Father George May, Professor of Canon Law at Mainz University from 1960 to 1994, denounced the scandal of Archbishops Walter Kasper and Karl Lehmann receiving red hats.
In a February 2001 interview in Kirchliche Umschau, Father May said: "The nomination of Kasper and Lehmann [to the College of Cardinals] is a genuine scandal, that is to say, an occasion of sin . . . "
Both Kasper and Lehmann were made Cardinals by Pope John Paul II on February 21, 2001.
As for Karl Lehmann, even the liberal Italian press calls him "soft rebel," contrasting him with "hard rebels" such as Hans Kung. For years Lehmann resisted the Vatican's efforts to stop the German bishops from operating "counseling centers" which issued certificates German women need to obtain abortions under German law. He has also publicly questioned the Church's teaching that divorced and remarried Catholics may not receive Holy Communion. He co-authored [with fellow progressivist Walter Kaspar] a theology text which, among other things, denies the existence of a personal devil and personal demons.
Lehmann is unrepentant since his elevation to the status of Cardinal. Catholic World News reported that the day after he got his red hat, Lehmann "told reporters that he did not regret his opposition to the Holy See on the question of abortion counseling in Germany."
The other new Cardinal, Walter Kasper, is well-known for his heterodox views on the person of Jesus Christ. In his 1973 book Jesus Yes, Church No?, Father Kasper scorned the infallible Sacred Scriptures, stating that Christ "probably described himself neither as Messiah nor as Servant of God, nor as Son of God nor as Son of Man."
After Kasper's elevation to the Cardinalate, he was appointed Prefect of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. At the same time, he brazenly defied 2000 years of Church teaching alleging that non-Catholics need not convert to Catholicism for salvation. In a public statement printed in Adisti in February, Kasper said: ". . . today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would 'be converted' and return to being 'Catholics.' This was expressly abandoned at Vatican II."
With Cardinals like these, who need enemies?
JPII appointed both of them, then elevated Kaspar to head a Pontifical Commission.
What do you think that says about JP II?
Both Kasper and Lehmann were made Cardinals by Pope John Paul II on February 21, 2001.
Please someone explain how Pope John Paul II, a good man, could make Cardinals of these two. Hard to believe he did not know what they were about.