Backlash for Mario Grech from conservative wing in Vatican

Cardinal Mario Grech is facing backlash from the Catholic church’s conservative wing over the ongoing synod and its opening to the LGBTI+ community and divorced Catholics.

The Maltese cardinal was accused by fellow Cardinal Gerhard Müller of leading a process intended to “undermine the Catholic faith and the Catholic church”.

In an interview on EWTN’s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo on 6 October, Müller even took to task Grech’s theological credentials. “Cardinal Grech presents himself as a super authority but he is not a recognised theologian and has no importance in academic theology… he is presenting a new hermeneutic (interpretation) of the Catholic faith only because he is the secretary of the synod, which has no authority on the doctrine of the Church,” Müller told his interviewer.

‘A hostile takeover’

The German cardinal went on to describe the synod as a “hostile takeover” of Christ’s church. “They think that doctrine is like a programme of a political party that can be changed according to their votes.”

Müller had served as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith between 2012 and 2017, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 2014.

The 74-year-old cardinal is emerging as the voice of orthodoxy within the Catholic church, representing those who are at loggerheads with Pope Francis and his attempts to make the church more inclusive.

Grech, who was appointed by Pope Francis as secretary general of the Synod in September 2020, is leading a global consultation process within the Catholic church that will culminate in two synods to be held at the Vatican in October next year and the year after.

The process started in 2021, is described as an “act of discernment” that encompasses all Catholics. But it also lays emphasis on the need to listen to the voices of others who may not practice the faith.

The first part of this process has produced more than a hundred documents from the world’s dioceses with findings from consultations made at parish level. This exercise has exposed issues that can challenge church dogma.

In an online address to US bishops gathered in Washington DC on 26 September, Grech outlined two of these issues that have “created a lot of discussion” – holy communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and the blessing of same-sex couples.

No exclusive access to God

The Maltese cardinal was quoted by Fr James Martin, an American Jesuit priest, telling bishops that these issues “are not to be understood simply in terms of doctrine, but in terms of God’s ongoing encounter with human beings”.

“What has the church to fear if these two groups within the faithful are given the opportunity to express their intimate selves and the spiritual realities that they experience? Might this be an opportunity for the church to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through them also,” Grech said.

A decision-making process in the church always should begin with listening, he told his audience. “This is not about democracy. This is not populism. A synodal journey is a process of listening to the Spirit, who speaks through all the members of the people of God,” Grech emphasised. “The hierarchy do not have exclusive access to this ongoing dialogue with God. Let us trust that the Holy Spirit acts with and in our people. And that the Spirit is not merely the property of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.”

The fault line: Conscience and dogma

The fault line between Müller and Grech is pretty clear when seen from the outside: the former believes that God’s word as revealed in the Bible paints a black and white picture of good and bad, right and wrong; while the latter understands that there is a lot of grey and the individual’s enlightened conscience must not be violated by dogma.

Grech is no stranger to such conflict. Five years ago, when still bishop of Gozo, he faced backlash, along with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, over guidelines issued to priests on how to understand Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The exhortation provided an opening for Catholics in family relationships deemed irregular by the Church and placed emphasis on the individual’s conscience.

The bishops stirred the ire of conservatives within the Maltese Church when they said divorced Catholics in a new relationship should not be denied holy communion if, following a process of reflection, they believe they are “at peace with God”.

At the time, the Maltese church was a global trailblazer with its guidelines that were also published on the Vatican’s website.

But the conservative elements within the Maltese church were uncomfortable with the position taken by the bishops, suggesting it was morally wrong and contrary to church doctrine.

Now, these same tensions are being felt on a global level as the synod attempts to listen to and embrace divorced Catholics and the LGBTI+ community.

Maltese church consultation

Verbatim quotes from the Maltese church’s document submitted to the Synod in August

On LGBTI+

Attention to LGBTIQ+ community implies listening well to the pain of the persons themselves: “because I say who I am, I end up being rejected”; “It’s not an easy journey for them, they feel ostracised from those around them”. It also entails listening to parents and their hurts when, as committed Christians, they see that their children’s “coming out” automatically entails “leaving the Church”. This process helps us to identify a key challenge that needs to be addressed: how to develop the right kind of language to communicate the Good News. To quote the report of the focus group on this theme: “the most ‘offensive’ and ‘deeply-hurtful’ part has nothing to do with ‘acts’ per se – after all, we all struggle with chastity! – but rather with something deeper: ‘this inclination, which is objectively disordered’ hence making the person feel ‘disordered’”.

Women

The call to be companions on the journey includes the following suggestions:

A Church that gratefully appreciates the gift of women means that they share in the decision-making processes as well as shaping the pastoral style of the Church: “a pastoral work that is generative – like a mother who knows how to wait, give time (for the child to grow before giving birth), follow and accompany”.