Rome Newsroom, May 27, 2021 / 13:00 pm
A Bosnian cardinal has said that the “exotic ideas” of Germany’s “Synodal Way” are alien to a Church that survived communism.
Cardinal Vinko Puljić was asked in a May 6 interview with the German Maria 1.0 initiative whether Catholics in his Archdiocese of Sarajevo were engaged with issues such as women’s ordination and the abolition of clerical celibacy.
He said: “A Church that has weathered the challenge of communism does not have such exotic ideas. Indeed, such attitudes offend and astonish our believers. We cannot understand a Church in which sacrifice is a foreign word and there is a Jesus without a cross.”
He continued: “There can be discussions on any subject, but based on the Gospel and not based on secularism and relativism. Religious arbitrariness has made itself at home in the life of the Church, but we must return to the original Gospel.”
The 75-year-old cardinal has served as archbishop of Sarajevo since 1991. Born in Banja Luka in 1945, he experienced both communist rule and the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.
Maria 1.0 was launched in 2019 in response to the formation of a group calling itself Maria 2.0 that campaigns for women priests and has organized “church strikes.”
Maria 1.0 asked Puljić what advice he would give the German bishops amid concerns that the Synodal Way could lead to a schism in the Church.
“It only remains for me to pray to the Holy Spirit so that he enlightens everyone personally and all together, especially those who lead the Church in Germany,” he replied.
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