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.
