Soon-to-be-Card. Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave a talk in Valencia, Spain. Here is a salient point.
From CNA:
Archbishop Müller encourages unity serving evangelization, mission
[…]
The Church, he said, “is not a federation of national Churches or a global alliance of confessionally related ecclesial communities, which respect, by human tradition, the Bishop of Rome as an honorary president,” but is what both “testifies to, and realizes, the unity of peoples in Christ.”
The doctrine chief explained that the college of bishops “serves the Church’s unity,” founded on Christ, and that “a bishop can only be pastor of a local Church, and not president of a federation of regional and continental ecclesial alliances.”
He added that national conferences “cannot be a pure objective principle” in the Church, for the office of bishop is essentially one of “personal testimony”: therefore “the principle of the unity of the episcopacy itself is incarnated in a person.
Read the rest there.
If you want to learn more about local churches and regional conferences and their relation to the Supreme Pontiff, check out Apostolos suos.
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Soon-to-be-Cardinal Muller has been doing a lot of good lately.
“…the office of bishop is essentially one of “personal testimony”: therefore “the principle of the unity of the episcopacy itself is incarnated in a person.”.
Honestly, this uptight German clearly just needs to lighten up a bit….he needs to get a grip on reality.
;)
‘Stable-doors’ and all that, surely, de facto, National [(Catholic?)] Churches have already taken root!
A corollary: Bishops are not underneath the authority of a national conference.
Please forward the remarks of ++Muller to Cardinal Maradiaga.
I can’t help but chuckle at the memory of how certain quarters of the Church reacted to Archbishop Müller’s appointment as prefect. As usual, it looks like His Holiness the Pope Emeritus knew what he was doing!
Home run by Cardinal-designate Muller….
Archbishop Muller had an audience with Pope Francis today. Wonder what that could be all about?
DetJohn: that would be the usual Friday audience. What was discussed? Who knows. But, it happens almost every week.
Ah! The Soon-to-be-Card. Gerhard Müller CDF. I anxiously await the pronouncement on Medjugorje.
Meanwhile, it seems Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez has let the cat out of the bag today:
“Cardinal to preside at Honduras ‘Medjugorje’ site”
http://crownofstars.blogspot.mx/2014/01/cardinal-to-preside-at-honduras_23.html
Please forward the remarks of ++Muller to Cardinal Marx.
All kidding aside, Francis can do what Francis wants. If he decides more authority should be given to the conferences, a la the Episcopal Church, then it really doesn’t matter what Muller thinks. Although he sees himself as simply the Bishop of Rome, I suspect Francis will have no problem acting as “supreme pontiff” when he wants something done or changed. Muller seems to be swimming, not just upstream, but against a tsunami when we consider Maradiaga’s comments and those of Cardinal Marx as well (both gang of eight by the way).
It’s funny, many folks (myself included) were lamenting Mueller’s perceived heterodoxy under Benedict’s reign. Now just a few months later, he looks to be the premiere champion of sanity and orthodoxy.
I suppose it’s time we stopped being surprised that the head of the CDF is always solid in his “doctrine of the faith.” People had similar concerns about Card. Levada…I suppose people had concerns about Card. Ratzinger, given some of his 1960’s ideas. But, when they assumed that office, they stopped speculating or trying to appear to everyone as cutting-edge or supremely pastoral and, instead, upheld the doctrine of the faith.
Yes, it seems the Pope Emeritus may have had some foresight in appointing soon to be Cardinal Mueller at CDF. I just hope and pray that Pope Francis is truly open to hear the voices of Orthodoxy even if he wants to play them off against Cardinal Maradiaga and his ilk. If the Pope is truly in Maradiaga’s camp and just playing a neutral intermediary for show, like Obama’s supposed earlier rejection of “same sex marriage”, then I truly am worried. We’ll need to pray hard for the Pope and the Church in the coming years. Maybe, even if the Pope is a liberal dissenter at heart (although I don’t think he truly is, although I don’t know for sure), the Pio Nono effect will move him back to supporting the orthodox faith.
I am glad Archbp. Mueller made these very orthodox statements about the power structure of the Catholic Church, now it would be nice if the Bishops Conferences around the world actually followed it. Hope and pray he keeps this type of orthodox teacing up.
It did indeed seem a providential appointment by Pope Benedict…appointing a Ratzingerian in favour of very left-wing economic policies…which happen to mirror the economic policies Pope Francis favours.
This way orthodoxy got a hearing and the deposit of the faith can be maintained.