The Church’s path: Who should be in the centre of the priestly mission?
Immersed in liberalism, the RCC strives to be as close to the world as possible today. Many among the Orthodox believe we should also follow this path. But should we?
The "Synodal Path" and its influence
As is known, besides individual bishops, cardinals, and priests (as well as the pope), the German "Synodal Path" is considered to be the main driver of the RCC towards embracing LGBT and moving towards female clergy.
Its representatives are actively working to change the canonical and doctrinal norms of the Catholic Church, according to which "pederasts" (as the pope recently put it) cannot be priests, nor can women. Naturally, this also involves the words of the Apostle Paul that "sodomites will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
Thus, the "Synodal Path" is a gathering of liberally oriented bishops and laity of the RCC who advocate that the Church should be "more modern" in order to attract youth.
Who needs the path of the "Synodal Path"?
The problem is that the majority of the "Synodal Path" members are, to put it mildly, senior people, with not many young representatives among them. Moreover, Germany is perhaps the country where Catholicism is being renounced the most worldwide. It is the youth who are leaving. This is because they do not see in the RCC a force capable of standing against this world, a force able to provide answers to the most pressing questions and help people encounter God.
However, the youth's abandonment of faith is not just a loss of parishioners but also a loss of clergy. The Church needs priests. This means it has the right to expect that some young people should want to dedicate their lives to the Church. Moreover, in Catholicism, this means "dedicate" in the strictest sense of the word. In Catholicism, it should be remembered, priests are not married, which means that by choosing the path of spiritual service, a man gives up having a family, which is not easy. This is precisely why, according to some experts and RCC representatives, Catholicism in Europe is experiencing an acute crisis of priestly vocation. Young people are not very inclined to become priests.
Priests in Germany
But someone becomes a priest, don’t they? Yes. For instance, in Germany, from 2010 to 2021, 847 priests were ordained (not a lot, but still). However, 1,668 students left the seminaries during this same period—twice as many. And it wasn’t just because they wanted to get married but for a whole range of reasons, the main one cited by former seminarians being "disappointment in the Church". But why are they disappointed? After all, the Catholic Church strives to be as modern and as close to people as possible, allowing almost everything. So why are seminarians "disappointed"? Why do they stop liking a Church oriented towards LGBT and extreme liberalism?
To answer this question, let's look at the numbers mentioned above.
It turns out that those 847 individuals who did not leave the seminaries and became priests despite everything were raised in families with views opposed to liberalism.
A very interesting study was recently published, showing that almost all priests ordained from 2010 to 2021 were raised in families with traditional positions regarding Church teachings and morality!
Quote: "Regarding the background of young priests in Germany, they mainly come from conservative or traditionally oriented segments of society."
What does this mean? It means that the elderly bishops, who hope to reform the RCC and attract youth through their "Synodal Path", are actually killing it—the young people are leaving both the seminaries and the Church.
Only those who were raised properly—in the traditions of conservative Catholicism—are linking their lives with the Church. And this is understandable because liberals are not seriously interested in associating with either the Church or Christ, unlike truly devout people.
Who needs the "Synodal Path"?
So, who needs this "Synodal Path"? Who wants the Church to turn into an LGBT office, mired in liberalism and the betrayal of Christ?
Real Catholics do not need this. Fake Catholics and non-Catholics need it even less.
So, who does need it?
People who have no connection to the Church, who are most likely atheists, and whose plans involve either the complete destruction of the Church or such a restructuring of it that the teachings of Christ and the Gospel can be ignored. In their understanding, the Church is merely a tool for serving political elites, a tool for propaganda and control.
Yes, if the Church is reformatted in accordance with the "demands of the time", it will cease to be a Church, lose its believers, and even as an instrument, it will be of no interest—it will simply be erased from public life and, at best, confined to a ghetto.
So, why bother to reform it?
The Church and the teachings of Christ
When the Church follows Christ rather than the "demands of the time", its teachings cannot change as frequently as the political agenda. In fact, they do not change at all and do not allow for compromises. Because "what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Such a Church is inconvenient because its representatives will always align their actions with the Gospel and their conscience, not with the "current moment". If that's the case, both they and the Church will be declared enemies and efforts will be made to destroy them.
On the other hand, the example of the "Synodal Path" and the young German priests raised in traditional and conservative families clearly tells us who the Church should focus on. Its mission is not to please the world, but to follow the Gospel and the teachings of Christ. Yes, preaching this teaching is the Church's main mission. But this can only be achieved through maximum adherence to the teachings, not by abandoning them.
Who is the main focus of the mission?
By turning the Church into something resembling a mere human organization where people "satisfy religious needs" and "promote statehood", we will lose those who seek Christ in the Church above all. And most importantly, with them, we will lose everything, we will lose the Church itself.
The ecclesiastical hierarchy and clergy should have long understood that their first and foremost mission, their preaching both by word and personal example, must be carried out among the parishioners, among those already in the Church. They, the flock and the fold of Christ, are the primary subjects of spiritual care.
This does not mean that the Church should not be open to the world. On the contrary, its witness in the world is extremely important, and without it, the world will perish. But this witness should be conducted through the believers, through those already in the Church: "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
In this sense, neither the officials, nor the powerful, nor the businessmen or politicians, but these simple grandmothers and grandfathers, simple mothers with children, girls and boys who come to the church while they are still little – these are the main people in the life of a bishop and a priest. If they are not in the Church, there will be no one.
Preaching, love, mercy – all these should be primarily directed towards them. And if it is possible to make the parishioners true Christians, then they will be the ones who can tell others about Christ and raise their children in such a way that our temples will never be empty.
