Friday, October 2, 2026

'The Loss Of SUBSTANCE Within The [SYNODAL] Church Due To Inconsistency Is Enormous,' Writes Professor Hubert Windisch.

 

Theologian laments how ‘anything goes’ in the [SYNODAL] Church now

BEWARE!  BEWARE!  BEWARE!  

WARNING!  WARNING!  WARNING!

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE MAY BE DIFFICULT FOR SOME TO TAKE -- AND IT SHOULD!

From lifesitenews.com and written by Maike Hickson Thursday Oct 1, 2026 - 4:56 pm EDT: Theologian laments how 'anything goes' in the Church now - LifeSite

(A personal note: Dr. Robert Hickson was a Vietnam Veteran brother.  We served about the same time, though I believe he had two tours of duty to my one tour.. Both he and his wife, Maike, are still very dear to me, in memory and in life...)

"(LifeSiteNews) — Professor Hubert Windisch, a German priest and retired professor of theology at the University of Freiburg, has written a piercing assessment of the situation of the Catholic Church that is at the same time encouraging. He sees the growing loss of substance, clarity, and leadership, not only on the level of the Catholic Church in Germany, but also in Rome.

“Everything is now called a (pastoral) process,” he writes. “Truth is synodal, the journey is the destination. But if the journey is the destination, the journey no longer has a destination. That is the inconsistency of relativism.”

Windisch, even though he argues that the Church is “from a socio-religious perspective … beyond saving,” insists that the Church will survive, and that there will always be pockets of faithful who will continue to hold on to the faith and flock around the few remaining priests, even in the catacombs.

Windisch was a strong defender of the Catholic faith under Pope Francis’ pontificate by signing several of the statements issued by clergymen and theologians in opposition to the pope’s novel teachings. He also once published an essay on LifeSite where he discussed the problematic effects that the Second Vatican Council had on the Catholic Church. 

READ: Could roots of Vatican II council result in a church that leaves God behind?

Please see here Professor Windisch’s full text:

Beyond Saving: On the Loss of Substance within the Church

Hubert Windisch

Inconsistency exists when something is inherently no longer right, i.e., when the outside and the inside no longer match, when words and actions diverge, and when claims and reality contradict one another. This can be the case with individual persons, groups or political parties, major organizations such as the churches, or it can affect an entire commonwealth—that is, a state.

Let us look, for example, at the designation “RC” [Roman Catholic] of the Church. This designation claims an identity that is often no longer present in reality. This is illustrated by just three examples:

2) In the Diocese of Mainz, the bishop notes the new letter from the Roman Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments dated June 17, 2026, banning lay preaching during the celebration of the Eucharist, and even considers it correct, but chooses not to intervene against the now widespread practice of lay preaching. Misplaced tolerance as a pastoral method.

3) The cardinal of Munich issues a guide for the liturgical blessing of irregular, and thus also homosexual, relationships, even though not even the sophisticated Roman document Fiducia Supplicans permits this in this explicit manner. Rome remains silent and tolerates it. Anything goes.

The loss of substance within the Church due to inconsistency is enormous. We can watch the erosion of the “institution of grace” (Michael Ebertz) in fast motion. “RC” is rapidly becoming “DC,” i.e., differently Catholic, as the former chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, once boasted with regard to the Synodal Path. However, this very quickly turns into an “NC,” a no-longer-Catholic. This development hurts all the men who want to be or become priests in an honestly Catholic way; the faithful who want to experience a dignified celebration of the Eucharist with an authentic sermon on Sunday and who try to shape their daily lives through prayer and the sacramental life. For all of them, the Church is often no longer a home, but an externally still-functioning hollow space in which they freeze and starve spiritually.

The background and driving force for this loss of substance is, to put it metaphorically, a Church that has been moved from solid rock onto quicksand, primarily due to the so-called Bergoglian magisterium with its decisions prone to heresy and indeed apostasy (e.g., Abu Dhabi, Pachamama, Singapore, Amoris laetitia, Fiducia supplicans, among others, cf. Gavin Ashenden, The Quicksand Under the Cathedral). Everything is now called a (pastoral) process; truth is synodal, the journey is the destination. But if the journey is the destination, the journey no longer has a destination. That is the inconsistency of relativism. In reality, the so-called Synodal Path in the Church of Germany is nothing other than an attempt to institutionalize this inconsistency. And Rome is rushing to keep up on a global church scale!

From a socio-religious perspective, a Church presenting herself in this manner is beyond saving. This is because the internal events described will create a substantial negative pressure inside the structure of the Church. At a certain point it will rupture the outer shell, and the system will implode. The Church herself, however, will not perish. In oases and on islands of contemporary history, and increasingly in catacombs, a (holy!) remnant of the faithful will gather, celebrating worship reverently with a few priests—whether in the Vetus or the Novus Ordo—having the Word and Sacrament as nourishment for their lives, and hearing anew the word of the Crucified and Risen One: “Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mt 28:20)."

Dr. Maike Hickson was born and raised in Germany. She holds a PhD from the University of Hannover, Germany, after having written in Switzerland her doctoral dissertation on the history of Swiss intellectuals before and during World War II. She now lives in the U.S. and is the widow of Dr. Robert Hickson, with whom she was blessed with two beautiful children.

Dr. Hickson published in 2014 a Festschrift, a collection of some thirty essays written by thoughtful authors in honor of her husband upon his 70th birthday, which is entitled A Catholic Witness in Our Time.

Hickson has closely followed the papacy of Pope Francis and the developments in the Catholic Church in Germany, and she has been writing articles on religion and politics for U.S. and European publications and websites such as LifeSiteNews, OnePeterFive, The Wanderer, Rorate Caeli, Catholicism.org, Catholic Family News, Christian Order, Notizie Pro-Vita, Corrispondenza Romana, Katholisches.info, Der Dreizehnte,  Zeit-Fragen, and Westfalen-Blatt.


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'The Loss Of SUBSTANCE Within The [SYNODAL] Church Due To Inconsistency Is Enormous,' Writes Professor Hubert Windisch.

  Theologian laments how ‘anything goes’ in the [SYNODAL] Church now BEWARE!  BEWARE!  BEWARE!   WARNING!  WARNING!  WARNING! THE INFORMATIO...