Cdl. Müller blasts ‘Great Reset fantasies’ of world leaders, Big Tech

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May 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Gerhard Müller lamented that “leading world politicians, business leaders, Big Tech giants are intoxicated by the total surveillance state in China,” blasting their “Great Reset fantasies” pointing to “a world of pleasing the masses by eliminating the free thinking of individuals.”

In an interview with German-speaking Catholic news website kath.net (translated in full below), the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said on Friday, “The local bishop, responsible for the salvation of his faithful entrusted to him by Christ, has a sacred duty to speak to the conscience of a prominent Catholic and point out to him the glaring contradiction between promoting abortion and receiving Holy Communion.”

Several high-profile politicians in the U.S. — including President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — claim to be Catholic, but support the killing of unborn children through abortion. And a number of bishops in the U.S. are currently attempting to slow down, if not stop, the process to draft a document spelling out the Catholic Church’s position on pro-abortion politicians claiming to be Catholic.

“Whoever actively participates in abortion, or, against better knowledge and in defiance of all instruction, favors it by word and deed, or, as a Catholic in a responsible position, fails to oppose it, is in contradiction to the will of God and receives the sacraments not for grace but for judgment,” Müller explained.

“Bishops who, in political calculation, place their party affiliation and media praise above their pastoral duties are guilty of profaning the Church, which they thus present to the world as an NGO and deny its true being as the Body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit,” he continued. “With their cunning excuses that they do not want to degrade Holy Communion to a means of politics, they deceive only themselves — but not others who see through the undignified game with which Holy Communion is made a means of politics. In an almost self-destructive way, they confirm the liberal prejudice that religion is a private matter and has no place in public.”

Full text of the kath.net interview with Cardinal Müller (translated with permission)

kath.net: Cardinal Müller, what is at stake in the conflict between the U.S. bishops over the admission to Holy Communion of Catholic pro-abortion politicians?

Müller: It is about the unity of faith and life, of profession [of faith] and morality. Only those who confess Jesus as Lord and God, but also fulfill the will of their heavenly Father, can enter the Kingdom of God. Sacramental communion in the reception of the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Christ only brings salvation to the believing recipient if he or she also behaves morally and socio-ethically in word and deed in a way that corresponds to the life in Christ established in Baptism, and to full Church membership.

Pope Francis has publicly excommunicated members of the Mafia across the board, and denounced their private acts of piety as hypocrisy.

Logically, this exclusion from Holy Communion with Christ must also be applied to all Catholics who directly and indirectly participate in “murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 27).

Friedrich Nietzsche had already pointed out the untrustworthiness of politicians who publicly present themselves as Christians, but in their deeds behave in an anti-Christian manner, and thus lead Christianity ad absurdum. In his book “The Antichrist” (1889), he holds up a mirror to a church that has distanced itself from the ideal of Christ, and has made itself comfortable within the state: “Where did the last sense of decency go, of respect for oneself, when our statesmen even, an otherwise very unaffected kind of people and antichrists in deed through and through, still call themselves Christians today and go to Communion?” (The Antichrist, 38) The nihilistic prophet of the “death of God” knew even better than the nominal Christians of today that one can go to Holy Communion only if one’s life also conforms to the teachings of Christ.

kath.net: One can follow two strands of thought in dealing with this issue. First, what does Catholic teaching say about the reception of the Eucharist by politicians who are decidedly pro-abortion, and act accordingly?

Müller: Most governments of the formerly Christian West are infiltrated by the ideology of hostility to life. They deny and fight the [concept of] man being [created] in the image of God because this natural and revealed truth limits their absolute claim to power, and hinders their full access to body and life, thinking, acting, and feeling of the objects of their rule.

In contrast, the teaching of the Church clearly and unambiguously states: “Life is therefore to be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception. Abortion and the killing of the child are abominable crimes.” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 51)

It is no accident that leading world politicians, business leaders, Big Tech giants are intoxicated by the total surveillance state in China. Their Great Reset fantasies point to a world of pleasing the masses by eliminating the free thinking of individuals. This includes their population policies. They believe that there are too many people on earth consuming the planet’s resources. Therefore the population must be reduced by all means, especially by contraception and million-fold infanticide. For this the ruling elite of the oligarchs and philanthropists guarantee an unconditional basic income and a supervised thinking to the rest of the people who are made happy by them. Where there is no alternative, no one needs to worry anymore; everything is already well regulated “by those up there.”

In addition, the crime of abortion is played down and disguised as reproductive health and made palatable to mothers as a woman’s right to self-determination, while legal and journalistic action is taken against the pro-lifers as violators of the so-called “human right to abortion” with threats and punishments. On top of that, abortion then enables the, highly criminal, billion dollar business with the organs of these murdered children.

That such an attitude is not compatible with the sacramental communion in Christ, the Word of God made flesh, is obvious. The Son of God revealed himself to the disciples as the living bread that came down from heaven: “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world … Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

An early Christian author stated: Christians participate positively in public life like all citizens, but do no evil and live according to the commandments of God: “They marry like all others and beget children, but do not abandon those who are born,” i.e., absolutely respect the right to life of every child as a creature of God (cf. Diognet Letter 5).

kath.net: And secondly, how does one deal with this question with human, pastoral and diplomatic wisdom?

Müller: Some politicians evade this problem by claiming that they’re personally against infanticide, but as bearers of responsibility in a pluralistic society they cannot impose Christian positions equally on all their fellow citizens. They say that the opinions of those who deny that children in the womb are fully human must be taken into account.

These politicians forget that it is a question of the natural law and the most fundamental of all human rights, namely life. “For man is the only creature on earth willed by God for its own sake” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 24).

Pope Francis specified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that the state has no right to punish the most serious criminals with death. How much less can the state attribute to its citizens the right to cruelly kill innocent human beings in the womb? It is a crying contradiction when the state legislature and the judiciary abdicate their own responsibility to protect the lives of young children — in the U.S., lamentably, a disproportionate number of African-American children are among them — and at the same time punish the violent death of an African-American with the maximum sentence of 40 years imprisonment.

Here, there must be no thinking and acting according to double standards based on ideological self-delusion. The local bishop, responsible for the salvation of his faithful entrusted to him by Christ, has a sacred duty to speak to the conscience of a prominent Catholic and point out to him the glaring contradiction between promoting abortion and receiving Holy Communion. This is true mercy, as opposed to people-smart diplomatic tactics.

The positive influence of the Church on politics does not consist in the cronyism of bishops and papal delegates with power, but in the willingness to be placed in the “service of humanity.” “And in a service that is determined by the need of humanity, not by our taste.” So said Father Alfred Delp S.J. (1907–1945) in his notes from Nazi prison on “The Fate of the Church” — before the justice of a thoroughly godless state sentenced him to death.

Here the testimony of faith is required, including bloody martyrdom, not papal secret diplomacy and episcopal power games.

In the face of the skeptic’s contemptuous question about the truth, Jesus said: “I was born for this purpose, and for this purpose I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Being a Christian today does not consist privately or publicly in fond childhood memories, sentimental self-pity with the pathos of self-realization, or grand window dressing about environmental protection and climate goals. “Whether the churches once again release from themselves the creative human being filled with divine powers is their fate … Only then will they have the bright eyes that see the concerns and calls of God even in the darkest hours. And only then do the ready hearts beat in them … which are only concerned with one thing: to help and to heal in the name of God … The force of the Church’s immanent mission depends on the seriousness of her transcendent devotion and adoration.” (Fr. Delp, Mit gefesselten Händen, Freiburg 2007, 138–144)

kath.net: When a leading politician such as President Joe Biden, for example, presents himself to voters and citizens as a practicing Catholic by attending Masses, while at the same time reversing his predecessor’s pro-life policies, and also proving to be an explicit proponent of legalizing abortion even during the election campaign, is there a danger that the Catholic faithful will become confused about Catholic teaching on the active killing of unborn children?

Müller: It is the task of the Magisterium of the American bishops to overcome any ambiguity about the unconditional right to life of every human being.

Whoever actively participates in abortion, or, against better knowledge and in defiance of all instruction, favors it by word and deed, or, as a Catholic in a responsible position, fails to oppose it, is in contradiction to the will of God and receives the sacraments not for grace but for judgment.

Bishops who, in political calculation, place their party affiliation and media praise above their pastoral duties are guilty of profaning the Church, which they thus present to the world as an NGO and deny its true being as the Body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit. With their cunning excuses that they do not want to degrade Holy Communion to a means of politics, they deceive only themselves — but not others who see through the undignified game with which Holy Communion is made a means of politics. In an almost self-destructive way, they confirm the liberal prejudice that religion is a private matter and has no place in public.

kath.net: The accusation of “schism” is currently hovering over these disputes in the U.S. bishops’ conference. Who exactly is dividing the U.S. church? Those who publicly defend Catholic teaching, or those who are willing to work with pro-abortion politicians?

Müller: The truth of the Gospel is the basis of the unity of the disciples in Christ’s Church. Our cosmopolitan “pastoralists” turn this reality on its head. They want a displayed unity after the manner of men in order to evade the challenging truth of the revealed faith.

Many of his disciples found Jesus’ Eucharistic discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum too harsh. For “how can he give us his flesh to eat?” But Jesus does not walk with them a synodal path of placating permanent dialog until everyone agrees on the lowest common denominator, or the “salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13) has become so stale that people trample it carelessly in the street.

He asked the 12 apostles then, and he asks the whole Church today, “Will you also go?” And Peter confesses, to this very hour from the mouth of his successor, the Roman Pontiff, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know: You are the Holy One of God.”

kath.net: Do you personally hope that the Plenary Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), scheduled for June, will be able to bring itself to make a clear and public statement? Which contents would you consider helpful, and why?

Müller: If the bishops recognize the primacy of truth and resist the temptation to subordinate — as unfortunately was done so often in history — themselves to the apparent omnipotence of the state and prestige among fickle contemporaries, something good can come out of it for the Catholic Church in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Child abuse is a grave sin against the bodily integrity of adolescents, their souls, and their lives. Hopefully, lessons have been learned from the McCarrick case, and not only that it was unintentionally exposed, but that allowing evil can never be balanced with anything good.

Looking the other way and belittling, fiddling with the powerful, wanting to be smarter than the children of this world, cunningly pursuing worldly interests — all this has never served the Church and has always only obscured her mission to be the “all-embracing sacrament of salvation, which both reveals and realizes the mystery of God’s love for man” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 45).