Look at that video. It is shocking. It’s a clip of then-Pope Benedict visiting Germany in 2011. Notice how most of the German bishops refuse to shake his hand. A shocking snub? No, not according to the conservative Catholic priest Father Z., who wrote at the time:

Friends, don’t read too much into this video.  The Pope is NOT being snubbed.  He may be introducing people to the German President.  Some shake the Pope’s hand, others don’t.  It isn’t a snub.

The men who don’t shake the Pope’s hand are close collaborators and his friends.  For example, you see Card. Brandmüller, a good friend of the Pope.  There is Bp. Josef Clemens, the Pope’s former personal secretary and now Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Laity.  There is Msgr. Guido Marini and the rest of the papal MCs.  On the other hand, Card. Kasper did move to shake the Pope’s robotically outstretched hand.  So does the Archbp. Woelki of Berlin, who doesn’t see the Pope all the time and who hasn’t been a close collaborator.

Poor Pope Benedict.  Imagine how much of this he must endure.  His collaborators spare his sore hand.  Also, many people think that a handshake is NOT the best way to honor the Vicar of Christ.

So, do not read anything into this video.

So why do I post it? Because it was sent to me by a Catholic friend who, like so many other conservative Catholic friends I know, is really worried about the German Catholic bishops’ stated intention to defy Rome and offer communion to divorced and remarried Catholics. The head of the CDF, Rome’s chief doctrinal office, publicly said this must not happen; the German bishops are intending to do it anyway. From the NCR report:

The leader of the German bishops’ conference has defended a plan by the prelates to offer Communion to divorced Catholics, saying he feels “strengthened” by Pope Francis on the matter despite opposition from the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official.

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Episcopal Conference, says that in reflecting on the opposition to the plan from Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he remembers that “a prefect is not the pope.”

This is potentially a very big deal. What will Pope Francis do if the Germans go through with their threat? If he undercuts his own doctrine chief (and settled Catholic doctrine), what kind of signal will that send? On the other hand, is he willing to see the German church go into schism?

You can see why this video is resurfacing now. Tough times ahead for Catholics. One conservative Catholic friend, a man who is morally serious and knowledgeable in his theology, tells me this morning that if Francis sides with the German bishops, he (my friend) will know that papal infallibility is untrue, and he will leave Rome for Orthodoxy (the idea being that he endures bad liturgy and other excruciating aspects of modern Catholicism because he believes Rome is the True Church). I know he’s not bluffing. This is a real crisis point for the Catholic Church.