Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, has said the Church cannot bow on sacramental issues in light of tensions between Rome and the German Synodal Way.

The comments came as a new lay movement in Germany called on the Pope to stop the creation of a permanent Synodal Conference, in which an equal number of bishops and laity would decide on issues.

In a July 21 interview with the Spanish publication El Debate, Cardinal Rouco Varela said that attempting to interpret authority within the Church in political categories was “not correct”, and that the College of Bishops “is not a kind of parliament”. 

He said: “There is a definition that baptism is the source of all ministry. That is a false proposition in itself. Baptism is an indispensable condition for receiving a ministry, but it is not the source. The principal and decisive ministry in the constitution of the Church is the sacrament of Holy Orders. That is why there is a difference between Protestant ecclesiology and Catholic ecclesiology.”

Cardinal Rouco Varela noted the ongoing difficulties between the Holy See and the Church in Germany that have existed from the pontificate of Pope Francis to that of Pope Leo XIV.

He told El Debate: “Pope Leo has already intervened on three occasions in the relationship of the Church in Germany with the Holy See.

“I don't like to say Spanish Church, German Church, etc., because there are no national churches. The Church is Catholic, and for this reason it unites earthly realities. It has a capacity to unite the human, the entire human family.”

Cardinal Rouco Varela said that there was “a crisis of faith prior to a crisis of the Church, something that is taking place throughout Europe in a more or less serious way.”

He also reflected on the implementation of the liturgical reforms which followed the Second Vatican Council, stating that in many cases in the 1970s it “became a parody of the liturgy” which influenced some people to return to the Traditional Latin Mass. The cardinal noted that in the liturgical abuses the Mass was reduced to a “kind of game of buddies or friends, nothing more. There is an infinite distance”.

Cardinal Rouco Varela previously told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana that there was a need to understand Catholics with a devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass, calling for restrictions to be lifted on the rite.

In it, he praised Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio allowing for provisions for priests to celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Provisions were restricted following Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, requiring priests to seek permission to be able to celebrate the old rite.

In the most recent interview, the cardinal said: “There has always been a variety of liturgical rites. It is, therefore, a problem of discipline and liturgical pastoral care. But, of course, when it becomes an express disobedience, it becomes a serious problem, which threatens the unity of the Church.”

Referring to the recent excommunication of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) following its illicit consecration of four bishops, Cardinal Rouco Varela said the “Magisterium of the Council is just as valid when speaking of the College of Bishops, or of the consecrated life, or of the laity, or of religious freedom.”