Schönborn sharply criticises German synodal path procedure
In an interview in the June edition of the international theological monthly Concilium, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna underlined how important it was in his opinion to decouple questions of church reform from coming to terms with the clerical sexual abuse scandal. His remarks were aimed specifically at the German synodal pathway.
“What I find somewhat alienating is the speed with which it (the German synodal path) skips from the abuse issue to canon law issues, as the evidence of a connection (between the two) has not been thought through or proved. Is there really a direct connection (which shows) that abuse occurred in the Church because there were no checks and balances? I would doubt that,” he stated.
There was a danger that abuse was being instrumentalised. “Abuse practised by church leaders is not an argument against leadership as such. The fact that priests and bishops have covered up abuse is not an argument against the episcopal constitution of the Church”, Schönborn explained.
At the third meeting in February 2022, he then recalled, the German synodal path members had voted in favour of discussing whether priestly ordination was even any longer necessary by a majority of one vote (95 in favour, 94 against). “Something has plainly and simply gone wrong here as one cannot vote on such issues synodally. The presidium (of the German synodal path) should have intervened. That is not a negotiable issue. There are certain prerequisites that are deeply rooted in the Bible and in church tradition. Just imagine a synodal path which did without the deposit of the faith. That is a different approach but certainly not synodality in the Church’s sense”, he emphasised.
There was too little discussion of the discipleship of Jesus and of repentance in the German synodal path discussion, Schönborn said. Synodality in Pope Francis’ sense was a “spiritual way” based on the Trinity, he recalled. Synodality and hierarchy should not be understood as opposites. “I think it would be important to discuss the trinitarian origin of synodality more deeply”, he emphasised.
Schönborn was immediately contradicted by the well-known German theologian Gregor Maria Hoff who told the German bishops’ conference’s website katholisch.de that discussing the priestly ministry was not “instrumentalising” clerical sexual abuse but seeking resilient, contemporary grounds for a ministry that was experiencing its “acutest-ever existential crisis”.
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