For several weeks, Pope Francis has had to face the aftershocks of Fiducia supplicans, a serious liturgical conflict within the Syro-Malabar Church in India and the growing tensions around the future of the “German synod”. Three crises which challenge its mission as guarantor of the unity of the Catholic Church.
The Fiducia supplicans declaration published on December 18, which authorizes under certain conditions non-ritual blessings of homosexual and divorced-remarried couples, has strongly divided the Catholic Church. Moreover, during the Synod in Rome last October, the subject was evacuated during the discussions.
If Fiducia supplicans was well received in certain dioceses, notably in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland, the tsunami on the other hand provoked a tsunami of opposition in Africa . But, as a Vatican source attentive to this issue confides, “the outcry is not only on the African continent but also half of Europe, and a large part of Latin America”. Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo finally obtained from the Pope that the text not be applied in Africa . A concession which has calmed the spirits but which now poses the risk of a multi-speed Church, similar to what we observe among the Anglicans where the Archbishop of Canterbury no longer speaks for the entire Anglican Communion on certain subjects. .
Finally, it is necessary to note the considerable difficulties that this declaration entails in terms of ecumenism, many Christian confessions, particularly in the Orthodox world, having indicated to Rome their incomprehension. The conclusion of the Synod on synodality next October should be an opportunity to return to this episode, which marks a break for some.
The Syro-Malabar liturgical revolt
In a message sent at the beginning of December, Pope Francis gave Christmas 2023 as an ultimatum to 400 priests of the Syro-Malabar Indian Church who refuse to comply with a liturgical reform voted by the synod of their Church for decades. The latter had enacted a partial return to a traditional liturgy to rediscover their oriental roots. Rebel clerics, who defend a more modern version of the liturgy, ended up obeying the Pope on Christmas Day to avoid excommunication. However, they continue to vigorously contest the reform, and now openly oppose the new leader of the small Eastern Church, Archbishop Mar Raphael Thattil, whose election was approved by the pope in January. Succeeding Cardinal George Alencherry, whose resignation was seen as an admission of failure in the face of this liturgical crisis, Bishop Thattil’s mission is to impose the reform voted by the Synod and to restore the unity of this Church which counts more of 4 million faithful in India.
German stubbornness
Since the launch of its “ synodal path ” in 2019, the Catholic Church in Germany and its reform agenda have caused growing concern in Rome. Despite several remonstrances from the Pope and the Roman Curia, the episcopal conference was preparing to vote in February on the statutes of a “synodal committee”, an organization aimed at integrating lay people into the governance structures of the German Church. A year earlier, the Holy See had explicitly asked the Germans not to move forward in this direction.
Three senior officials of the Roman Curia this time sent a letter at the last minute to those concerned to have the vote canceled. The vote was therefore postponed but there is no indication that the synodal committee project has been abandoned. “I am impressed by the patience with which the Pope and the Roman dicasteries strive to remain in contact with the German bishops and to maintain unity and communion,” commented Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn, responding to the Communio magazine . The Austrian also asked his neighbors to reconsider their synodal council project, which he described as a problem “from the point of view of the unity of the faith”. “Refusing to give in would be obstinatio – a clear sign of a schism that no one can want,” he insists.
