourg, whose Card. Hollerich, is also the General Relator of the next Synod.
In a desperate situation, a message of hope!
In such a chaotic situation, it is entirely explainable that many of the Catholic faithful feel overwhelmed, perplexed, and tempted by discouragement, seemingly with nowhere to turn.
This new campaign is intended to be a small contribution to help us pass through this time of trial and remain strong in the faith (1 Pt 5:9), so that in a few years we can look back and say: "It was difficult, even very difficult, but with the help of the Blessed Virgin my faith has emerged even more clear and firm than before". Above all, the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church will have come out of the crisis shining like never before, just as a diamond, after being cut, shines with much more light.
New Manifesto: How to persevere in the Catholic faith amidst the storms of 2023 - 2024 - Read the full version: [in English, click here | in German, click here | in French, click here | in Dutch, click here | in Portuguese, click here] *Other languages will be released soon.
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