San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is pictured in a file photo celebrating Mass
outside the Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption as part of a rosary rally. Photo: CNS. The Archbishop of San Francisco has publicly supported Denver Archbishop Aquila’s response to the German bishops’ “synodal path”, which he said advances “untenable” views of the Church.
In his open letter dated May 13, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver had warned about the fundamental text produced by the first forum of the German Catholic Synodal Path.
Last Wednesday, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco stated his support for Archbishop Aquila’s letter.
“We are all in Archbishop Aquila’s debt for such an extraordinary, reasoned, and theologically rich response to the German bishops’ ‘Synodal Path’, which proposes a radical transformation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church he left us,” stated Dr Cordileone on Wednesday.
Archbishop Cordileone said Archbishop Aquila’s letter “reminds me of the forthright way St Paul spoke to the Corinthians, Galatians, Thessalonians and others”.
Believe
Archbishop Aquila, in his May 13 letter, had called on bishops to be the first to “repent and believe” even as they call the world to do the same. While his letter was dated on the feast of the Ascension, he released it on May 26, the feast of St Philip Neri. It is a 15-page commentary on the German synodal path text.
The German bishops’ “Synodal Path” includes bishops and lay people, and addresses four major topics: how power is exercised in the Church; sexual morality; the priesthood; and the role of women. The process began on December 1, 2019, and is expected to end in February 2022.
Some critics of the process have expressed concerns that it could conclude with certain positions contrary to the Church’s teaching and discipline on the ordination of women and intercommunion.
While the synodal path text rightly mentions the Church’s “crisis of credibility” due to the recent sex abuse scandals and coverups, the Church’s response must include clarity about its teachings, Archbishop Aquila said.
“If the Church is unwilling to tell the truth with prudence and courage about matters of discomfort to her own leaders, why should the world trust the Church to tell the truth on matters of discomfort to the world?” he wrote.
Rupture
On May 26, Archbishop Cordileone agreed and called the German bishops’ vision of the Church a “radical rupture”. He said the bishops’ text “describes a Church that will be grounded not in Christ’s eternal Truth, but instead pre-eminently conditioned by the world”.
Archbishop Cordileone cited Archbishop Aquila’s letter that such a Church proposed by the synodal path text would be “comfortably accepted by it [the world] as one respectable institution among others”.
“Archbishop Aquila reminds us of the words of Pope Francis, ‘The Successor of Peter, yesterday, today and tomorrow, is always called to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the priceless treasure of that faith which God has given as a light for humanity’s path’,” Archbishop Cordileone said.
“Yes. Let us remember above all our first love, Christ crucified,” he added.