Spanish bishop warns of risks of misinterpreting synodality

The bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, José Ignacio Munilla, warned of two risks that the faithful might face when considering synodality: forgetting apostolicity or rejecting the treasure that synodality contains.

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines apostolicity as “the mark by which the Church of today is recognized as identical with the Church founded by Jesus Christ upon the apostles.”

During the Spanish-language program “Sixth Continent,” which the prelate hosts on Radio María Spain, Munilla stated that “sometimes, many foolish things are being said in the name of synodality,” because it is being made “synonymous with forgetting the apostolicity of the Church, with a kind of horizontal interpretation, as if the Church were a trade union assembly.”

This attitude “harms many of the faithful,” to the point that “some Catholics even fall into the trap of reacting against synodality, rejecting the treasure of synodality.”

The prelate added that the value of synodality lies in “learning to walk together, in receiving the gifts of the Spirit to form the symphony of the mystical body of Christ.”

However, Munilla lamented that “unfortunately, some so-called synodal assemblies are serving to revive the old errors in the ecclesiastical sphere,” as if it were “a metastasis” of those theological approaches, “a mixture of liberalism and Marxism,” which, he recalled, “were fundamentally refuted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

The Spanish bishop made these remarks at the request of some listeners, who had alerted him to a lecture given by Marianist Father Eduardo Arens, of German origin but raised in Peru.

Educated at the Champagnat School of the Society of Mary (Marianists), which he joined in 1961, Arens was involved for years in a dispute with the now-archbishop emeritus of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, who revoked Arens’ canonical mission to teach at the Theological Institute of Lima in 2009.

Refutation of Arens’ thesis

According to Munilla, Arens contrasted “orthodoxy with orthopraxis” (right doctrine with right practice) in his lecture and boasted “of having been warned” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith).

Munilla pointed out that “this author’s erroneous starting premise” consists of claiming that “evangelization has been confused with catechesis,” equating catechesis with indoctrination.

Although it can be said that “there is a grain of truth in every statement,” Munilla pointed out “a fundamental error, which is separating evangelization from any objective teaching,” which, in the bishop’s opinion, is “an absurd contraposition.”

Furthermore, the Spanish prelate also noted that the Marianist theologian denies “an eschatology of the afterlife” and reduces Jesus’ message to “trying to humanize this world,” ridiculing heaven and hell and “denying the reality of the state of salvation or damnation,” which amounts to “completely emptying Christ’s preaching of its content.”

In this regard, Munilla explained that in the Gospels, “there are 22 passages where Jesus speaks of eternal salvation or condemnation. And if we include the parables of the Last Judgment, there are approximately 30 or 32 passages in the Gospels that speak of man’s salvation or damnation.”

Munilla also noted that Arens maintains that Christ’s death is explained solely by his confrontation with the established powers of his time, not as a redemptive sacrifice.

Munilla said that to refute this doctrinal error, one only needs to refer to the passage describing the institution of the Eucharist, when Jesus says: “This is my body, which is given up for you; this is my blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of sins.”

The prelate also criticized Arens for understanding Christ’s sacrifice as a demonstration of “a sadistic god who accepts the blood of his Son,” when, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, it is “the unequivocal proof of the love with which Christ responds to the will of the Father, with which Christ shows his desire to redeem us.”

On the radio program, the prelate said of Arens that “you couldn’t say more outrageous things in less time” and refuted other claims that ridicule “the fact that sin offends God” or that Christ “did not want to found a religion, a Church.”

Following these considerations, Munilla observed that “the problem is always fundamentally Christological,” which involves “not confessing who Jesus is,” from which derive the heresies that deny his divinity or his humanity.

“How much harm can be done to the faith of simple people by saying so much nonsense!” Munilla added regarding Arens’ statements.

The prelate also criticized the Protestant theologian Rudolf Karl Bultmann, whom he identified as the “father of rationalist theology” and the “theologian of demythologization.”

Munilla accused Arens of not daring to speak publicly about the application of these principles to the Virgin Mary, which implies denying her virginity, because then “all the alarm bells go off” among his audience, whom he presumes have “a limited capacity to understand all these theological disquisitions.”

“Marian faith ends up being a key point for discerning where heresies lie,” because “to pass a test of Catholic orthodoxy, all you have to do is ask a few questions about what this person thinks of the Virgin Mary,” he pointed out.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/europe/two-risks-regarding-synodality-rejecting-its-treasure-or-forgetting-apostolicity-says-bishop