We, Czech bishops emeriti, feel bound in conscience before the Church and our nation to warn of the spiritual crime committed in Prague on 5-12 February 2023. Many of the participants as well as the public were not truthfully informed about the nature and purpose of the so-called Continental Assembly of the Synodal Journey. Some were not even aware of being actually exploited to promote the elimination of God’s laws in the sphere of morality. The hidden purpose was to push God-forbidden immorality within the umbrella term LGBTQ upon the Church.

We, the bishops who did not participate in the Assembly, have realized its impact only after Cardinal Müller’s public speech. As the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he described the German Synodal Way as a sect and condemned the Prague Assembly. The reason was mainly the participation of the German delegation in this meeting. The delegation was headed by Bishop Bätzing, who purposefully and openly exploits the synodal journey to advance ecclesiastical legalization of LGBTQ. The cardinal pointed out that the protagonists of German alternative, i.e. heretical, Catholicism used the Synodal meeting in Prague as expected. Bishop Bätzing openly incorporated his agenda into it. Card. Müller quoted Bätzing’s speech of 8 February 2023 from Prague, in which, as the cardinal literally says, Bätzing presented an appalling analysis testifying that he renounced Catholic faith, our Saviour and the Church of Christ. Bätzing said: “This is not my faith, not my image of Christ and the Church.”

Card. Müller further stated that the German Synodal sect is diametrically opposed to Catholic faith. This is open apostasy producing a kind of pseudo Church that wants to keep the name of Catholic though it has no right to it.

Another proof of transfusion of poisoned blood into the body of Christ’s Church was Bätzing’s public concelebration with the other bishops and cardinals in the cathedral. It was an absolutely clear act of unity with Bätzing and his agenda. If Archbishop C. M. Viganò was present in the cathedral, they would not have allowed him either to concelebrate or to preach. Why not? Because they do not agree with his orthodox views and his demand for restoration of the Church. Bätzing, by contrast, became a star at the Prague assembly. The Continental Assembly and its goal was thus shown in its true colours. Its goal is autogenocide of the Catholic Church after the example of Germany. Cardinal Müller openly stated that the synodal journey “will cause Christianity in Germany to evaporate. Millions are leaving the Church in Germany and the remaining Catholics become dechristianized… The whole establishment of German-Catholic ecclesiology is false and suicidal.”

That is why we, Czech bishops emeriti, in unity with Cardinal Müller, radically reject the Prague Continental Assembly. It was not only confusing but literally erroneous. It was exploited to the detriment of the Church not only in the Czech Republic and on the European continent, but it set a pernicious precedent for the whole Catholic Church. For the same reason also we reject the synodal journey as such. In the case of abolishing God’s laws by legalizing immorality, one cannot even appeal to papal authority, as Cardinal Müller also stated. We fully identify with his position describing the synodal journey as “doctrinally incompetent and canonically illegitimate”, as one that is “in apparent (glaring) contradiction with the doctrine of the nature and universal mission of the Church of Christ”.

We therefore reiterate: We, bishops emeriti of the Czech Republic,

1) reject the Prague Continental Assembly of the Synod on Synodality,

2) reject the Churchwide synodal journey as it is opposed to the doctrine of the Church.

Bishops Emeriti of the Czech Republic

The draft for the bishop-led initiative of bishops emeriti of the Czech Republic, Dominik Cardinal Duka, Karel Herbst, František Radkovský, Josef Hrdlička and Vojtěch Cikrle, was prepared by the bishops of the BCP on the basis of the statements of Cardinal G. Müller.

Download: Bishop Bätzing exposed the apostasy of the synodal journey at the Continental Assembly in Prague (23/2/2023)