A Benedictine priest in Germany was publicly condemned and punished by his abbot and the local bishop for preaching against gender ideology and the heterodox Synodal Way and for defending the traditional family in his Christmas homily.
The abbot of the Benedictine Tholey Abbey, Mauritius Choriol OSB, forbade Father Joachim Wernersbach OSB from performing pastoral activities in the area surrounding Tholey Abbey and announced that the Abbey will commission “an ecclesiastical investigation with an analysis of the sermon text and intercession prayers,” according to katholisch.de.
In his Christmas Eve sermon, which was uploaded on YouTube but later removed, Wernersbach talked about abortion, gender ideology, the traditional family, and the Synodal Way from a faithful Catholic perspective.
“There is much about Christmas that we can derive from for our time today,” Wernersbach said. “Jesus was conceived in the womb, which means life begins in the womb. It is hard to believe that half the people no longer see it that way and instead talk about clumps of cells.”
The Benedictine monk explained that the Holy Family shows us the model for the Christian family. “Family consists of husband, wife, and child,” he stated.
“I especially wish those who believe in the traditional family exceptional joy because they are not swayed by and follow or even pay homage to harmful modern trends.”
“God has recommended to us ways of life that are natural, beautiful, and in harmony with the divine order,” Wernersbach stated, contrasting it with the “strange modern currents” of gender ideology, transhumanism, LGBT, “diversity” and the Synodal Way:
You hear about gender and transgender, transhumanism and reproductive health, wokeness and LGBTQ, diversity and identity. Of multiple genders and gender reassignment, plus this devastating new understanding of revelation from the Synodal Way. My dear friends, even the terms are absolutely disturbing. They all have one thing in common: they lack beauty, they lack coherence, and they lack naturalness. They are not aligned, not in harmony with the inconceivably beautiful Divine Order.
“A great dissonance has befallen our country,” the Benedictine monk continued. “Christ came into the world to resolve this dissonance. He does not want us to end up in an absurd world, in a world that no longer wants to know anything about God.
“The Child Jesus in the manger is calling us: come to me, pick me up, and let me embrace you. I love you like a little child loves its mother. With me, you will find everything that is good, true, and beautiful, that which remains forever and does not disappear again like a fad. I give you fellowship with me here on earth and later in heaven.”
“And therefore, my dear friends, do not let yourselves be misled by all the nonsense that people are trying to persuade us to believe, and which in the end does not represent any perspective at all,” Wernersbach said. “Let us rest calmly in the certainty that we have God on our side.”