Cardinal Müller to the Associated Press on the Latin Mass and the new Pope: "According to his character, I think he is able to speak with people and to find a very good solution that is good for everybody."

A good portion of the interview granted by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller in Rome to Nicole Winfield, of the Associated Press, was dedicated to the central question of the Traditional Latin Mass -- central because Francis chose to make it so by creating division in a matter that Benedict XVI had settled peacefully. It would honestly be a muted matter now if Francis had just left it alone.

Main excerpts:

They went into last week’s conclave vastly outnumbered and smarting after being sidelined by Pope Francis for 12 years. And yet conservatives and traditionalist Catholics are cautiously optimistic over the historic election of Pope Leo XIV, hopeful that he will return doctrinal rigor to the papacy, even as progressives sense he will continue Francis’ reformist agenda.

Coronavirus Crisis - URGENT APPEAL OF PASTORS FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD: to Catholics and all people of good will

APPEAL

FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD

to Catholics and all people of good will

“Veritas liberabit vos.” (“The truth will set you free.”)

John 8:32

    In this time of great crisis, we Pastors of the Catholic Church, by virtue of our mandate, consider it our sacred duty to make an Appeal to our Brothers in the Episcopate, to the Clergy, to Religious, to the holy People of God and to all men and women of good will. This Appeal has also been undersigned by intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, journalists and professionals who agree with its content, and may be undersigned by those who wish to make it their own.

    The facts have shown that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens have in many cases been violated and their fundamental freedoms, including the exercise of freedom of worship, expression and movement, have been disproportionately and unjustifiably restricted. Public health must not, and cannot, become an alibi for infringing on the rights of millions of people around the world, let alone for depriving the civil authority of its duty to act wisely for the common good. This is particularly true as growing doubts emerge from several quarters about the actual contagiousness, danger and resistance of the virus. Many authoritative voices in the world of science and medicine confirm that the media’s alarmism about Covid-19 appears to be absolutely unjustified.

    We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control.

For the Record: Full translation of Benedict XVI letter of support to Müller after dismissal by Francis -- plus: Ratzinger explains the liturgical revolution

A happy 2018 to all our readers!

Full translation below:

Your Eminence, dear Confrere

Your seventieth birthday is approaching and even if I’m no longer able to write a true scientific contribution to the miscellany that will be dedicated to you on this occasion, I’d like nonetheless to participate with some words of greeting and gratitude.

Cardinal Müller: They want me to head a group against the Pope, but I’m staying with the Pope. However, those who are complaining should be heard

Excerpts from an interview conducted by Massimo Franco of Corriere della Sera:

Chiesa e Post Concilio

November 25, 2017

“There  is a front of traditionalist groups, just as there is with the progressivists, that would like to see me as head of a movement against the Pope. But I will never do this. I have served the Church with love for 40 years as a priest, 16 years as a university professor of dogmatic theology and 10 years as a diocesan bishop. I believe in the unity of the Church and I will not allow anyone to exploit my negative experiences of recent months.  Church authorities, on the other hand, need to listen to those who have serious questions or justified complaints; not ignoring them, or worse, humiliating them. Otherwise, unwittingly, the risk of a slow separation that might lead to a schism may increase, from a disorientated and disillusioned part of the Catholic world.  The history of Martin Luther’s Protestant Schism of 500 years ago, should teach us, above all, what errors to avoid.”

Cardinal Müller Reacts to Dismissal in Interview with German Newspaper

Photo: hbz / Stefan Sämmer / Allgemeine Zeitung

Cardinal Müller was in Mainz, Germany, today, for a reunion of his high school class, and he granted an interview to the Allgemeine Zeitung, based in Mainz. Passages from the interview have been published in an article on the Allgemeine Zeitung’s website. The main topic was of course his dismissal from the CDF (see Rorate's report). We present here an excerpt from the article in an original  Rorate translation (please credit upon replication).

De Mattei on the Pope's pronouncements and video: It's not only heresy that offends the Catholic Faith

Not Only Heresy Offends The Catholic Faith

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

January 13, 2016

In a long interview published on December 30th in the German weekly Die Zeit, Cardinal Ludwig Müller, Prefect for the Congregation of the Faith, raised a question of crucial relevance today. When the interviewer asked the Prefect what he thought of those Catholics who attack the Pope defining him “a heretic”, he replied: “Not only because of my office, but from personal conviction, I must disagree. A heretic in the theological definition, is a Catholic who denies obstinately a revealed truth proposed by the Church that they are obliged to believe. It’s another thing when those who are officially charged to teach the faith express themselves in a somewhat inappropriate, misleading or vague way. The teachings of the Pope and bishops are not above the Word of God, but serve it. (…) Moreover, papal pronouncements have a different binding nature – ranging from a definitive decision pronounced ex-cathedra to a homily which is used rather for spiritual analysis.”

The Cardinals' Manifesto - Amidst the Chaos of the Past Week, its Immense Historic Significance Cannot Get Lost

The exact wording of the historic "Cardinals' Manifesto", or "The Pell-Müller Intervention" (after the names of its main authors), which became known as simply the "Letter of the Thirteen Cardinals", the most profound challenge faced by a Pontiff in recent history, may be in dispute. But the general terms of the missive are not. And, in particular, the huge historic significance of a document that promises to be foundational in the 21st-Century papacy cannot be lost. 

EXCLUSIVE: CARD. MÜLLER'S pre-Synod presentation of Card. Sarah's book in Germany - Liturgy, Grace, Marriage, and the New Danger of Schism

"SCHISM"

Since the date of Cardinal Gerhard Müller's presentation of the German translation of Cardinal Robert Sarah's book "God or Nothing" in Regensburg, much has been said of his dire warnings that the Catholic Church may be on the verge of schism, once again originating from a confusion originated in Germany, today as in 1517.

In his September 1, 2015, lecture, Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the presence of Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, had much more to say - a strong lesson on how true, actual poverty (as exemplified by the life and strong and orthodox beliefs of Cardinal Sarah) is translated into "full apostolic candor and zeal", not in a false doctrine that bends to the whim of the current preference of the post-modern European. That will not do.

We leave you with our exclusive translation of the main excerpts of the original German text provided by the Vatican website:

God or Nothing

Thoughts Concerning the Book by Cardinal Robert Sarah

by Cardinal Gerhard Müller

First of all, I would like to thank Cardinal Robert Sarah for his witness to the Faith, which he presents with his book Dieu ou rien. Entretien sur la foi, which has been published just this year. At the same time, I congratulate the German-speaking world that is able now to get to know in their own language the richness of thought of a great theologian and spiritual man.

[…]

In ten circles of questions, the Cardinal reflects theologically and spiritually upon the situation of the Catholic Church in the world of today and offers not only a diagnosis, but also a therapy for the postmodern man who has no orientation any more: that is to say, the Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Redeemer of the whole world. […]

In the liturgy, the Faith expresses itself as an immediate response to the Triune God Who reveals Himself to each person in His Incarnate Word, in His Son Jesus Christ, and Who means Himself to be seen as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. […] It is not about an external staging of rites and symbols in which man plays with himself, turns around himself, honors and adores himself – but still without crossing over into the true transcendence of God. In the liturgy, there happens the elevation of man through Grace. Because it is the opposite of an egotistical trip full of self-pity; the liturgy means to elevate one's heart to God, Whom alone deserves adoration and glorification; it is not like in a Pagan cult and myth where man flatters the gods in a servile manner, or revolts against them in a Promethean way, but it is, rather, as in Christ, where God and man encounter each other. That is how Christians worship God. “The Glory of God lives in man (who lives in Grace), but man lives in the vision of God.” That is how Saint Irenaeus of Lyon put it in the 2nd century (Adv. Haer. IV, 20, 7: Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei). The Triune God is adored, glorified, and loved, He Who Himself Assumed our flesh and Who in Jesus Christ in His truly human nature, in His human history, in His sacrificial death for us on the Cross and in His real Resurrection from the dead overcame death and the separation from God. This is the same Jesus Christ Who as the Exalted Lord meets us historically, bodily, and communally, in the Church and in Her Sacraments realistically from person to person. […]

In the age of the creeping or noisy de-Christianization of the Global Society, the true understanding of the liturgy and of its dignified celebration becomes a crucial question of survival for Christianity in the world of today and tomorrow. In order to be able to fulfill this task, one needs more than a professional knowledge of the art of the liturgy in the stricter sense. The intellectual horizon of a Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship has to have permeated intellectually the philosophical, fundamentally theological, the dogmatic and cultural, as well as political preconditions and conditions of being a Christian in modern and postmodern times. Only a deep and thorough diagnosis of the spiritual and cultural structure of the globalized world can also lead to the development of a therapy which overcomes the Nihilism – as the common denominator of all expectations and yearnings of a world without God – and thus can make the Faith in God as the reason and purpose for man to shine anew. The liturgical incapacity of the modern man – of which Romano Guardini already spoke in 1948 at the Katholikentag in Mainz – and the “crisis of the sacramental idea” in a conscience which is reduced only to the aspect of immanence (as observed by Joseph Ratzinger), both have their roots in the monistic system of a naturalism which denies the transcendental dependency of man – both in spirit and in freedom – upon the Mystery of God. Consequently, this naturalism limits man one-dimensionally and intra-worldly and it is not capable of seeing man as a listener of the word that points to a supernatural Revelation of God in the world, in history and in the spirit of man. […]

Man is oriented toward the absolute. Only where God is above and in man, there is truth in freedom and justice in love. Where man tries to take power over the absolute, he turns himself into an idol who, with the help of the clench for a totalitarian dominance, brings man sternly into line and thus enslaves him by means of a political exercise of power which makes use of the media. […]

Summorum Pontificum Conference in Rome - June 13-14 - Signs of Hope for the future

Sunday, June 14, at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament, in the Vatican Basilica, Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, one of the Cardinals who authored the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ, celebrated Pontifical Mass for the pariticipants of the Summorum Pontificum conference, which we advertised here in Rorate a few months ago. The Pontifical Mass was the closing act of the conference organized at the Angelicum (the 4th Summorum Pontificum Conference), organized by Father Vincenzo Nuara, OP, of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, with the assistance of Father Marino Neri.

300 people were present at the various panels, given by Cardinal Burke (on Tradition as a foundation of Catholic liturgy), Prof. Giovanni Turco, of the Universiy of Udine (the Virtue of Religion and True Worship in Saint Thomas), Bp. Athanasius Schneider (pictured below, on Communion and Sacrifice), Msgr. Marco Agostini, Pontifical Ceremoniere (on the Altar in the History of Worship), among others. The conference of Dom Cassian Folsom was particularly helpful in explaining the history of how Benedict XVI had to untie the knot that led to the recognition of both forms, a brilliant tour de force of liturgical law.

Also remarkable was the short intervention of Cardinal Müller on "Tradition as the proper principle of Catholic theology". It contained allusions to the current pre-synodal situation ("it is not the number of bishops favorable to an opinion that matters, but their doctrinal quality.")

(Based on the report of the correspondent of our fellow bloggers at Riposte Catholique, present at the event.)

On Marriage and Bishops' Conferences, Cardinal Müller teaches Cardinal Marx the true Catholic lesson

Excerpt of interview granted by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, to French Catholic weekly Famille Chrétienne.

[FC:] In a book of conversations on the family [The Hope of the Family, Ignatius Press; La speranza della famiglia, Edizioni Ares], recently published in Italy and in the United States, you encourage Christians to, "choose the prophetic boldness of martyrdom." Why?

[Müller:] The Church is not a philanthopic organization. To say that we respect the opinions of all, that we wish for the good of all, is not enough. To present the Gospel as a simple therapeutic message is not very hard, but it does not respond to the demands of Jesus. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me," Jesus says. The first apostles, the Fathers of the Church, the great bishops in the History of the Church very often sailed against opposing winds. How could it be any different for us?

[FC:] Could certain doctrinal or disciplinary decisions on marriage and family be delegated to the episcopal conferences? 

Cardinal Müller: foundations for a return to the Magisterium - and the limits of Papal power - Guest-post by Father Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this new guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of Father Pio Pace.

***

Cardinal Müller: laying the foundations for a return to the Magisterium

Don Pio Pace

God only allows evil so as greater good may be accomplished. The immense disorder of the assemblies of the Synod on the Family prompts beautiful professions of faith by high-placed prelates of the Church, who are signs of hope for the future of the Church.

The extreme-progressive French magazine Golias moreover notes with disquiet the "danger" that men such as Cañizares, Burke, Müller, Ranjith, Ouellet, Sarah, and other "young" Cardinals  (around 65 years old) represent to their viewpoint, that is, in the perspective of a further liberalization of the Church's constitution, adding to them some over seventy-year-olds, such as Scola, Caffarra, Pell, among others.

Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the Cardinals who took part in the authorship of the book "Remaining in the Truth of Christ", along with his brothers Brandmüller, Burke, Caffara and De Paolis, has, for example, just made public a conference that he presented on the past January 13, in Esztergom, Hungary, on the "Theological nature of the Doctrinal Commissions [of the Episcopal Conferences] and the role of Bishops as Doctors of the Faith". 

Four Days After Synod Closes, CDF responds officially: NO COMMUNION FOR "REMARRIED" DIVORCEES WHO LIVE AS IF THEY WERE MARRIED, PERIOD. - Full text -

INDISSOLUBLE MEANS INDISSOLUBLE

Father Claude Barthe

[French Catholic periodical] L'Homme Nouveau

November 12, 2014

Church of Germany, Church of Simony

All talk of "poverty" and "humility" from the highest echelons of the Church must be dismissed as the irrelevant talk it is until the greatest money-related scandal in the Church, the German Kirchensteuer (Church Tax) system remains in place. No item is more single-handedly responsible for instability in the Church today than the Simoniacal Church Tax, which both renders "excommunicates" those German Catholics who refuse to pay it and makes the German Hierarchy use their immense wealth and financial resources as a tool of subversion and blackmail of the whole Universal Church.

A system that has emptied the Church in Germany at the same time as its wealth becomes a tumor threatening the health of the whole Church. When a Pope dismantles or at least decides on an overhaul of the Kirchensteuer system in Germany (and elsewhere where it works in the exact same simoniacal way), then all the talk of poverty will at last become believable.

Rich Church, Empty Church

Simone Varisco

Caffè Storia

The Great Division - Müller rips the Synod Report: "Undignified, Shameful, Completely Wrong!"

Since the workings of the Synod still remain, for the first time in the 2,000-year-long history of councils and synods, completely censored, and the Fathers who want to can only freely express their opinion through leaks, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), impelled by his duty, says what needs to be said - and then what he said is leaked, to bypass the censorship.

Thank you, Your Eminence, for expressing what the true sensus catholicus feels regarding the most embarrassing document in all of Catholic history:

From La Repubblica (excerpts):

1-A 6,000-word document in 1 day? A previously prepared text, of course 2 - The Teleguided Synod 3 - Müller on Censorship: "I say what I must say"

A 6,000-word document, made available in the original Italian, and excellent English, French, German, Spanish translations immediately on early Monday Morning "summarizing" the views of the first week of the Synod that had ended on Friday evening, with details published on Saturday morning? So in one full day, Sunday (or in 2 days, 48 hours, if all hours of Saturday are included, with no time for meals or sleep), the rapporteur and his secretaries gathered the views of all the Fathers, identified and separated those portions that had more widespread support and thus represented a truly Synodical opinion, wrote, and translated this 6,000-word report? Has the Vatican suddenly become the most efficient bureaucracy in the history of the universe?

CENSORSHIP IN THE SECRET SYNOD - Press Office manipulation hiding significant pro-family, pro-marriage and anti-Kasper pronouncements

The Synod: Müller Against Censorship

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, voiced his disagreement with the censorship imposed on the speeches from participants at the Synod. A bishop: Kasper’s proposal is a medicine that is worse than the disease.

Marco Tosatti

LA STAMPA

October 10, 2014

Interview: SSPX's Fellay Speaks on Meeting with Cardinal Müller - Kasper's consistently following Spirit of the Council to its logical end.

The General House of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) in Switzerland has just released an interview granted by the Superior-General of the SSPX, Bp. Bernard Fellay, on the meaning of the meeting held with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Gerhard Müller, on September 23.

SYNOD AND TRUTH: Understanding In Depth the Grave Errors of Cardinal Kasper - A Major Article by Roberto de Mattei

KASPER’S MESS

The origins of the errors

For them, Christianity is praxis, not justice

Roberto de Mattei

Il Foglio

October 1, 2014

The upcoming Synod of Bishops has been preceded by a rumpus in the media which attaches to it a historical significance greater than its ecclesiastical importance as merely a consultative assembly in the Church. Some are complaining about the theological war the Synod promises to be, but the history of all the Episcopal meetings in the Church (such is the etymological significance of the term “synod” and its synonym “council”) has been made up of theological conflicts and bitter debates on errors and divisions that have threatened the Christian community since its beginnings.

ACHTUNG! As in Vatican II, the Germans seem to be Preparing a Coup for the Synod

Other than Cardinal Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it seems that the Bishops of Germany are preparing a United German Front behind the ideas of Cardinal Kasper.

So reported Matteo Matzuzzi for Il Foglio - Matzuzzi's title is indeed very "Lutheran"...

The German Bishops have their “theses” ready to nail to the door of the Synod

Matteo Matzuzzi
Il Foglio

September 17, 2014

The German Bishops are with Cardinal Walter Kasper on marriage and the family.

HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE COMMUNIQUÉ on Meeting of Cardinal Müller and Society of Saint Pius X SuperiorsUpdated

[Post time: 12:20 p.m.]
[For additional commentary, read this:
Understanding the Vatican Statement.]

Palace of the Holy Office, Rome

HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE COMMUNIQUÉ

"On the morning of Tuesday 23 September from 11 am to 1 pm, a cordial meeting took place at the premises of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, between Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X. The meeting was also attended by Archbishops Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.I., secretary of the same Congregation, Joseph Augustine Di Noia, O.P., adjunct secretary and Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, along with two assistants from the Society of St. Pius X, Rev. Niklaus Pfluger and Rev. Alain-Marc Nély.

"During the meeting, various problems of a doctrinal and canonical nature were examined, and it was decided to proceed gradually and over a reasonable period of time in order to overcome difficulties and with a view to the envisioned full reconciliation."

[Update - 2:30 p.m. GMT] Communiqué on the same meeting, from the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X: