Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
KNA InternationalApril 01, 2022
German Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg attends the third Synodal Assembly in Frankfurt Feb. 3, 2021. (CNS photo/Julia Steinbrecht, KNA)German Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg attends the third Synodal Assembly in Frankfurt Feb. 3, 2021. (CNS photo/Julia Steinbrecht, KNA)

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg has once again sharply criticised the Synodal Path reform process in Germany. Attempts are being made to challenge the bishops’ authority to interpret church doctrine, Voderholzer wrote in the newspaper Tagespost.

Voderholzer criticized the fundamental “orientation text” adopted by the Synodal Assembly in Frankfurt with a two-thirds majority. He said it denied the importance of the episcopal magisterium as an authority for interpretation.

Attempts are being made to challenge the bishops’ authority to interpret church doctrine, Bishop Voderholzer wrote.

The right and the duty of the bishops to exercise their power of interpretation was thereby also called into question “when theologians interpret Scripture against the creed and the church.”

Voderholzer also criticized that the texts of the Synodal Path usually referred to “the” theology. This suggested a “uniformity in theological research that contradicts the actual pluralism of theology with debates and changing hypotheses.”

The impression of a “theology in the singular” was also fostered by the fact that only theologians of a certain direction were represented in the forums of the Synodal Path and “dissenting voices” were not allowed.

Voderholzer, who himself was a theology professor for issues of dogma for eight years before his appointment as bishop, concluded with the words: “It is becoming apparent that the magisterium of the bishops is being replaced by the magisterium of a rationalistic German university theology. It has rightly been said, with regard to the style, length and complexity of a large number of the texts dealt with by the Synodal Path, that they are texts by theologians for theologians.”

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024