WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Msgr. Charles Pope, known for his outspoken defense of the Traditional Latin Mass and Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life and marriage, has strongly criticized the push within the Church’s hierarchy to create a “synodal church,” calling out the secular agenda of Rome’s upcoming Synod of Bishops on Synodality and declaring, “I don’t want it … I want the Church Jesus founded.”
“From all I hear about this ‘synodal church’ I don’t want it,” Msgr. Pope wrote on Facebook. “I want the Catholic Church. I want the Church of the martyrs, of the Saints. I want the Catholic Church, who is a bride, not a widow; the Bride of Christ, not a disciple of the world, who has a joyful orthodoxy that is opposed to the world in order to convert it.”
Contrasting the divine mission of the Church with the discipleship to the world that is manifest in the agenda of the upcoming synod — which includes discussion of increased female governance; greater acceptance of LGBT individuals, including access to the sacraments; married priests; Communion for the divorced and remarried; and the future of ecclesiastical governance — Msgr. Pope prayed for a purification of the Church “from love of the world.”
“Yes, I want the Church Jesus founded and commissioned to go and teach all nations and baptize all people into the saving and radiant, truth of Jesus. I want the Church who is in love with her spouse Jesus, not desperate for the approval of the world or enamored by it. Please Lord purify your Bride, the Catholic Church, from the love of the world. Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us by your Grace!”
The criticisms come as Bishop Georg Bätzing, the leader and head of the heretical Synodal Way of the German Bishops’ Conference, said recently that “new ideas are needed about how we can found the Church differently, how we can appeal to people in new ways for the fundamental acts of worship, preaching, and selfless service.”
The heterodox German prelate said there is a “need for courage to experiment” and to resist those who say “that this has never been done before.”
“The old structure is no longer suitable for the future,” Bätzing argued in a July 23 homily. “All this does not mean the end of the Church, I am sure of that, but it does mean the end of a certain institutional form of church that was formative for just 100 years, but of which we have the impression that it has always been like this and should actually remain like this.”
READ: Pro-LGBT head of German bishops’ conference says he wants to ‘found the Church differently’
The Church, however, was founded once and for all upon the rock of St. Peter by Christ Himself, its supreme Head. In his 1943 encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi, Pope Pius XII wrote that the Catholic Church “is to be called not merely a body, but the Body of Jesus Christ,” which “follows from the fact that our Lord is the Founder, the Head, the Support and the Savior of this Mystical Body.”
Quoting Pope Leo XIII, Pius XII wrote that “The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed Herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost.”
“For the Divine Redeemer began the building of the mystical temple of the Church when by His preaching He made known His Precepts; He completed it when he hung glorified on the Cross; and He manifested and proclaimed it when He sent the Holy Ghost as Paraclete in visible form on His disciples,” Pius XII stated.
Signaling what should be expected at the upcoming October Synod on Synodality in Rome, the working document for the synod released by heterodox Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg presented topics such as women’s diaconal “ordination,” married priests, and a need to “welcome” the “remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, LGBTQ+ people.”
READ: Major Synod on Synodality document highlights need to ‘welcome’ polygamists, ‘LGBTQ+ people’
Notably, the widely accepted, and papally approved, interpretation of Amoris Laetitia as allowing the divorced and “remarried” to Holy Communion was presented as an already finalized issue in the document that the assembly members will discuss.
Commenting on the list of participants, Deacon Nick Donnelly argued that the event was a means to promote homosexuality within the Church.
“Bergoglio really isn’t hiding the fact that the goal of the synod on Synodality is about defying God’s commands against sodomites,” he wrote. “When you add into the mix the fact that Timothy Radcliffe is leading the pre-synod retreat you realize the fix is in for the synod force through the acceptance of sodomy.”
Similarly, Argentine Archbishop Hector Aguer criticized the new church of “synodality,” saying, “The goal, then, can be the new progressive Church, at cross purposes with the great ecclesial Tradition.”
Commenting on the synod topic ‘how can the Church be more responsive to LGBTQ+ people,’” he criticized the use of the “new ideological term “LGBTQ+ people” arguing that “objective truth and the recognition of precepts by which virtue, and sin, are judged and recognized no longer count.” Rather, the archbishop said, “what matters now is how those who consider themselves excluded feel; it is their feeling that matters, not the objective state in which they find themselves.”
“The synodal program, like that of the German Synod, designs another Church, heterogeneous with respect to the great and unanimous Tradition,” the Argentine bishop declared.
Other prominent prelates, such as Cardinals Gerhard Müller and Raymond Burke, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, and Bishops Athanasius Schneider and Joseph Strickland, have likewise condemned the synodal agenda as running contrary to the deposit of faith.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Bp. Schneider says Synod on Synodality serves up ‘spiritual poisons’ to the faithful
Msgr. Pope previously raised his voice in defense of the Traditional Latin Mass, calling on bishops to be more pastoral to Catholics who wish to worship according to Rome’s ancient rite. He also spoke out against COVID restrictions within the Church and has strongly condemned abortion and same-sex marriage.
When Planned Parenthood opened an abortion mill on Capitol Hill near Msgr. Pope’s parish, he rallied Catholic churches in the area to more strongly oppose the move with greater pro-life outreach.
WATCH: The LGBT empire is CONQUERING the Church!
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