Cardinal Eijk: The way of the Church is not reformism, but reliable teaching and worthy liturgy

Primate of the Netherlands cardinal. Willem Jacobus Eijk does not think reformism can bring much good to the Catholic Church. In his opinion, Catholicism lies nowhere else.

Cardinal Eijk, although Dutch, consistently presents a conservative view of the past, present and future of the Church.

He spoke critically in the magazine "Communio".

This prestigious magazine was founded in 1972 on the initiative of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Józef Ratzinger and Henry de Lubac. It was a consequence to the progressive course of the somewhat younger magazine "Concilium", in which the mentioned authors published.

For decades, “Communio” has been a space for theological discussion, which shapes the reality of the Catholic Church in the post-collaborative era. "Communio" was global and was besides issued in Poland from the beginning, although due to its origin it remains the most crucial for the theological discussion in German countries, including the Netherlands.

The Dutch Primate gave the Dutch edition of ‘Communio’ a comprehensive interview. Journalists asked him, among another things, about his assessment of reforms that he wants to implement the Church in the West Germany as part of the Synod Way. According to the Dutch purple, the direction taken there is profoundly wrong.

– You can learn from the Church in the Netherlands that this is simply a mistake. He who stirs up confusion pushes people distant from the Church. This way you won't be able to attract anyone. I would like to tell the bishops of another countries: do not make the same mistakes we have made. Churches are full of those parishes where religion is well preached and where liturgy is dignified. It's about putting Christ in the center. erstwhile people discover Christ and realize the Scriptures better, they will besides be able to realize the teaching of the Church better. – he said.

The Cardinal pointed out that the German Synod Road showed a large resemblance to the Synod of the Pastoral Dutch Church Province, which was held between 1966 and 1970. That synod began with large enthusiasm and set itself many reformist goals, specified as the abolition of celibacy. In the end, nothing worked out.

The Primate of the Netherlands besides rejected the thought of taking regionally and culturally differentiated decisions on specified key issues as women's access to the sacrament of holiness.

– The word “synod” comes from the Greek “son”, or together, and “hodos”, or road. We must follow the common way and we must not distance ourselves from the universal Church. The Pope emphasized this in 2019 in his "Letter to the Pilgrim Church in Germany". If we lose unity of prophecy, the Church will lose credibility. In the Netherlands, in the last 50 years, we have accumulated quite a few bad experiences about ambiguity and confusion. People felt that the Church did not know what it wanted. - He said.

Hierarch was besides asked about the Dutch experimentation of building a society without God. He pointed to the fundamental problems that this experimentation brought.

– In my opinion, secularisation means that the individual is no longer at the centre and that the state is increasingly deciding on fundamental rights. Where previously there was a belief in the creation of man in God’s image, which active the right of an irrevocably binding man, present the state took over. An example of this is legalisation and widespread abortion. Life seems to be little and little valuable. The number of euthanasia cases increases dramatically – from a 1000 and 5 100 in 1991 to as many as 10,000 this year. Nearly 40% of marriages end in divorce, which means a large emotional burden for divorcees and their children. investigation on embryos is being expanded and government amended so as to let children aged 16 to change sex on their own in documents He stressed.

– These social changes have far-reaching consequences. Rising individualism leads to loneliness, especially in the case of older people. Many young people besides feel confused and have intellectual problems, frequently conditioned by deficiency of value. A social experimentation to establish an ethical order without God in the long word will end in defeat said Cardinal Eijk.

The full interview can besides be read in the online, German-language edition of “Communio” (Link – here).

Source: Herder.de

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