Germany: 

A Priest From Fulda Breaks With His Diocese

July 24, 2025

Source: FSSPX News

Fr. Winfried Abel

Fr. Winfried Abel, now 86, has held various positions in the Diocese of Fulda, his hometown, since his ordination in March 1964. He retired in 2014, but continued to be active, particularly with media outlets such as Radio Horeb, Radio Maria Austria, ETWN, and K-TV. He is very popular among German-speaking Catholics.

In an open letter addressed to the Vicar General, Dr. Martin Stanke, he announced that he ceased to identify himself as a "priest of the Diocese of Fulda." This open letter is worth quoting in its entirety, for its powerful stance and the specific detailed criticisms of the current situation in the Diocese of Fulda. However, other German dioceses are in more or less the same situation.

The Letter

"May the name of Jesus be your salvation!"  These are the customary welcoming words of greeting to visitors given by St. Nicholas of Flüe, in whose homeland I had the privilege of spending a few days of rest. This patron saint of Switzerland, rock of faith, also described as the last mystic of the Middle Ages, still divides minds today. For he ‘personally’ posed a vital question to the Church, which I would like to formulate in this way, in reference to you and the leadership of the diocese:

"What distinguishes the Church of Fulda from secular society?"

During my vacation in Switzerland, I learned of the upcoming Christopher Street Day in Fulda, for which you wrote a welcome message as Vicar General, undoubtedly with the agreement of our bishop, and which you published on the diocesan website.

You wanted to express your appreciation for "queer" people. However, this word caused me two sleepless nights. You may know that the English word "queer" also means "not quite normal"! I wonder: who isn't quite normal here?

The so-called "pride marches" are symptoms of a morally decadent society that has exceeded the bounds of decency and morality. They are a colorful display of perversions, the glorification of tasteless obscenities, and a spectacle of the loss of the sense of modesty. All this under the motto "free love for all"!

If you welcome a "pride parade," then, as a doctor of theology, you should be sensitive to the word "pride." "Pride" lies at the origin of human history: it triggered the catastrophe we call original sin, because man opposed God in his pride and arrogance and broke his friendship with God. The first "Pride Parade" was, as we know, the expulsion of mankind from Paradise. God countered this "exodus" with a second exodus, led by Jesus, the new Moses.

Jesus never attributed sin to "systemic causes," but to the abuse of freedom and disobedience to God's commandments. I find it tragic and revealing that, after the publication of the study on child abuse, which, incidentally, revealed nothing new, the leadership of our diocese claims to be "horrified" and "deeply affected," while welcoming and approving the very things that cause and foster these abuses, namely the moral excesses of our society! So you want to cast out the devil with Beelzebub?

In the first chapter of Sacred Scripture (Genesis 1:27), a fundamental truth about the nature of humankind is clearly stated: "And God created man . . . He created him: male and female He created them." ("masculine and feminine"), not "man/woman/non-binary," as our Church, subject to state directives and the so-called "discoveries of the human sciences," states in all its job advertisements.

The difference between the sexes, a prerequisite for unity and fertility, is an integral part of the image of God in man! Must we allow modern "human sciences" to explain to us an order of creation that openly contradicts divine revelation?

Exactly two days after the death of Pope Francis, the German Bishops' Conference and the ZdK [Central Committee of German Catholics] deemed the vacancy of the papal see the opportune moment to publish the “Guide for Pastors Celebrating Blessings for Loving Couples.” This demonstrates, in the words of Peter Winnemöller, "a lack of tact, irreverence, even brazen insolence." Personally, I can't find any other words to describe it.

I am truly deeply shocked that "my" Catholic Church in this country, which I have served for 61 years, has fallen so low that even our bishops no longer differentiate between sexual, erotic, friendly, and divine love—sexus, eros, philia, agape—but approve and bless indiscriminately everything that falls under the concept of "love"!

I ask again: "What differentiates the Church of Fulda from secular society?"

Jesus once sent out his disciples, saying: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves" (Mt 10:16). The majority (!) of our pastors, who fear public opinion more than death by gunfire, interpret Jesus' words to mean that we must howl with the wolves. They adopt slogans that refer to new scientific discoveries and advocate a diversity that is nothing but arbitrariness.

St. Hildegard of Bingen describes this erroneous attitude in these terms: "Man is a rebel, he tears the Creator to pieces in the multitude of his creatures!" This much-vaunted diversity has its origins in the seed of sin, that is, in the disobedience of man who opposes God's creation with his own counter-creation made with his own hands.

This results in another dilemma: the majority of our bishops no longer know the difference between blessing and cursing. In his book The Great Divorce, the renowned Irish-born author C.S. Lewis uttered this memorable phrase: "In the end, only two groups of men will stand before God: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'Thy will be done.'"

To the first group belong the blessed: "Come, you blessed of my Father..." (Mt. 25:34). To the second belong the cursed, whose life plan God permits, but whom He neither "approves" nor "blesses"! Those who have chosen their own path are doomed. Anyone who understands anything about the discernment of spirits will immediately recognize that the bishops' "outstretched hand" is not a blessing, but a curse.

Therefore, I ask you: Can the Church "acknowledge with esteem" or bless a human decision that is clearly directed against God and the order of His creation? If an alcoholic asks for a blessing, he wants to be freed from his addiction, but not for his alcoholism to be blessed.

But if a homosexual couple asks the Church to bless them to confirm their way of life, the Church must refuse this blessing! A Church that bows to the spirit of the times ends up being taken seriously by no one. Those who invoke Fiducia Supplicans here or claim that the Bible contains no warning on the subject of "homosexuality" are interpreting the word of God ideologically and thus establishing their own magisterium.

Could John the Baptist have saved his life if he had blessed King Herod's second marriage? Could the cultivated humanist and Lord Chancellor St. Thomas More have survived if he had approved of the six adulteries committed by his King Henry VIII? Were all these martyrs of the Church mad, even ignorant?

And we, the priests of the Diocese of Fulda, must bless adultery and disordered relationships between people, in the face of so many faithful Christians—think also of the martyrs of Uganda!—who gave their lives for the order of God and the indissolubility of marriage? Do we not mock their bloody witness when we lead the march of unleashed madness?

In a press release recently published by our diocese, I read: "Offers for persons of all sexes are increasingly being established throughout the diocese. Thus, pastors are available to bless unmarried couples in church." The KHG [Catholic Student Association] Marburg and the KjG [Catholic Youth Organization] Fulda offer religious services for queer Catholics...

So this is modern Christian youth work! ... And you still ask why the Fulda seminary is empty?

I can give you the answer: young people with ideals will never again choose the priesthood in Fulda, because they can no longer recognize what makes the difference. Do you seriously think that the shortage of priests is due to the lack of "work-life balance" (Bishop Gerber) in the daily lives of priests? This Anglicism is taken from secular language. If so, it would rather be due to the lack of balance between a cultivated friendship with God and daily work (between work and prayer).

So I ask again: "What differentiates the Church of Fulda from secular society?" 

Today, I would like to cry out to the few remaining believers: "People, hear the signals!" The symptoms of the moral decline of the Church in our diocese are evident and undeniable. On the feast of Boniface, the rainbow flag parades unopposed in the Cathedral Square. The church of our spiritual father Boniface now serves almost exclusively as a useful backdrop for the noisy and uncultured concerts in the Cathedral Square.

Many Eucharistic celebrations are now nothing more than a backdrop for loudly applauded shows and cheap entertainment. I wrote in a letter to a colleague who, during Carnival, delivered a primitive and unassuming speech instead of a sermon at a costumed Mass: "Your proclamation was a sin!" 

In open defiance of the Pope, all German dioceses celebrate Junia Day [whom feminists claim to have been an apostle] and demand the "long-overdue" ordination of women. Children of unbelieving parents are baptized, even though it is known that this condemns them to leave the Church later. In superficial sermons, the name of God is still mentioned, but almost exclusively in the context of better human coexistence and a habitable earth. The heavens are no longer open...

St. Nicholas of Flüe, mentioned at the beginning of this article, was once visited by a young man who wanted to dedicate his life to the service of God and asked him for advice on the matter. The famous hermit replied: "If you want to serve God, you must not worry about anyone." By this, he meant: "Don't conform to this world! Don't seek the applause of the crowd and don't worry about public tastes!" Courageously follow the path God has laid out for you!"

In conclusion: I no longer wish to be a priest of this diocese. In the future, I will no longer refer to myself as a "priest of the Diocese of Fulda," but as a "priest of the Roman Catholic Church," because I believe that the Petrine ministry, based in Rome, is the guarantor of a Church to which Jesus' promise still applies: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This promise is no longer guaranteed to the Church of Fulda.

.....

A copy of this letter was sent to Bishop Gerber, to Auxiliary Bishop Diez and all the deans.