Cardinal Müller resumes attack on German bishops

Blasphemous to bless homosexual couples', Cardinal Müller's theory and criticism of Pope Francis

Pope Francis 'normally does the opposite of what I tell him'. This is how Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in an interview with Repubblica recounts his relationship with Francis between controversies on doctrine and points of contact. On 31 March his book entitled appears "The Pope. Ministry and Mission' (Cantagalli) and in the long interview he anticipates the salient points. Among these is the controversial theory that "blessing homosexual couples is blasphemy" and he spoke of it evoking the doctrinal "confusion" he attributes to Francis.

"As a matter of principle I would never criticise a Pope publicly," Müller explained, "Francis has not changed and cannot change revealed doctrine, but the task of the Supreme Pontiff is not only to avoid causing confusion, but also to refute it. Eugenio Scalfari for example reported that he would tell him that hell does not exist, the Pope could instead explain the meaning of this difficult doctrine. In the German Church there are proposals directly against the Catholic faith: blessing homosexual couples is blasphemy. Father James Martin says that the Pope has done so much for LGBT people, the Pope should tell him: you must not instrumentalise me'.

The German bishops are banking on the synodal path in response to the sexual abuse crisis to restore credibility to the Church. On this Müller is intransigent: 'We cannot destroy the doctrine of sexual morality because some people have made mistakes, we have to explain it. We cannot overcome paedophilia with homophilia, because sins against adults are also sins'. And he explains: 'There are Bishops who have voted heretical texts, in my opinion a canonical process must be done. There is collegiality but there is also primacy and canonically the Pope has the responsibility to ask for an explanation, correct or in extreme cases dismiss bishops for doctrinal issues. They say they can develop understanding of doctrine, but we cannot develop revelation'.

Source