Cardinal Brandmüller warns Catholics not to heed ‘majority’ but ‘minority who truly live the faith’

The history of the Church teaches us that “truth is not necessarily found with the majority,” but rather in the “minority which has truly lived and witnessed to the faith,” Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the four ‘dubia’ cardinal, said today in Rome.

Speaking at the symposium ‘Catholic Church: Where are you heading?,’ Cardinal Brandmüller said “when Catholics en masse consider it legitimate to remarry after divorce or use contraception … this is not a mass witness to the faith, but a mass departure from it.”

In his reflection, Brandmüller, president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, Blessed John Henry Newman’s 1859 essay On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine. emphasized the laity’s role in matters of doctrine, and sought to distinguish what is a true sensus fidei (sense of the faith) of believers and what is not.

“In the history of the people of God, it has often been not the majority but rather a minority which has truly lived and witnessed to the faith,” he said. “The experience of the Church shows that sometimes the truth of the faith has been conserved not by the efforts of theologians or the teaching of the majority of bishops but in the hearts of believers.”

The sensus fidei fidelium, Brandmüller continued, is expressed much more authentically initiatives like the “Manif pour tous” mass demonstrations in France, the one million faithful who petitioned Pope Francis to clarify the confusion that arose after the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the March for Life in the United States, and the human Rosary chain in Poland and other places around the world.

“It is time that the Magisterium paid due attention to this witness of faith,” he said.

Here below we offer our readers an English translation of Cardinal Walter Brandmüller’s talk in Rome.

God has ALWAYS preserved a remnant that will not bow the knee to false gods or error. It was in this spirit that the split between the Eastern and Western Orthodox churches - as well as the Reformation - happened and continues to this day. God's sheep hear HIS voice and follow Him in truth.

2 posted on 04/08/2018 11:59:43 AM PDT by boatbums (The Law is a storm which wrecks your hopes of self-salvation, but washes you upon the Rock of Ages.)

So which church is the remnant?

So which church is the remnant?

The mystical body who, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, God's fellow workers - God's field, God's building - the family of faith. It's not a "which" but a "who".

4 posted on 04/08/2018 2:21:29 PM PDT by boatbums (The Law is a storm which wrecks your hopes of self-salvation, but washes you upon the Rock of Ages.)

So there are bunch of “remnants”?

Something like cookie crumbs?

Why don't you ask Cardinal Brandmüller that question?

Let St. Paul help:

And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:4-6)

6 posted on 04/08/2018 3:08:13 PM PDT by boatbums (The Law is a storm which wrecks your hopes of self-salvation, but washes you upon the Rock of Ages.)

Pope Benedict said it best.

He sought a Church that was “smaller, poorer, Holier”.

That was a no-sale to the majority of Cardinals.
Hence he is on the sidelines.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.