His Eminence Rodriguez Card. Maradiaga gave an interview to at least one German newspaper. It was reported by Reuters that he spoke to a newspaper of Cologne, Germany, Köln, the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. I found an interview, if there is only one, at the site of the Frankfurter Rundschau.
[UPDATE 21 Jan 1643 GMT – the Frankfurter Rundschau has removed that article from their site! You get a 404 page. For the whole thing at Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger go HERE]
The Cardinal openly criticized soon-to-be Cardinal Müller.
Okay, maybe Müller brought a little of this on himself by defending Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, who spent a lot of money to revamp the bishop’s residence. Fine. He’s a big boy and he can handle that heat.
But … Rodriguez suggests that Müller’s problem is that he is a professorial theologian who doesn’t grasp the real world:
Ihr Mitbruder, Kardinal in spe Gerhard Ludwig Müller, hält als Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation offenbar mehr von der Autorität der Kirche.
MARADIAGA: (lacht) Ich habe es gelesen, ja. Und ich dachte: “Okay, vielleicht hast Du Recht, vielleicht aber auch nicht.” Ich meine, ich verstehe ihn: Er ist Deutscher – ja, ich muss das sagen, er ist obendrein Professor, ein deutscher Theologieprofessor. In seiner Mentalität gibt es nur richtig oder falsch, das war’s. Aber ich sage: “Die Welt, mein Bruder, die Welt ist nicht so. Du solltest ein wenig flexibel sein, wenn du andere Stimmen hörst, damit du nicht nur zuhörst und sagst, nein, hier ist die Wand.” Also, ich glaube, er wird dahin gelangen, andere Ansichten zu verstehen. Aber jetzt ist er halt noch am Anfang, hört bloß auf seinen Beraterstab.
“…ein deutscher Theologieprofessor…”?
Who else was a German Theology professor?
Unless Rodriguez thinks he is Vice-Pope, he should not speak like this to the press about the Prefect of the CDF. As a matter of fact, Cardinals probably should not speak to the press at all. Come to think of it, neither should Popes, much less Vice-Popes. Emeritus?… I digress.
Rodriguez does NOT speak for Francis. Nothing suggests that he does.
In any event, maybe Rodriguez just had a bad moment with the interviewer. Maybe he went too far. It happens. After all, he has a history is speaking in somewhat exaggerated terms, and right now – with all the worldly attention he is getting in Pope Francis’ shadow – he could be feeling his oats.
I am leaning toward His Eminence having had a bad day. You might remember that he made that infamous statement that Jews who run the media in the USA blew the clerical sexual abuse thing out of proportion. Remember the reaction from the ADL? The ADL was outraged by Card. Rodriguez’s statements in 30 Giorni that Jewish influence in the media trumped up the clerical sexual abuse controversy to distract from Israeli-Palestinian problems. Not a good day.
It is interesting, however, how courageously the Cardinal attacked the German soon-to-be Cardinal Müller, Prefect of nothing less than the CDF, in a German newspaper of Cologne, Köln.
What better way to capture press notice?
“But Father! But Father!”, you are tempted to whisper, “Francis is against… I can barely bring myself to say the hated word… careerism….”
Right.
So, what’s the play here, if there is one?
If I were to put on my analyst’s cap….
First, as I said before, it could be that Card. Rodriguez had a bad day. That happens. We have bad days.
Is there some ecclesiastical game here?
Let’s think about this.
If, as some are saying, Pope Francis wanted to get rid of Müller from the Curia – and there isn’t much evidence of that, since Francis is signing off on what he’s doing – then Francis would have to move him to someplace like Cologne, Germany!
Keep thinking. In Cologne, the chapter of the Cathedral have a lot of say about who gets the archbishopric there. Unless… unless… he is a Cardinal. The Pope can’t just move any ol’ bishop there, against the will of the chapter, but he can move a Cardinal. What do you know? Francis is making Müller a Cardinal in February, which makes him movable … out of the Curia and to Germany? Promoveatur ut amoveatur?
So, would Francis make Müller a Cardinal to move him to Cologne? No way. Francis doesn’t like professiorial types as bishops of dioceses. He wants “pastoral” types. Müller is said to have failed that test in Regensburg. Germany would go up in flames.
So… would Rodriguez dump on Müller in order to “help” him move from the Curia to Cologne? Doesn’t seem logical. Pretty cynical, since that goes against everything Francis says he is about. If Rodriguez were against Müller being in the CDF, then why run Müller down in Cologne, the logical place for him to go? That doesn’t make sense…
… unless Card. Rodriguez was having a bad day.
Or unless he simply want to undercut Müller and … undermine the Congregation and Müller’s arguments about the divorced and remarried?
Okay… I am just rattling on here. Pay no attention to me.
In any event, what Card. Rodriguez did was display dirty laundry publicly. When you are a Cardinal, you don’t do this. Okay, Card. Marx did this to Müller too. Let that pass. I say: When you are a Cardinal, you don’t do this.
I will add that if Card. Rodriguez doesn’t like Müller’s reasoning about Communion for the divorced and remarried, then deal with the arguments instead of carrying on an ad hominem attack in a German newspaper.
QUAERITUR: Does Card. Rodriguez have more than, “that’s not how the world works”? I suspect not. Müller, on the other hand, had cogent arguments in L’Osservatore Romano.
Go back and read these:
Do you remember what I predicted? I wrote about Müller’s essay on the Communion and the divorced and remarried?
This is going to be spun by the left as the Bad Guy’s attempt to stop Francis.
Müller won’t be presented as the voice of reason. No, he will be the Bad Guy.
Fishwrap will say something nasty about him, something personal, like, “Now that Müller is secure in his appointment as Prefect, he feels free to attack ‘mercy’.”
Card. Rodriguez talking about the way the real world works is, effectively, the same thing: Müller doesn’t understand the “real world”… that is to say… Müller doesn’t understand mercy.
Keep your eyes on the upcoming Synod of Bishops. Watch who makes pleas that we abandon the Church’s teaching and discipline and simply wave a wand over the divorced and remarried … and say we should just ordain married men as priests, for that matter.
As I think about this through, we are seeing preparatory work for the the Synod.
In the meantime… whose is actually running the Diocese of Tegucigalpa?
else was a German Theology professor?
shiny on YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS: “Thank you to all those who have prayed for my intentions in the past! This might be a small thing,…”
