The Sin-o-dal Way. . .

One journalist reported on the growing conflict within the Roman Catholic Church between its richest and most well-funded national jurisdiction and the Vatican.  The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has a net worth of nearly $4 Billion, about 30% more than the Vatican itself.  Such a major concentration of funds has been used of late to influence and shape the rest of the Roman Catholic Church.  It is literally pushing for a new kind of reformation that would distance that communion from Scripture and tradition and put it more closely in tune with the culture and beliefs of the people around it.

The Synodal Way is the suggestion of a new form of ecclesiastical structure in which the centralized power of Rome would diminish and more power would be given to parishioners – especially in the decision making of the churches and a veto over the appointment of bishops.  It advocates for the ordination of women as deacons, for now, and priests, for later.  It cites the sex abuse scandal and the distance between doctrine and belief as causes for the drastic restructuring of the Roman Catholic Church.  It is significant that the Vatican and the Pope have not yet disavowed this document or its direction – a sign of the difficulty they are in posing a conflict between the richest arm of Roman Catholicism and its traditionally centralized government.

Oddly enough, this comes from a section of the Roman Catholic Church in which mass attendance is very low, the numbers of those who go to confession or receive the Sacrament continues to diminish, and the value of this communion is viewed largely in symbolic terms by people inside and outside the confines of the German church.  The Germans have the money to push Rome’s buttons and have insisted that Pope John Paul II’s decision to entirely rule out the ordination of women has been undermined by “new insights into the witness of the Bible, into the developments of Tradition, and into the anthropology of gender,” even casting doubts on “the coherence of his argumentation and the validity of his statements” on the matter.

It is one more sign of the growing influence of liberal and progressive Christians who believe that the future of the faith rests not with faithfulness and continuity with the doctrine and life of the past but with a complete revamping of what is believed and practiced to accord with what is happening in the secular world.  While Lutherans have no dog in this fight, we should watch and pay attention.  The German Lutherans are in much the same boat as this group challenging Rome.  They have largely adopted every liberal position, just as Lutherans throughout the West.  The Lutheran Churches going a different way remain small and have less financial resources than those who have remade the Church of the Augsburg Confession into a mirror of the world around them.  

African Lutherans have especially given hope to Confessional Lutherans in the West and it is possible that the so-called third world churches will give Rome the backbone to say “no” to the money and influence of the Germans.  In any case, orthodox Christianity is under attack more by those inside than outside, attempting to gut the faith and dilute the influence of Scripture and tradition by giving a larger voice to woke culture and progressive voices on nearly every subject – from climate change to gender identity.  My friends, fight is fierce and the warfare long as we battle those who would defeat the cause of the Spirit and the voice of God speaking through His Word the truth that does not change.  Stay tuned. . .