Cardinal in interview- Conclave is like a visit to the dentist- clearly the shorter and more painless the better

He is one of six German cardinals who in the next few days elect the new Pope in Rome. In an interview with BILD.de Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes (78), says how he responded to the resignation of his friend Pope Benedict XVI and how he sees the conclave.

BILD: Your Eminence, when was your last meeting with Pope Benedict?
Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes: At the farewell to the cardinals in the Clementine Hall, shortly before his departure last Thursday and it was my turn. The Pope asked me spontaneously and easily: How do you do? And I replied: Apart from your resignation - well, Holy Father.

BILD: Did you want to make a joke?
Cordes: The withdrawal of this great Pontiff left not only in me, but in very many believers a painful void.

BILD: Will you meet Pope Benedict again?
Cordes: I've also asked him if I can. And he gave his consent.

BILD: Not long ago you were a guest of Pope Benedict ...
Cordes: In early February I had eaten dinner with the Holy Father and Georg Gänswein in the papal apartment. First, there was pasta. Then roast pork with green beans. And of course, dessert. In the end, the Pope served a very old sherry.

BILD: How did you get the invitation?
Cordes: Gänswein had told the Pope that my new book "Preserving Evidence - mystics witness to God" now had been printed. I had dedicated ot to the Pope. He apparently wanted to read it. Then came the invitation, and I could present the Holy Father with a copy.

BILD: What impression did you have of the Pope? Was he weakened?
Cordes: He was mentally very active. But he did not have the former great vitality, which I knew he had once.

BILD: Did his resignation come as a surprise?
Cordes: It came to me, as for all the other cardinals as well, like a bolt from the blue. We were in shock, when he told us at the meeting.

BILD: Can you remember your first ever meeting with Ratzinger?
Cordes: Probably not in as much detail as Benedict, who has a fantastic memory. It was in 1969 at the seminary in Paderborn. Hans Küng had then built an elaborate house in Tübingen. The money was coming from the sale of his books. I asked Ratzinger whether with books it was ever possible to make money. He said yes, as he himself also wrote books.

BILD: Do you look forward to the conclave and the election of a pope?
Cordes: Yes. It will hopefully be a short conclave and pretty soon. I want to compare the time with the visit to the dentist, as you want get everything over with as quickly as possible. Also, I do not know what exactly to expect. I know about what happens in a conclave from mediocre films. We will see.

BILD: What do you think of the proposal of Cardinal Kasper, that the Pope in governing the Church, should appoint an additional panel of bishops and laymen ?
Cordes: The Pope can create this, if he wants. But there are likely enough committees . Our most important task is the deepening of faith. Benedict has always pointed again to God . The forgetfulness of God is the problem of our time.

BILD: Which candidate would be the best for us Germans?
Cordes: If a candidate engineered his own election, he would have failed me. A pope is not just there for Germany . He's a good pope when he awakens hope and consolation, because he proclains salvation of God for us all- especially for the disenfranchised and oppressed.

BILD: Should the successor continue Benedict's policy of "detachment from the world by the church"?
Cordes: The initial rejection of many was emotional and ill-conceived. In the Freiburg speech great wisdom can be found. It is - well beyond Germany - a weighty push bacj against life without God

Source


 How Cardinal Cordes celebrates Mass- not for the faint of heart.   Cathcon has previously covered the liturgical abuse of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.  Much more painful than a visit to the dentist.

Cardinal Cordes slams Cardinal Lehmann for stoking the fires of dissent

kreuz.net – Ein katholischer Kardinal übt scharfe Kritik an Kardinal Lehmann

Catholic Cardinal sharply criticises Cardinal Lehmann

The turmoil caused by the removal of the four-Lefebvre excommunications was in fact a well-orchestrated poisoning of wells - and a serious failure of the German bishops.

kreuz.net) "Chaos Days in Rome,"was how the anti-religious magazine 'Der Spiegel' described the staging around the repeal of the Lefebvre-excommunications.

But the German Curia Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes would like to call this event rather a "well-orchestrated poisoning of the wells in Germany" .

He has just said this in a very long article for the Catholic newspaper ‘Tagespost'.
Worldly bishops with a secular image of the Church

For those distant from the church and who lack God - and apparently also for secularised bishops – excommunication appears as a banal exclusion from a club.
In truth, it is about being excluded from the economy of sacramental graces, said the cardinal.

Cardinal Cordes criticized in this regard, the bishop of Mainz, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, razor-sharply:

"Certainly he could have in recent days, as the most quoted of German Catholic Bishops in the Vatican thanks to his well-known good relations with the media, ironed out misunderstandings, addressing the spiritual dimension of the act and could have with the Pope directed people to view the faith and God. "

Failure in Mainz
But he had used his statements to demand from the leadership of the church “a little more political sensitivity ".

"A spiritually sick member of the body of Christ giving pain to the Pope over the years is at best thought of as a sentiment of old age" - Cardinal Cordes gave as analysis.

The Cardinal is adamant: "The Church should not be reduced to one body among many in society, least of all by their shepherds."

Is Christianity in ruins?

The total subordination to politics and the unquestioned legacy of narrow Enlightenment thought patterns determine – according Cardinal Cordes – even now the minds of a lot of opinion-makers.

The Cardinal cited the Danish religious philosopher Soren Kierkegaard:
"It is a long time ago now that God was listened to as the owner and something of a Lord, so Christianity is in ruins, so do we now completely and utterly abolish wish to abolish it or ad libitum trim it to something that is our own property and invention? "

Incomprehensible German Hysteria
For the German reactions to the lifting of the Lefebvre excommunication – the Curial Cardinal has no sympathy:

"Who from Rome looks at the ferocity of the response in Germany to the withdrawal of the excommunication of the four Lefevre bishops had to rub his eyes."

Remarks and statements of understanding from bishops loyal to the Pope were held back by editors:

Trial by Journalists
"The complaint, which the German chancellor issued publicly to the Successor of Peter again gave the Court of Journalists opportunity for agitation."
Cardinal Cordes compared the German hysteria to the prudent international reactions:

"In the U.S., the leader writer of the New York Times, I. Fisher, even used the occasion for a detailed and very favorable rating of Pope Benedict."

"Why this zeal in Germany?" - asked the cardinal.
German resentment against the Pope

His answer: "It appears, therefore, not the people, but the institution of the Office of Peter is the actual bone of contention."
This office makes some of the population north of the Alps continually "see red":

"And the majority of the media are all too happy to link this to everything dark or with legitimate grievance."

Over-enthusiastic media
The animosity directed against the Roman Pope was an ancient heritage in the "land of the Reformation".

German media have in recent weeks seen an opportunity to make from the “Williamson case” a “Benedict case”:

"With such a view, it would be possible to understand that overboard involvement in the issue, which is far beyond the duty to provide just news."