Therefore, he continued, "the participants of the German synod must be made aware of their own fallibility, both personal and collective."
"They can’t separate themselves from the structure of truth that is what we could call the 'universal synod.'"
Fr. Fortea said that “since we will not agree on what is or is not within the faith, we must at least accept the ecclesial structure to safeguard the faith established in the Church by Jesus Christ himself while he was on earth.”
"If that 'universal ecclesial order' is not accepted, the synod begins its deliberations from an off-center starting point. What would be deliberated is not this or that moral or biblical question, but the very being of the Church, the ability of the Church to safeguard the faith given to us by Christ,” he said.
Fr. Fortea said that “theology must advance within a homogeneous evolution of dogma.”
"My positions are progressive, but a progressivism that believes in a depositum fidei, the deposit of faith," he said.
“But if progressivism involves revolution, that is to say, the demolition of the pillars that support our connection with an unalterable truth from the past; then don't count on me in that 'conflagration,'” he said.
The priest pointed out that “I’m Spanish, and the truth is the same in Germany and in Spain. The German synod cannot determine what is the truth for Spaniards. And, obviously, the truth is not one thing in northern Europe and another thing in the south.”
"Nor is what was true in the seventh century no longer true in the eighteenth century," he stressed.
"The German synod, however very democratic it may be, cannot oblige me," he remarked.
Fr. Fortea pointed out that “all the members of the synod must accept that they are part of a family and that a certain number of votes can’t force the Church on the five continents to believe a thing or not; because the questions debated in that German meeting directly affect what is the truth in the Church: has the Church made a mistake in universally teaching this or that thing?”
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The theologian pointed out that "it would be naive not to realize that the moral issues that have been raised fully affect the concept of the magisterium in the Catholic Church."
"Either it is accepted that any decision holds for the 'universal family,' or it is accepted that there are 'pastors of pastors' with a specific charge from Christ."
Otherwise, he warned, "many Germans would be falling into the same ecclesial error as the Coptic Church in the fifth century (when it broke communion) or the Armenian Church (when it broke away in the seventh century) or the Old Catholics (in the 19th century)."
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. I have been part of the ACI Prensa team for more than 10 years. I have covered Pope Francis' trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. I covered the beatification ceremony of today's Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2015. Special envoy for investigation in Honduras in 2016. Head of the ACI Prensa Office in Mexico since 2018.