VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has endorsed Cardinal George Pell’s recent call upon the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to “reprimand” the German bishops for their “rejection of the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual ethics.” “Cardinal Pell,” the German cardinal wrote, “is fully justified in reminding the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of its responsibility to safeguard the truth of the faith and the unity of the Church of Christ in the authority of the Successor of Peter against the open heresy of German Synodalism.”
Cardinal Müller gave LifeSiteNews a statement (full text below) that he had previously shared with the German newspaper Die Tagespost. While Cardinal Pell included Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich in his statement, Cardinal Müller concentrated on the heresies of the German bishops.
As LifeSiteNews reported, on March 15 Cardinal Pell issued a statement in which he asked the CDF to “intervene and pronounce judgement” on Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich and Bishop Georg Bätzing for their “wholesale and explicit rejection of the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual ethics.”
Hollerich recently claimed that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality is “false” and in need of revision. Bishop Georg Bätzing, the head of the German bishops’ conference, made a similar statement when he expounded that that Catholic teaching needs to change vis-a-vis sexuality and pre-marital sex. “We have to partially change the catechism here,” he stated, adding that “sexuality is a gift from God. And not a sin.” The German prelate added that Jens Spahn, a German politician who lives in a same-sex partnership, “is a good Catholic.”
The German bishops, together with a group of laymen, cast some preliminary votes in February during their Synodal Path meeting, after which they stated “that practiced homosexuality is recognized as morally permissible,”among many other things.
It is to these statements that Cardinal Pell responded by calling upon the doctrinal office of the Church to correct such prelates who are defying the Church’s moral teaching.
The Nordic Bishops’ Conference, as well as the head of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, have recently made similar public rebukes of the German bishops. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, too, criticized the German prelates for “openly contradicting the truths of faith” of the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Müller sees his colleague’s call as “fully justified.” In the statement he sent to LifeSite, the cardinal speaks of “open heresy” and insists that “heretical bishops must not be obeyed, and every Catholic is called upon to bear witness to the truth against them, even if they enforce their power with brute force, just as the Arian and Donatist bishops once persecuted true Catholics.”
Cardinal Müller was himself the Prefect of the CDF from 2012 – 2017.
Please see here Cardinal Müller’s full statement:
Cardinal Pell is fully justified in reminding the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of its responsibility to safeguard the truth of the faith and the unity of the Church of Christ in the authority of the Successor of Peter against the open heresy of German Synodalism (cf. Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 18). Whoever wants to prescribe to the faithful other sources of revelation besides the Holy Scriptures and the Apostolic Tradition, has fallen away from the Catholic faith (cf. Vatican II, Dei verbum 9f). Heretical bishops must not be obeyed, and every Catholic is called upon to bear witness to the truth against them, even if they enforce their power with brute force, just as the Arian and Donatist bishops once persecuted true Catholics. One can see it in the uncharitable treatment of Cardinal Woelki, what these self-empowered “lords of faith” (2 Cor 1, 24) are capable of. They are not perceived by Christians as “servants of their joy” in Jesus Christ, who alone is way, truth and life.
As for their closeness to Pope Francis, by whom they feel constantly “encouraged,” it is only necessary to recall the arrogance with which they have pushed aside his request for the primacy of the new evangelization.
