Poacher turned gamekeeper put in charge of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

kreuz.net – Ein hartgesottener Ketzer wird Präfekt der Glaubenskongregation\

He insulted the mother of God, the Eucharist and the Church. It is a foretaste of what is to come from the post-conciliar church headed by Benedict XVI (Cathcon- small modification of the text here as kreuz.net expressed themselves in rather more vivid terms than I would be prepared- but the catastrophe of this appointment cannot be hidden, along with the appointment of Annibale Bugnini's reincarnation, Bishop Roche to be Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship- although Bugnini for all his grave errors had studied the liturgy very thoroughly)

Today at noon is the Vatican announced the appointment of the Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Cathcon- removed the adjective heretical- but with these views he would have stayed a parish priest in all ages but our own). The future Cardinal is known for his irascible nature. He is an ice-cold careerist, to whom no truth is sacred (Cathcon- surely an exaggeration but see below). His doctorate and postdoctoral thesis were supervised by the arch-liberal theologian, Cardinal Karl Lehmann (Cathcon- who was a research assistant to Karl Rahner).  His doctoral thesis dealt with the protestant God-is-dead theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer († 1945) (Cathcon- again we are dealing with post-war German traumas about religion- of which a significant part of the post-conciliar world is an expression) . In 1986, the future Bishop Müller became Professor of Dogmatics at the decaying University of Munich.

Virginity does not mean virginity

In his book Catholic dogma : the study and practice of theology, he denies the dogma of the virginity of Mary.  The Virgin Birth is "not about the different physiological features in the natural process of birth (things such as the opening of the birth canal, the lack of damage to the hymen and the lack of birth pains), but the healing and redeeming influence of the grace of the Saviour on human nature. " 

The Body of Christ is not the Body of Christ in 2002, the Bishop in his work, "The Mass - source of Christian life" denied the transubstantiation of the Host during Holy Mass. He said that the Sacrament should not be described as "Body and Blood." This leads to "misunderstandings." Otherwise, one would think, "flesh and blood stood here for the physical and biological components of the historical person Jesus." It "also does not simply mean the glorified body of the risen Lord." 

(Cathcon- hopefully the Bishop still maintains the identity of the Sacrifice of the Mass with that on Calvary, save that the Sacrifice is not bloody. This latter is not to say that Our Lord is not truly present in flesh and blood- lest there be any misunderstanding of my own position)

Transubstantiation is not transubstantiation 

The Communion creates "unity with Jesus Christ, mediated by eating and drinking of the bread and wine. Alone in inter-personal relations can something like a letter between the people be established and at the reception, one can say the affection of the addressee can be seen and embodied. " Bread and wine are only "signs of his saving presence." “

Müller sees this as transubstantiation

"'The essential understanding of bread and wine must be established anthropologically. The natural character of these gifts [bread and wine] as the fruit of the earth and of human labour, as the expressioin of natural and cultural product which illustrates the nutrition and strengthening of the people and society under the sign of the common meal. " This "natural essence of the bread and wine" would be "transformed by God in this sense that the essence of the bread and wine now display and realise the salvific communion with God." 

(Cathcon- this belief is Lutheran and can only be considered Catholic on a good day).

The Church is not the Church 

On 11October 2011 held the belief Bock offers a eulogy for the former Bavarian Protestant Bishop Johannes Friedrich who tolerated homosexual partners for his clergy. He asserted here that Catholics and Protestants "are united in what we call the visible church" It was no longer a case of churches side by side, but that Protestants were a "division within the church".

Everything is distorted

Mons. Müller contradicted the document 'Dominus Jesus' of the Congregation of 6 August 2000. . This document must not be understood literally. The statement that the protestant community, is "not at all a church" is is "not theologically correct." - says the Bishop.

 'Dominus Jesus' only describes the difference between a Protestant regional church and a Catholic diocese -. allegedly without judging them , "The Catholic magisterium" - Msgr. Muller said herself - was "far from denying" that Protestants were a church.

(Cathcon- one is reminded of Cardinal Hume's comments that the statement that homosexual activity was intrinsically disordered in the Letter to the Bishops on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons sounded unintentionally harsh in English translation from the Latin.

One cannot hold out much hope for further clarification of the notorious phrase subsistit in while Bishop Müller is at the CDF. It now means all things to all people and remarkably came from the pen of Father Sebastian Tromp SJ, who was nothing if not a conservative of great learning. He was clear that the meaning of subsistit was close to identity, however in the post-conciliar world one is reminded of Alice in Wonderland

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

Through the Looking Glass.

Now that Bishop Müller is master of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one can only entertain enormous fears about the meaning he will put on the words of the great dogmas of the Faith.

One has to add to this charge list that Bishop is sympathetic to liberation theology- more soon on this- which makes the appointment even stranger from a Pope that did all in his power to suppress this pseudo-communist error which hymns the revolution and even armed struggle.

Echoing kreuz.net at the beginning of this post, one has to wonder in which direction points the church apart from downward. Rather than reconciling traditionalists, the better to fight against the modernists in the Church, the Pope seems just to wish to institutionalise the decisions of the revolution of Vatican II.   What remains of the reform of the reform programme with this appointment to the CDF?

In this way, he is playing the same role that Napoleon did in the aftermath of the French Revolution. In Mexico, the Party of Perpetual Revolution, which dominated politics for decades until it was evicted from power ten years ago is about to return to power. 

 In the post-conciliar times, the representatives of perpetual ecclesiastical revolutionary reform have been in power in the Catholic Church and have reached this apotheosis in Bishop, soon to be Cardinal Müller. The problem with the revolutionary thesis is illustrated by the mob who stormed Versailles in the French Revolution- they had arrived at their great goal. They stood in awe and wonderment and as they could not think of anything else to do, and they were not barbarian enough to sack the place, they went home.

Post-scriptum

I have based my own headline above, on various translations of kreuz.net's earlier headline about the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Der Regensburger Bock wird Gärtner im Glaubensgarten

The dictionary gives various meanings for the latter.

The Regensburg fox in charge of the henhouse of the faith

The Regensburg fox to guard the faithful geese

It can also mean getting a thief to catch a thief and a less likely meaning, trust the cat to get the cream. They also call the appointment a useless capitulation- and I would add to the spirit of these sad times.


Lots more background to this appointment