July 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, praised Cardinal Gerhard Müller’s latest statement on the forthcoming controversial Amazon Synod in remarks on social media over the weekend.
Müller had said, among other things, that no synod, pope, or council “could make possible the ordination of women as bishop, priest, or deacon.”
It is widely feared that the Synod, scheduled for October, is being implemented as a means of ushering in women’s ordination.
Thank God for Cardinal Muller’s clarity and strength. Let us pray that all will heed his message as he guards the deposit of faith. https://t.co/jCBX6pzdyv
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) July 27, 2019
Strickland made his comments in posting the July 26 LifeSiteNews article detailing Müller’s critique of the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, for the Synod, titled On the Synodal Process in Germany and the Synod for the Amazon.
Learn more about Bishop Strickland’s views and past actions by visiting FaithfulShepherds.com. Click here.
“The Magisterium of the Pope and of the bishops has no authority over the substance of the sacraments,” Müller said.
“Therefore, no synod – with or without the Pope – and also no ecumenical council, or the Pope alone, if he spoke ex cathedra, could make possible the ordination of women as bishop, priest, or deacon,” he said. “They would stand in contradiction to the defined doctrine of the Church.”
“It would be invalid,” Müller stated.
The former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also called the Amazon Synod, scheduled for October 8-27 in Rome, a “wrecking ball” that is geared at a “restructuring of the Universal Church.”
Earlier this month, Müller said in an interview that the Synod on the Amazon is “a pretext for changing the Church.”
“The fact that it is being held in Rome is intended to underline the beginning of a new church,” he said.
“The approach of Instrumentum Laboris is an ideological vision,” having nothing to do with the foundations of Catholicism, Müller argued.
The “cosmovision” the document proposes is “pan-naturalistic” and “similar to Marxism,” he said.
Müller said as well that “we must absolutely reject” expressions such as “ecological conversion,” and “there is only conversion to the Lord.”
Strickland has consistently voiced the importance of the duty bishops have of guarding the deposit of faith – a pledge they make at their episcopal consecration.
The east Texas bishop has also regularly evangelizes and defends the Catholic faith forthrightly.