Posted on 04/25/2025 9:08:46 AM PDT by ebb tide
Cardinal Müller granted the following interview to Iacopo Scaramuzzi, for Italian daily Repubblica, and published yesterday:
“The future pope is not a successor of his predecessor but a successor of Peter": thus German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, a member of the conservative wing of the College of Cardinals.
Your Eminence what are your feelings at this moment?
“A chapter in the history of the Church has closed. Clearly, the last judgment is up to God, we cannot judge people. If we talk about the pontificate, however, there are different opinions. There is unanimous appreciation for Francis' engagement with migrants, the poor, and to overcome the divisions between the center and the periphery. On the other hand, however, at some moments he was somewhat ambiguous; for example when, with Eugenio Scalfari, he spoke about the resurrection. With Pope Benedict we had perfect theological clarity, but everyone has his own charisms and abilities and I think Pope Francis had them more in the social dimension.”
Did you appreciate that Francis ruled until his last breath, without resigning?
“Yes. Clearly I don't want to criticize Pope Benedict for his decision but I have always said that we must avoid the impression that the pope's mission is only a function. Resignation must be an exception, one cannot think that the apostles have retired....”
Should the next pope in his opinion change the blessing of same-sex couples?
“He needs to clarify that. The document approved under Francis was meant to help these people pastorally, but the Catholic doctrine of marriage should not be relativized.”
You said the assemblies convened by the pope were a mere symposium.
“The bishops have an authority that cannot be confused with the possibility of all the baptized to speak. It is a conference, which is legitimate, but it is not a synod, it is not an expression of the Magisterium of the Church. Clearly those who understand nothing or little about Catholic theology say: now the Pope changes the Church from an autocracy to a democracy. But it is a wrong premise to confuse the Church with a political organization, like the World Economic Forum or the United Nations.”
Pope Francis appointed a woman prefect of a Vatican dicastery: will it be good to repeat this kind of choice in the future?
“The problem is not the woman, the problem is a layman called to preside over what used to be a congregation, which is an expression of the authority of the College of Cardinals. The impression of people from the outside was, 'Ah, at last a woman!' And I think that when it comes to administrative offices like the Governorship, there is no problem with it being run by the laity, but the Roman Curia is an ecclesiastical body.”
Pope Francis has been very committed to dialogue with Islam: should it be continued in your opinion?
“Already St. Thomas Aquinas distinguished things: on the level of reason; we can dialogue with them: they respect certain principles of natural ethics and believe in God in their own way. However, we must ask ourselves how it is possible that one who believes in God, the creator of all men, can kill in the name of God. Dialogue, yes, but avoid all forms of relativism: the Catholic faith is not a singular expression of a universal world religion created by the Davos forum.”
Bergoglio signed a historic agreement with China: will this path be continued?
“Compromises are reached with these powerful dictators, but we cannot betray the principles of our faith, we cannot accept that atheistic Communists, enemies of humanity, write our catechism books or bring the image of Xi Jinping into the churches. We cannot accept Communists appointing bishops.”
What should the next pope do and what profile should he have?
“Every pope must serve the mission of St. Peter: he is servus servorum Dei. The future pope is not a successor of his predecessor but a successor of Peter.”
Do you think your positions are shared in the College of Cardinals? Do you feel you are a minority?
“It may be that some say, 'These theologians talk, others are pragmatic, they think more about power, influence...' I don't know. Everyone needs to remember that we are the mystical body of Christ, and not an international humanitarian and social organization. This pleases a lot of secularized people, the elite, the oligarchs, who would like the Pope as a symbol of their religion -- but the Pope is not a symbol of secularized religion.”
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Ping
They are calling him “The People’s Pope”. Maybe Catholics could support “God’s Pope”.
Were all the churches that Paul started Catholic? No. Were the 7 churches mentioned in Revelation Catholic? No
They will call him exactly what he was not!!
Peter wasn’t a pope. Catholics made that up..
I had this random thought this morning: What if the next Pope is from the CCP controlled Chinese Catholic church?...
Yes because no other Protestant sects existed yet.
One church, one faith.
Oh yes. Upon that Rick he built his church.
Catholics like to brag on the stabilizing influence of the Magisterium. This lowly Protestant didn’t see Francis as terribly stabilizing. OTOH, I considered converting during the leadership of John Paul II.
Ha. The new boss will probably be worse than the old boss. Like this guy:
More evidence in the Bible for the Papacy than there is for the “pre-trib rapture” or any of a dozen other novelties that evangelicals teach.
Where in the scriptures does it say Jesus is head of the Church? Those churches were never called catholic in the Bible. When Paul came back to Jerusalem from his encounter with Jesus Peter was not in charge of the assembly there.
The first Pope who claimed to be the way to God was around 1500AD. Just before the Catholics burned Tynsdale at the stake for translating the Bible into English. What year was it that the Catholics burned Joan of Arc at the stake?
Don't know anything about a Pope claiming to be "the way to God," sorry. Can you post some sort of citation?
Jesus is the "way to God". There is no other.
(The Pope in 1500 was Alexander VI. No sane person would have called him "the way to God".)
Nothing about the Pope's role changed ca. AD 1500, either. It was at the Council of Chalcedon, way back in AD 451, where the Council Fathers, after the Pope's delegate read his position paper, said, "This is what we all believe! This is the faith of the Church! Peter has spoken through Leo!"
Tyndale was tried and convicted for heresy, not for translating the Bible. And it was in Belgium, where nobody spoke English anyway. And the person who reported him to the Belgian church court was an agent of the English Protestant King Henry VIII.
What percent of the people in Europe at that time had probably committed heresy in their life. Most of them, right. Yet the Pope picked this man to burn and not the rest of them? That old story falls on its face. Who gave the Pope the right to burn someone at the stake? It is not in the Scriptures. Lots of people spoke English at that time.
Chaucer was born about 1342 and he wrote in English. 200 years before the Pope killed the Bible translator.
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