I have written several posts about the incoherence of the German Synodal Way and its effort to reconcile the Gospel with the Sexual Revolution by an attempt to change the teaching of the Catholic Church on the sacraments of Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony and on the moral character of sexual friendships outside of marriage. I believe this effort to be a fool’s errand because the truth of divine revelation cannot be altered to suit the preferences and fads of any era in history, including our own, and I have criticized the bishops and priests in Germany and elsewhere who by their advocacy of doctrinal revision are contradicting the profession of faith and oath of fidelity they made at their ordinations.
Today, though, I am writing to praise a priest in Germany for acting on his convictions by resigning from his ministry and leaving the Catholic Church. Andreas Sturm was the vicar general of the Diocese of Speyer until his recent resignation and announcement that he is joining the Old Catholic Church, a schismatic and heretical sect that began in the aftermath of the First Vatican Council. Please note, I do not rejoice that Herr Sturm has embraced false doctrine and chosen schism over the obedience of faith, but once it was clear that he no longer believed and professed all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God, then the only honorable thing left for him to do was resign and depart for a different path.
I hope that others who hold a teaching office in the Church, especially bishops and priests, and who no longer believe what the Catholic Church teaches about the disputed questions of the day and anything else in the Deposit of Faith will do the same. Both they and the Catholic faithful would be much better served by honest disagreement and honorable separation than by the dissidents clinging to offices within the Church in the vain hope of changing Catholic Christianity into something it is not and can never be. But their departure would be no victory for anyone; it would, rather, be a defeat for all who are bound by their Baptism to be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the Word of God. Still, leaving the Church when the Faith is no longer shared is the honest and honorable thing to do. May God have mercy on us all.
What a thoughtful account of what individuals should be doing when they have lost the original teachings of our faith.
Nice. Not enough adulting going on these days. We have encountered the Old Catholic Church here in Aiken, believe it or not. The encounter was very confrontational (on the Old Catholic Church side).