ESTABLISHED 1888 HERALDCATHOLIC Crisis of disunity threatens German Church In his fascinating interview with Karl Gustel Wärnberg in this issue, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has identified important fault lines within the Church in Germany. In particular, he has expressed his concern about the direction of what is called the Synodal Way. His concerns are not just relevant to Germany but to other national Churches which have begun to participate in the global Synod initiated by Pope Francis. both deserve respectful debate, but at the outset we have to acknowledge that accepting these things would be a radical departure from the traditions of the Church, and for Catholics, tradition is one way that the Holy Spirit operates in history. And if the intention of making these changes is to retain popular support, as Cardinal Müller says, it will fail, because that is not why people are drawn to the Catholic Church. He might also add that these things have not reversed the decline in the fortunes of the evangelical Churches which have adopted them. The interview is compelling because the German Church reflects the problems of liberal European churches which have assimilated to secular society to the point where it can at times seem simply to reflect that society’s norms. Of course, the Church must read the signs of the times, yet Christ also called on his followers to be the salt of the earth. In other words, the Catholic Church cannot simply mimic the assumptions of secular society: sometimes it has to be prepared to challenge them. German states gave us the Reformation; we should be concerned if something like a Church within a Church is emerging there now. There is, however, one distinctive aspect of the Church in Germany which needs reform and that is its finances. Car- There is one distinctive aspect of the Church in Germany which needs reform and that is its finances dinal Müller says he does not see a problem in the way that the state collects taxes from individuals and distributes them to the main denominations, but it is about as far from the spirit of the gospels as it is possible to conceive. It has resulted in a Church that is relatively rich in assets and income (though less than it used to be) and poor in attendance and commitment. For instance, in Germany access to the sacraments may be withheld from those who do not make a fiscal contribution to the Church: how can the Church of Christ deny the last rites to a dying individual on the basis he has not paid for them? Cardinal Müller has made clear that many German liberals, including clergy, who participate in the Synodal Way subscribe to a very different model of the Church from his own. They question the fundamentals of Church tradition: whether, for instance, it is necessar y to have a pr iesthood at all. This is one response to the problem of clericalism, which played a part in the sexual abuse scandals, but it is one thing to call for a humbler, purified and accountable clergy, quite another to question the existence of a priesthood altogether. And, as the cardinal says, it does not help to frame this move as “democratisation”, following a political principle in which government is accountable to the people. St Paul suggests a different model for the Church, whereby all the parts of the body are different, all necessary, but not all fulfilling the same function. The Catholic Church in Germany cannot hope to regenerate and purify itself if it relies on a system of financial support which is inherently corrupting. If there is one thing that liberals and conservatives should unite on it is the need to find another model for the Church than this perverse reliance on the state. Elsewhere, the Cardinal has identified other respects in which the Church and state are problematically close: in churches in some dioceses, clergy are requiring communicants to have been vaccinated or to have recovered from Covid before they may receive communion. Restricting access to the sacrament in this way is, as Cardinal Müller says, sinful. Perhaps the most obvious respect in which the liberal movement within the Synodal Way presages what may happen in other Churches is its instinctive support for both the ordination of women and the blessing of homosexual unions in Church. These are very different issues and German Catholics should be grateful for the cardinal’s robust defence of the fundamentals of the faith as expressed in this interview. The German Church faces a crisis of disunity; he is showing exemplary courage in confronting it. CH FEBRUARY 2022 ● CATHOLIC HERALD 1