Cardinal wants debate on ordination of married men....and more

Marx for debate on ordination of "viri probati"

Even Pope Francis is already talking about it: Cardinal Reinhard Marx wants a broad debate on the ordination of married men. In this context, then another topic would be on the agenda.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, considers a discussion about new approaches to the priesthood legitimate. So the opportunity to ordain proven married men (viri probati) to priests, should be thoroughly thought out and discussed "over the whole range" of the problem, said Marx on Friday evening in Munich at the autumn assembly of the Regional Committee of Catholics in Bavaria.

In a keynote speech, the Viennese pastoral theologian, Paul Zulehner expressed his conviction that Pope Francis will allow new forms of the priesthood. "We'll live to see it if no one shoots or poisons the pope." At the same time, the theologian called on Catholics to "step on the feet" of their bishops. It is "wrong to subordinate the celebration of the Eucharist to the celibacy of priests".

"No movement" in women's issue

Marx further explained that Pope Francis would talk to advisors about the ordination of married people. But it is not that there is a direct impulse from Rome to tackle the issue now. Therefore, he could "promise nothing" in this regard. The cardinal pointed out that in this context the women's question would come onto the table. But he sees "no movement". He had not heard so far from the Pope's commission of inquiry into female deacons.

At the same time Marx affirmed experiments with new forms of church leadership. These would not only take place in his Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. But such models should not be tried oout without or against the priest. Nor does he think anything of priestless parishes, said the Cardinal. "Eucharists must be celebrated." In addition, no quality reductions should be accepted in ecclesiastical actions. "Where we act, it must be good." Those who only occasionally came into contact with the church expected that.

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Cardinal Müller criticizes Papal decision

Pope Francis wants to give the episcopal conferences more authority over liturgical translations. He receives criticism from one of his former closest associates, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller.

Curial Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller opposes greater powers of the Episcopal Conferences in liturgical matters. In a recent interview, he has criticised the Pope's decision to give more freedom to the national episcopal conferences in translating liturgical texts. The liturgy cannot and should not separate, said the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Passauer Neuen Presse on Thursday. Thus, in the translation, attention must be paid to accuracy and fidelity of the content as well as to the actual implementation within the spirit and culture of the target language. "The last authority in the case of doubt" could therefore not lie with the episcopal conferences, emphasises Müller.

The Cardinal pointed to several experiences that translators relied by the Bishops often diluted the biblical texts on the pretext of better comprehensibility. If the powers of the Episcopal Conferences were now increased, it was to be feared that the unity of the Catholic Church would be destroyed in faith, confession and prayer, Müller said. Muller cites "highly demanding teachings" such as the vicarious atoning death of Jesus, the birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary, the physical resurrection of Jesus or the gift of his true flesh and blood under the species of bread and wine. In some countries, these and other truths have already broken down into ethical appeals and thus been stripped of their Catholic salvific reality.

The background to the discussion is a dispute between Francis and Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Congregation for the Liturgy. Francis wants to strengthen the Episcopal Conferences with the Pope's decree, "Magnum principium" ("The Important Principle"), giving them more responsibility in translating liturgical texts.

Francis does not shake faith

In the same interview Müller defended Pope Francis from heresy charges . "There can only be a question of heresy if a Catholic persistently denies a revealed truth of faith that the Church has made binding," said the Cardinal. For popes and bishops, this would be the case if they presented to the faithful a doctrine with the highest authority which contradicted the Word of God in Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition, and the dogmatic decisions of ecumenical councils so far. This is undoubtedly not the case in the few controversial passages of the Papal letter "Amoris laetitia", stressed Müller.

Francis never wanted to shake the foundations of the Catholic faith or modernise the teaching of Christ as if it were outdated, the Cardinal said. Rather, it is about how to help in a pastoral way people in very difficult marital and often tragic family circumstances. At the end of this, the full reconciliation with God and the Church in the sacrament of penance and then participation in communion could also take place.

When asked about his own future, Müller said that he hopes to continue to serve the church in word and deed as well as witness and prayer with God's help. When asked if he would stay in Rome, he replied, "Man thinks, God is guiding." But a cardinal who is not yet emeritus or who does not lead a bishopric as a local bishop or otherwise exercises an office in the universal church, has a duty of residence in Rome. This is because he belongs to the closest advisory body of the Pope. In July, Francis had not extended term of office of Muller, who had led the Congregation of the Faith for five years.

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Leading Catholic claims Pope Francis has "Lutheran qualities"

Thierse: Pope Francis has "Lutheran qualities"
Cardinal Marx and Provincial Bishop Bedford-Strohm appear to be "like twins". Pope Francis has "Lutheran qualities". "So why is ecumenism not going any further?" asks Wolfgang Thierse.

Former President of the German Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse (SPD) called on the two major churches to become more ecumenical active. In his speech to the central Reformation commemoration ceremony in the Rhineland-Palatinatem Thierse said in spite of all the happiness he was"dissatisfied". The talk of the "reconciled diversity" of the denominations is not enough, it stands only "for the administration of the difference". Catholics should seize the opportunity to have a head of church "with quite Lutheran qualities" with Pope Francis. The future of ecumenism is a matter for every single Christian.

Herr Thierse is a Catholic

At the same time, Thierse emphasized that Catholics and Protestants are now as close to one another as ever. The bosses of the two big churches in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and Cardinal Reinhard Marx, were "twins" and one could have the impression that nothing could separate them. This was amazing considering the "history of demarcation".

Catholics were called "wrong"
Thierse was satisfied that in the course of the Reformation commemoration that the Protestant church was no longer built up as a church of freedom against the Catholic Church. It was good that this had not been said.

Thierse spoke in the Holy Trinity Church in Speyer. For his speech in the fully occupied church, he received long-lasting applause. The ceremony and the service before that were broadcast live in the SWR. In a personal address, the Catholic also described his growing up in a strongly Protestant environment in Thuringia. He had experienced strong contrasts and the Catholics were described as "wrong""

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Luther nearing Hell

St Peter's (Mönchengladbach!) becomes a climbing arena

The destruction of the image of St Peter could not be more symbolic of the secularism and decay which is overtaking the modern Church in the West.

"Evil Inside" Techno-Liturgical Experiment

Schau hier https://t.co/pDLRm0U0C9

— Gillibrand (@Gillibrand) October 30, 2017

The liturgical experiment in Suite 15 was successful. Around 100 mainly young guests enthusiastically took up the alternative service in the discotheque. Under the name "Evil Inside", the Kolping Youth and the Association of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) had invited people to a devotional hour on St. Peters Way. 

Poverty, hunger, war, flight and expulsion - all these were addressed by the Kolping diocesan chaplain, Stefan Wissel on Saturday evening in that "Techno worship", which was understood by his visitors as an appeal to humanity. Among other things, Wissel picked up on the biblical theme of fratricide and asked whether evil in man is also slumbering. "Man stifles by his own indifference and oblivion," he denounced in his sermon. Wissel critically considered border closure within Europe and the increasingly hostile attitude towards refugees. "Lonely and abandoned", they have to endure at the borders of Europe.

 The "Techno worship" in the Suite 15 on Saturday evening took up issues such as war, flight and expulsion. The dancers of the Hoffmann ballet school realized this content artistically "What is really important to us in life?" Wissel asked. To grieve once collectively - and "continue as before?". In the end, according to his conclusion, each person contributes with his personal decision to the big picture. "You co-create good in the world or build your end in indifference and selfishness. You decide." 

 The techno service was accompanied by dancing performances by the ballet school Hoffmann. The young actors entered the stage wearing worn clothes and depicting those who fled the war and had to leave everything behind. Covered in blood and bullet holes in their T-shirts, they wandered around - not knowing where to go. "It was a great challenge for us to portray this," said trainer Bettina Hoffmann in an interview with our newspaper. In order to plan the choreography, she had been given insight into the pictures, which were then presented on the big screen during the service. So, she adapted her stage program to the scenario of war, violence and expulsion, to implement the subject in an artistic way. 

 In the opinion of the visitors, this was just as successful as the worship itself. "I'll go there more often," said 18-year-old Patrick Willner from Kelheim. "The choreography is well done and appeals to young people like me. The service is just different. " Kerstin Dietzinger from the Kolping Diocesan Youth sees this similarly. At the end of the devotional evening, she was "torn" by the images, scenes and words that accompanied the service. Furthermore, she thinks it's great that the service took place where the "life-world of young people" takes place. And even the music selection, which included even Metal and Industrial music, was the evening justice. 

 With the “Our Father" and the blessing Wissel concluded the extraordinary event.

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Cathcon: the chaplain appeals to Pope Francis saying that people should be met where they are......this just leaves them where they are!

"Mysticism, drama and cult music will be experimented with. Although the spoken word is not the main element as in traditional worship, it will still be a part of the sermon. Wissel sees it as an "attempt to go to the edges with liturgy" and reach out to people - especially the youth. He cites Pope Francis in a similar way, who demands that exactly those people at the margins of the church should say how they should be and how they should change. For he too does not shy away from the fact that in the meantime it would only be a "residual church".

  Source- which was an announcement of the event now taken place.

The priest subsequently resigned from Kolping for unclear, personal reasons....

Cardinal Müller comes out strongly for "Amoris laetitia"

Cardinal Müller defends "Amoris laetitia"

Only recently Cardinal Walter Brandmüller defended the "Dubia". Now, Cardinal Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller speaks out and supports the Papal letter, "Amoris laetitia".

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has defended the Papal letter, "Amoris laetitia" from criticism. Under certain conditions the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and Communion is possible, writes Müller in the preface for a book by the former Italian European minister, Rocco Buttiglione (Cathcon: he who thought female Cardinals were a good idea!. It needs discernment "beyond a slight adjustment to the relativistic spirit and a cold application of dogmatic rules and canonical provisions," said the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Buttiglione as well as Müller turn against conservative critics of the Pope, who accuse Francis of error in his letter, " Amoris laetitia " (2016) on marriage and family issues in their "fraternal correction" of heresies published in September. The volume "Well-intentioned answers to critics of 'Amoris laetitia'" appears in Italy on 10 November.

The dogmatic theologian, Müller points to situations in which an abandoned spouse has "no other way out than to trust a kind-hearted person". Moreover, a Catholic could come to the conclusion that their marriage, which was concluded in earlier years, was "not sacramentally valid" and that the new connection, especially when marked by children and a "cohabitation lived together over time", represents a genuine marriage before God,

It may also happen, according to Müller, that the invalidity of the former marriage cannot be proved by the church. Nevertheless, it is possible that the "tension between the public / objective status of the "second " marriage and the subjective guilt" opens a way to receive the Sacraments. This leads to the "pastoral distinction" in the non-public space.

God is particularly close to the man who is "on the road to repentance" and who "assumes responsibility for the children of a woman who is not his legitimate wife and who nevertheless does not fail to provide for her" , This also applies to someone who does not "make it through weakness and not out of stubborn resistance to grace" to "comply with all requirements of the moral law".

A "sinful action" would not be legitimate or even culpable. But their imputability as guilt can be diminished if the sinner appeals with humble heart to the mercy of God and asks, 'Lord, be merciful to me sinner,' "the Cardinal said.

However, a graduated application of the church law to a "concrete person in their existential living conditions" is not easy to implement in practice, emphasizes the cardinal. This is often not properly grasped in the consideration of the Papal letter, "Amoris laetitia". Also, Müller opposes that a stubborn sinner "wants to assert rights before God he does not have".

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