Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the president of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, stressed the desire of the Polish bishops “to preserve unity in the faith,” at a November 8 press conference reporting on the October session of the Synod of Bishops.
The archbishop said that “the teaching of the Church must remain unified and cannot differ from one country to the next.” He noted that the Polish bishops’ conference had responded to the German “Synodal Path” with a 150-page document, sent to all Synod members, “stressing its incompatibility with Catholic teaching.”
Noting the controversial issues that had been discussed at the October session, the leader of the Polish episcopal conference underlined the importance of unity on Church teaching. He said that the frequent calls for an “inclusive” Church were problematical because that approach “implies an acceptance of how a person defines him or herself, as if defining oneself were in obvious conformity with reality, inherently unquestionable, and therefore demanding affirmation.”
Aleksander Banka, a Synod delegate who also spoke at the press conference, remarked: “The expectations of Western European Churches are out of step with the needs of churches in other parts of the globe”.