Polish archbishop voices serious questions about Synod on Synodality
November 14, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: The president of the Polish bishops’ conference questioned whether the Synod on Synodality will be “a place for the transmission of faith or, rather, unbelief,” in a long and provocative interview with Catholic World Report.
Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan voiced concerns about several aspects of the Synod, including the reliance on social sciences, the influence of the German bishops’ conference, and the role of lay people in the Synod of Bishops.
Regarding the impact of the German “Synodal Path,” the archbishop said: “Almost all of the demands listed there raise serious concerns for me. I believe the Church in Germany is in the greatest crisis since the Reformation.”
Speaking more generally about the Church in Western Europe, Archbishop Gadecki voiced his concern that “Christians entirety be a place for the transmission of faith or, rather, unbelief? I think that Christians in the West often doubt that they have something so essential to communicate to people that their fate, i.e., salvation or damnation, depends on its acceptance or rejection.” He added that “one can get the impression that some theologians and bishops believe in the infallibility of social sciences.”
Regarding the nature of the Synod itself, with the addition of lay voting members, the Polish archbishop said that “such a reality does not exist in either canon law or the tradition of the Church.”
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