On May 13 Cardinal Gerhard Muller, former head of Rome’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and George Weigel, veteran Vatican watcher, appeared on EWTN’s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo. They were asked about the May 7 letter of the current head of the CDF, Cardinal Ladaria, to Archbishop Gomez counseling that the U.S. bishops go slow in denying Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians and that the bishops not make public Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter of 2004 on the matter.
Some of the most significant parts of the interview:
Cardinal Muller: “Everybody knows the content of this letter [2004 letter from Ratzinger to U.S. bishops re denying Communion to pro-abort politicians]. The principles are very clear. There is no reason to hide it.”
George Weigel: “This is one of the most puzzling things about Cardinal Ladaria’s letter; he doesn’t seem to understand what’s been going on between the Church and Catholic public officials the last 20 years at least. The issue is not whether Catholic officials understand, as the cardinal says, the Church’s teaching. The issue is that they reject the Church’s teaching….
“The other thing I find simply astonishing in this letter is its notion of consensus…. The first Council of Nicaea did not wait for the Arian bishops to agree with the orthodox bishops. At the Council of Ephesus, the Nestorian bishops had their say, but when they were not persuaded, the rest of the assembly went ahead and taught the truth about Mary’s title as Mother of God…. Pope Paul VI was willing to let intransigents like Marcel Lefebvre have their say against a conciliar declaration on religious freedom; he was not prepared to give them a veto…. Why are we giving the intransigents in the U.S. bishops – a very small group – why are they being given a veto?”
Cardinal Muller: “The first mission of the Church is to protect human life, because it is given by God. It’s not one value among other values.”
Raymond Arroyo: “Ed Pentin is reporting that Cardinal Blaise Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark met with Cardinal Ladaria just days before he sent this letter to Archbishop Gomez urging the bishops to slow-roll any document regarding this pro-abortion Catholic receiving Communion document….”
George Weigel: “I thing it’s quite extraordinary that two bishops of the U.S. Bishops Conference, two members of a very small minority, should take it upon themselves to go to Rome and try to get the Holy See to throw a spanner in the works of their brother bishops….”
Cardinal Muller: “These two bishops came to Rome as representatives of the Democratic Party, but the bishops are the representatives of Jesus Christ and the revealed truth….”
It’s refreshing to see a bishop speak in such an honest, straightforward way.
As our Lord said “Let your Yes be simply Yes, and your No be simply No; anything more than that comes from the evil one.” (Matt. 5:37)
Why did his fellow Cardinals meet in secret with Cardinal Ladaria? This is the Vatican that promised “absolute transparency” in 2015.
It’s a shame the way Cardinal Muller was so disrespectfully dismissed as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On Friday, June 30, 2017, the Pope told Cardinal Muller that he would not be renewing his term as head of the CDF, which expired that Sunday, July 2. To tell a person, any person, on Friday to clear out their office and not return to work Monday morning is anything but pastoral and considerate. What happened to dialog and accompaniment?
May God bless the good Cardinal.
Praise the Lord, more mainstream Catholic commentators are seeing the light. The long knives of Vatican insiders are out for them as never before and yet they tell the truth. They are brave in the face of the torrent of backlash coming for them, may God richly bless them.
I am shocked by the comment that the first mission of the Church is to protect human life. I think it is to spread the Gospel. Save souls.
You’re shocked rather easily, huh?
Anyway… the unborn have souls too, right?
Stop the fake shock. Can’t save a soul that has been killed in it’s mother’s womb.
You think the victims of abortion go to hell?
If baptism is necessary for salvation, then they at least are consigned to the limbo of the innocents.
To Anonymous 21 May @ 10:50 am:
What sophistry! How does the Church “spread the Gospel” and “[s]ave souls” if it allows Catholic officeholders to continue to receive the Eucharist when they publicly reject not only the 5th Commandment but the constant Church teaching that abortion is murder. Countless martyrs sacrificed their lives for the truth of the Faith. These politicians abandon it for a vote.
Isn’t human life protected by getting humans to heaven/saving souls? The mission of the Church is (for) humanity. God doesn’t need the Church. I’m not sure you and the Cardinal are really in disagreement.
“When Jesus, who had suffered the death of the cross for mankind, had risen, He appeared as the one constituted as Lord, Christ and eternal Priest, and He poured out on His disciples the Spirit promised by the Father. From this source the Church, equipped with the gifts of its Founder and faithfully guarding His precepts of charity, humility and self-sacrifice, receives the mission to proclaim and to spread among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ and of God and to be, on earth, the initial budding forth of that kingdom.” (Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, #5) Isn’t that the mission of the Church?
Or, as it says in LG #37: “… the whole Church, strengthened by each one of its members, may more effectively fulfill its mission for the life of the world.”
The Church seems to be primarily for the advancing of the kingdom of God and the life of the world.
And, individually, that would mean from our conception all the way unto eternity (“life everlasting”).
God doesn’t need the church? The church is Christ’s mystical body. God has chosen to wed himself to the church as the instrument of salvation.
Precisely. We agree. “God has chosen” out of love to create humans and to create the Church, His mystical Body and Bride. Yet, in and of Himself, He does not need us. He freely chose to love and create us. The Church is the instrument of salvation because God willed it and loves people.
If you’re the same “anonymous” as shocked above, then I don’t think the Cardinal, you and I are far apart.
Used to be able to count on Fr. George Rutler being interviewed for these sorts of things that throw red meat to conservative Catholics. That was until Fr. Rutler was filmed watching gay porn on his rectory office computer. Haven’t heard anything about him nor his case from the Archdiocese of New York. It’s been nearly seven months now. I guess he’s been disappeared and the church is hoping people just forget about him and his hypocrisy.
The Rutler story is lame.
EWTN isn’t showing his programs anymore, and they’re not having him for interviews anymore. Is EWTN lame too?
SOP
This story has nothing to do with Rutler. Is name-calling and diverting from the topic all you’ve got?
Then, thanks for lending to the article’s credibility (if no one can offer any reasoned critique).
Anon is spreading the typical liberal lie, Fr. Rutler was accused not convicted of anything, yet pride masses go on and on… may God’s wrath visit His Holy Church very soon.
After a 7-month investigation, the Manhattan District Attorney has said that all charges against NY priest Father George Rutler have been dropped. A former Church employee created a stir last December after accusing the priest. The District Attorney reportedly found the charges unfounded and without legal merit.
The case was dropped by the Manhattan DA after investigation ,it was shown to be a false accusation ,set up by the security guard . Shane on You . Fr. Rutler is a good and holy Priest .
Big waste of time. I saw this interview, and wondered how the Pope and his clerics in the Vatican can sleep at night. Shame on them all. No moral consciences. How many more babies will be massacred in abortions, before they all wake up? They are all too well-fed and need lots and lots of penance for decades of neglect of good Church leadership. Pelosi, Biden, Becerra, etc., all have the Vatican by the throat. They all “run amok,” doing as they please. No respect for God nor the Church.