ZENIT News / Vatican City, 03.12.2023).- In a letter sent to Pope Francis, Monsignor Georg Bätzing, President of the German Episcopal Conference, accused Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, of “anti-synodal and unbrotherly” behaviour, given the Polish Archbishop’s criticism of the German Synodal Way, reported OSV News.
In a letter, unknown until the German Bishop revealed it, the Polish Archbishop expressed to Pope Francis his rejection of the German reforms. The Archbishop criticized several resolutions of the Synodal Way as “extremely unacceptable and anti-Catholic.”
In the interventions during the Synod in the Vatican on Synodality, Archbishop Gadecki did not mention a letter to Pope Francis at the beginning of October, which pointed out some negative proposals of the German Synodal Way. Bishop Bätzing reacted indicating that, instead of establishing a dialogue, the Polish Archbishop expressed “false affirmations” to the Pope about the way of the German reform.
Archbishop Gadecki’s letter to the Pope was not made public until mid-November, when it was published by the Polish Catholic News Agency KAI. It expressed that the innovation of the promoters of the German Church was “inspired in leftist liberal ideologies “ instead of the Gospel. The Archbishop condemned specifically resolutions such as the ceremony of blessing for same-sex couples.
Monsignor Georg Bätzing expressed his reaction in a letter addressed to Archbishop Gadecki. The Bishop of Limburg, Germany, accused his Polish counterpart, of Poznan, of “rather unbrotherly behaviour” and of “enormous overreach of his authority.” The Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita published Bishop Bätzing’s letter, dated November 21.
“The President of the Polish Bishops had the right to write the Pope, given that the Synod is about that: a discussion on the future of the Church,” said OSV News. Tomasz Krzyzak, journalist of Rzeczposapolita, reported the German letter in his newspaper.
“What is surprising, however, is the way of making it public: both Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences were there, in the Synodal Hall, for a month and, in fact, Archbishop Gadecki was able to express to his German counterpart his concerns and that he made them known to the Pope.” According to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, Monsignor Bätzing said to Archbishop Gadecki: “I reject expressly this focus of the Archbishop, the tone of his letter and also the way that the facts are presented.”
Bätzing pointed out to Gadecki: “In your description, you emphasize a lot your on catholicity in contrast to the supposed contradiction with the Catholic Doctrine of which you accuse the Catholic Church in Germany. However, I wonder with what right the President of a Church’s Episcopal Conference dares to judge the catholicity of another Church and its Episcopate. Permit me to clarify that I consider the Archbishop’s letter a grave transgression of his authority.”
Emphasizing the line of Germany’s Synodal Way, which accentuates the voting of he different members of the Church on the authority of the Bishops, Bätzing said: “I’m concerned about the distant attitude of the Archbishop to modern parliamentary democracy that, in addition to the acknowledgement of human dignity and human rights, considers especially important the principles of the constitutional order, popular sovereignty, the state of law, the separation of powers, the protection of minorities and the social state.”
Father Thomas Schwartz, Director of the Renovabis organization of Aid to Eastern Europe, Foundation of the German Episcopal Conference, attended the Plenary Assembly of the Polish Episcopal Conference in the Jasna Gora Shrine on November 20-21, and said that more visits and conversations are needed between the representatives of the Catholic Church in Poland and Germany regarding the current differences in face of the Church’s reform in Germany.
“We are inviting the persons to do so, offering suggestions and continuing to promote initiatives that counteract the alienation,” said Father Schwartz. “It’s necessary that many more people in the Church work in this sense,” he added. And he admitted that there are considerable differences regarding the reforms between Germany and Poland: “They are certainly fundamental in nature, but they invite to dialogue.”
