Olive branches between Francis and Card. Müller

At Corriere today there is an odd story that might interest you.

Papa Francesco scrive al cardinale Müller: disgelo con i tradizionalisti
Il Papa in una lettera di 7 righe: «Caro fratello, molte grazie per il tuo libro: il tuo testo sul post-sinodo mi piace»

Pope Francis writes to Card. Müller: detente with the traditionalists
The Pope in a letter of 7 lines: “Dear brother, thank you very much for your book: I like your text on the post-Synod”

The letter to the obviously side-lined former CDF Prefect was dated 12 February.

Card. Müller has a new book as of 12 February. Also, Müller gave an 1600+ word essay about the Synod (“walking together with Pachamama”) to the National Catholic Register. HERE

“Cardinal Müller: ‘Querida Amazonia’ Is a Document of Reconciliation… “The entire letter is written in a personal and attractive tone. The Successor of Peter [wants] to win all Catholics and Christians of other denominations, but also all people of good will, for a positive development of this region,” so that “all living there may experience the uplifting and unifying power of the Gospel.”

Being a German bishop, Müller has a valuable perspective on the machinations of his countryman when it comes to their instrumentalization of money and the Amazonians and every else who fell for it.  He is also detested by the junta surrounding Papa Bergoglio and the New catholic Red Guards who slavishly curry favor with the junta in nearly papalatrous determination.

It looks like olive branches have been exchanged.

The writer at Corriere then devolves into typical Italian fantasies about a new rapprochement perhaps being the spark of schism: “Negli Stati Uniti, ma non solo, qualcuno aveva di nuovo evocato scenari scismatici. … In the United States, but not only, some have once again evoked schismatic scenario.”

Meanwhile, hard-core Team Bergoglio is trying to spin Francis’ door slam on the pet projects of the left.  For example, the quondam ghost writer Argentinian Bp. Victor Manuel Fernandez (who penned that super-creepy book about kissing), said that, in fact, Francis didn’t really close the door definitively on a hypothetical “Amazonian Rite”.

That slam has clearly left them rattled.

Although Müller is maybe extending an olive branch, and receiving one back, he did also comment in strong opposition to aspects of the Amazon Synod.  Thus, Corriere:

“Those forty or so Indians with feathers on their heads, colored faces and idols of Mother Earth, received by the Pope, did not seem to me that they came from the Amazon rainforest. I have the impression that they were brought to Italy from Brasilia, from San Paolo, and hosted in Rome in five-star hotels, paid for by the German bishops”, explains Müller.  Abrasive words from which it is sensed that the ‘document of reconciliation’ is seen by the conservative Catholicism camp as partial payback, and by Francesco’s usual allies as a retreat or in any case a slowing down of the reforms. In sum, the rebuilding of the Church still seems an more of a attempt rather than a reality.

 

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14 Comments

  1. ChrisP says:

    The thing is, Francis is a Peronist in operations. I don’t think that can be disputed.

    But what that means is that he will target his output to who HE thinks he is addressing, and that doesn’t necessarily mean those on his side or right beside him.

    For once, he addressed the non-Bergoglio crowd.

    If we could only stop him addressing the SachsOrc™ …..

  2. HvonBlumenthal says:

    Now that he has seen how fickle and unprincipled the left is, and how little loyalty they have to a man whom they see as past his useful prime, he may be wondering if conservatives might make better, kinder and more reliable friends.

  3. Hidden One says:

    I see nothing in Cardinal Mueller’s text on Querida Amazonia that I might expect Pope Francis to object to. Instead, I see a faithful account of the nature, value, and meaning of that document, an account that does not foreground the blocked ordination of married men. I’m glad the pope liked it. I do too.

  4. donato2 says:

    I have the impression that this Pontificate is, as a practical matter, now over. The purpose of the Pontificate was to push the envelope on the liberal agenda as far as it could be pushed. That now has been done. There is nothing left on the liberal agenda, except, perhaps, an attack on Humanae Vitae, and I don’t think Pope Francis has it in him to engage in such an attack.

    The next battle will be in the next conclave. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pope Francis abdicate this year. His influence on the next conclave even if not overt would be much greater alive than from the grave.

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  6. JonPatrick says:

    It’s strange how the US is invoked as the ones likely to schism. Wow if we are somehow the bastion of conservativism in the Church, things must be worse than I thought.

  7. Hidden One says:

    JonPatrick,

    As best I can figure out, the ‘fire’ under the smoke of concerns about American schism is the (mostly online?) Benevacantist ‘movement’ and its sympathizers. That group, if it may be called such, is vocal and–sadly–counts some American clergy among its public members. Furthermore, anyone who misinterprets the words and actions of, for example, Cardinal Burke or Bishop Strickland, as being supportive of this schismatic movement (which by all accounts I’ve heard they most assuredly are not!) is going to be concerned about an American schism.

    Meanwhile, those of us who might be called ‘traditionalists’ and whose thinking is not schismatic consider it absolutely ridiculous that we of all people (American or not) would ever go into schism, which would involve a direct denial of some if not most of our very strongest convictions.

  8. Suburbanbanshee says:

    1. Most Europeans don’t understand the US, so they always assume that we are the weird dangerous ones.

    2. Americans vent their opinions instead of hiding them.

  9. HvonBlumenthal says:

    Liberals feel more under threat in the US than anywhere else because it is there that the antics of the gay mafia have been unmasked by the secular authorities. This is where the liberal project is most likely to unravel.

  10. robtbrown says:

    Francis has realized that a lot of people have turned on him, and they can’t be dismissed with his customary insults of “rigid” or “Promethean neo Pelagians.” The Parolin Project, the gift of the Church in China to the Chinese government, provoked opposition that couldn’t be ignored by the tactic of 1970s throw away lines.

    The Amazonian synod has been considered as little else than an excuse to let the Germans do whatever they want. Even Francis himself spoke of Amazon I as a model for other episcopal groups.

    IMHO, he’s trying to save his papacy.

  11. JamesA says:

    I fear you may be correct in this assessment.
    Except, of course…he can remain and continue to appoint rupture minded bishops and cardinals for another decade, virtually guaranteeing an outcome he wants.

  12. teomatteo says:

    donato2, I am not that confident in this man’s ability to change things. I expect a rewrite of some parts of the catechism. Some word changes I think are next.

  13. Luminis says:

    As an American who lived on the EU for 10 years I agree with this statement percent!

  14. “Those forty or so Indians with feathers on their heads, colored faces and idols of Mother Earth, received by the Pope, did not seem to me that they came from the Amazon rainforest. I have the impression that they were brought to Italy from Brasilia, from San Paolo, and hosted in Rome in five-star hotels, paid for by the German bishops”, explains Müller.

    I don’t understand why the Catholic press, the conservative Catholic press (I’m looking at you, U.K. Herald!) didn’t do some serious reporting on this while the Synod was going on. That “Pachamama”–or whatever it was–was so obviously phony-baloney. It looked nothing like any piece of actual Amazonian artwork (you can look up authentic Amazonian arts and crafts on the Internet). but rather, instead, like a cheesy, poorly made (it looked stamped-out, not carved) souvenir-shop knockoff of Western, Picasso-esque “primitivism”–complete with a feminist slant (pregnancy) designed to appeal to leftish Western females agitating for women priests. Why didn’t any reporters look into this? Why weren’t any of the Amazonian “Indians” in Rome (probably all professional activists) interviewed?

    It is shocking that a Synod in this day and age supposedly devoted to evangelizing the Amazon was held nowhere near the Amazon River in the first place. The whole thing was so clearly a production of German bishops planning to turn it into Vatican III. Fortunately, Pope Francis seems to have declined to go along with this scheme. He’s not my favorite pope by a long shot, but he held the line.

    What I don’t understand is: Why are we of the rest of the Church supposed to be led by a bunch of German bishops? They’ve wrecked the Church in their own country (Sunday Mass attendance 10 percent–if that–plus ever-declining numbers of baptisms, etc.)–so why are they supposed to be entitled to run the Church everywhere else?

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