In February, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, the President of the German Conference of Bishops made waves when he announced that the German bishops would not adhere to what the synod determined, unless it favored their position stating “the synod cannot prescribe in detail what  we have to do in Germany.”

“We are not a subsidiary of Rome. Each episcopal conference is responsible for the pastoral care in their culture and has to proclaim the Gospel in its own unique way. We cannot wait until a synod states something, as we have to carry out marriage and family ministry here.”

In short, Cardinal Marx proposed that the German Catholic Church would schism if the Synod on the Family did not yield the results they were wanting. The German Catholic Church is in favor of giving Holy Communion to the divorced, remarried and actively homosexual.

Either the Holy Spirit has intervened and changed Cardinal Marx’s heart or he knows what the outcome of the Synod is going to be.

Pat Archbold of Creative Minority Report reports some surprising words from Cardinal Marx:

“We must try to remain together,” he said. “The Church is the only institution in the world that can reach unanimous agreement. Thank God we have the pope. We bishops do not have to decide. Church unity is not in danger. And once the pope has decided, we will abide by his decision.”

Either Cardinal Marx is no longer in favor of administering the Holy Eucharist to adulterers and sodomites or he knows the Synod is going to lax the rules.

My bet is the latter, as it is highly unlikely, knowing what we have seen come from the Synod thus far that Cardinal Marx is suddenly having a conversion. I’m not saying it’s impossible, only unlikely.

Looking back at my post from Monday in which I outlined the possibilities of this Synod, I wrote:

I see that Option Two is much more likely to happen, simply because those who want to administer Holy Communion to adulterers and actively homosexual, will be able to through a liberal reading of the documents. Meanwhile, those who will actively refuse this reading will accuse the Synod of intentionally allowing this evil to occur. Thus what we will see is those who adhere to the “traditional view” (read: Catholic) will be accused of going the way of the SSPX and causing schism, when the reality simply is that Rome has condoned the practice by not condemning it, all for appearing to be “pastoral”.

Cardinal Marx, by his words today, has set the stage to display that those who do not adhere to what the Synod decides are breaking away from the Church. He is correct only if the Synod upholds Church teaching by denying Holy Communion to those in the state of mortal sin. However, if the Synod decides something contrary to this effect, then he is wrong and the validity of the Synod is left in question.

Let us pray that he had a legitimate conversion to the Truth, and not the other, more likely possibility.