Cardinal Müller: The Pope could become a scandal

"Every Pope must distinguish precisely between his Divine mandate and himself as an individual with all his limitations. He must not impose on other Christians his private views on politics or economics and non-theological sciences". Speaking at the presentation of his new book, Cardinal Müller, Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, used strong and clear words.

The cardinal focused on the Petrine figure and took a snapshot of the current situation, which is, to say the least, dramatic. Then he remarked: "The papacy is, in its most intimate essence, a service to the unity of the whole Church in the truth of the Gospel. The ministry of Peter is not a secular office of ruler in the manner of absolutist kings and autocratic tsars, but a pastoral-spiritual ministry'. Yet Francis' choices in recent years have increasingly seemed to manifest the idea of an absolute monarch with very little spiritual essence. Economic and organisational reforms are on the Pope's desk, but when it comes to Jesus Christ and the celebration of the Sacraments, Bergoglio's legs ache. However, the Pontiff is keen to emphasise that 'one does not rule with one's legs'. We dare say: 'but not even Holy Mass is celebrated with the legs'.

The Prefect Emeritus went on to emphasise: 'Bishops and popes must not take the example of secular rulers who oppress and exploit their peoples. Rather, they must excel in a greater devotion to the eternal salvation of believers. For Jesus said to the apostles, who were quarrelling over which of them should take first place: "...whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Like the Son of Man, who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many'".

Anyone wishing to describe the importance of the Papacy for the Catholic Church must begin with Jesus Christ.

For it is only in the light of the Word made flesh that the 'mystery of the holy Church' is revealed in its foundation by the historical Jesus of Nazareth. With the foundation of the Church as a visible community of people who are in relationship with God in faith, hope and love in the Holy Spirit, Jesus also called his apostles as his vicars.

Bishops (with presbyters and deacons at their side) preside as successors of the apostles 'in God's stead of Christ's flock', as shepherds in leadership, as teachers in the proclamation of the Gospel, and as priests in sacred worship, that is, in the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. After his resurrection from the dead and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and all those who are to come to faith, Jesus completed the foundation of the visible Church on earth.

The Catholic and Apostolic Church is the Communio with the Triune God and the continuation of Christ's Missio in history.

Its task is to lead all men to faith in Jesus, the Son of God, and through the seven holy sacraments to the veneration and worship of God. "The Church is, in Christ, in some sense the sacrament, that is, the sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race," as Vatican II puts it.

The Holy Roman Church has a special task in the communion of local Churches formed by the Bishops, because it was founded by the testimony of the word and the martyrdom of the blood of the Princes of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Its Bishop, as the successor of St Peter, is 'the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of faith and communion'.

With, in, and through Peter and each of his successors on the Chair of Peter, the entire Church confesses at all times that Jesus is its divine founder. He is the Word made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14).

We, the disciples of Jesus, are not ourselves the light of the world. But the Church confesses that only the Word of God, through whom everything originated, is "the light of men" (Jn 1:4) that can illuminate the darkness of the world. With her eyes fixed on Jesus, the Church continually makes Peter's confession her own: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16).

Simon, the man from Galilee to whom the Son of God himself gave the nickname Peter the Rock (Greek Κηφᾶς), is the most frequently mentioned person in the New Testament after Jesus. He is always mentioned first in the list of the Twelve Apostles. He is the spokesman of the pre-Apostolic circle of Jesus' disciples and the highest representative of the Apostolic College. When the risen Lord appears to Peter, who in his person represents the whole Church, Christ makes him the most important witness of his mission to the Father (cf. 1 Cor 15:5), and also establishes his central position in the early Church in Jerusalem. It is the nucleus of the universal (=catholic) and apostolic Church in all times and throughout the world. The continuity of the Church in changing times and in the succession of generations derives from the fact that all believers in Christ remain "persevering in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread (Eucharist) and in prayers" i.e. in the Divine Liturgy (Acts 2:42). By "teaching of the apostles" is obviously not meant a philosophical idea or scientific theory, but rather the preaching and witness of the apostles, "who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and became ministers of the Word" (Lk 1:2).

The 'Word' (the Logos that is God Himself) is a divine Person, namely Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father (Jn 1:14-18), who with Him and the Holy Spirit is the one and only God. From his mother Mary (Gal 4:4; Mt 1:18; Lk 1:35) he took on our human flesh and blood and a human spiritual soul (= human nature) (Heb 2:14).

The 'teaching of the apostles', which, as a profession of faith, (creed = the symbol of faith) is the foundation of the visible and sacramental Church, is set out in detail in Peter's first sermon after the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and all those who, from this proclamation of the Word of God, were baptised to be part of the community of the early Church (Acts 2:14-36). Peter, in fact, together with the other eleven apostles, stood up and presented Jesus to the hearers of all nations gathered in Jerusalem as the fulfilment of the entire salvific history of God towards Israel and the whole of humanity: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know with certainty that God has made Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).

Peter is therefore, together with the other apostles, the guarantor and witness of the identity of the historical Jesus until his death on the cross and of the Christ of faith through the Paschal event. Consequently, Peter is also the representative of the unity of the circle of pre-Easter disciples and of the post-Easter Church, which God established on the basis of the Pentecost event.

Who was this Simon to whom Jesus gave the name Peter?

By trade, Simon was a simple fisherman in the Sea of Galilee. Jesus did not call the disciples he wanted to make his apostles (envoys, missionaries) from the circle of the powerful, the influential and the wise of the world (cf. 1 Cor 1:26-31) but from the humble and believing ordinary people. In fact, no one should have the opportunity to boast of their merits and thus charm their listeners with rhetoric and demagogic propaganda. Apostles should not draw people's attention to themselves. Rather, they must direct the listeners of their preaching to Christ, the true "Saviour of the world" (John 4: 42). For "Jesus is the only name under heaven given to us by which we can be saved." (Acts 4:12).

Nor was Simon Peter the personality with nerves of steel who, in his stoic composure, could not be shaken by anything. Jesus often had to rebuke him harshly in his reckless enthusiasm and defeatist temptations. He even rebuked him as the adversary who stood in the way of Jesus' mission, which was to be accomplished not in the splendour of the golden palaces, but in the shame of the cross of Golgotha (cf., Mt 16:21-23). Faced with the passion of Jesus, Peter, the most senior apostle, even cowardly denied Jesus three times with the words: "I do not know this man" (Matt 26:74).

The risen Lord then reminded Peter of this denial at the Sea of Tiberias, asking him three times: "Do you love me more than these men?" (John 21: 15-19). For this love for Jesus also brought about his conversion (Lk 22:32) and made evident the depth of his communion with Christ as the origin and centre of Peter's ministry.

This also applies to his successors on the Cathedra Petri in the office of Bishop of Rome. In the calling of Simon as the rock upon which Jesus builds His Church (Mt 16:18), the mission and authority of the Roman Pontiff are also prefigured.

The papacy is, in its innermost essence, a service to the unity of the whole Church in the truth of the Gospel. The ministry of Peter is not a secular office of ruler in the manner of absolutist kings and autocratic tsars, but a pastoral-spiritual ministry. Bishops and popes must not take example from secular rulers who oppress and exploit their peoples. Rather, they must excel in greater devotion to the eternal salvation of believers. For Jesus said to the apostles, who were quarrelling over which of them should take first place: "...whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Like the Son of Man, who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many". (Mt 20:26-28).

The title, which probably most profoundly expresses the essence of the papacy, comes from Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), who called himself Servus servorum Dei as opposed to the powerful and ostentatious patriarch of the then imperial capital of Constantinople.

Unlike the mercenary, the good shepherd is recognised by the fact that, like Jesus, he lays down his life for his sheep. Indeed, Jesus, the true Shepherd of the Church and of all men (Jn 10:11; 1 Pet 2:25; Heb 13:20), said three times to Peter: "Shepherd my lambs and my sheep" (Jn 21:15-19) . The gift of one's life is also the inner core of every pastoral ministry in the office of bishops and presbyters (1 Pet 5:2; Acts 20:28; Heb 13:17). In the Upper Room, Jesus entrusts Peter with the perennial task of "confirming his brothers", that is, in their faith in Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord (Lk 22:32).

Jesus' great promise to Peter in Matthew's Gospel is also written in the dome of St Peter's Basilica above the Apostle's tomb. "And I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:18-19).

These words of Jesus cannot be relativised by saying that Jesus did not expressly speak of a successor in Rome or by questioning the historical permanence and martyrdom of the Prince of the Apostles in Rome. It was rather providential that Peter's universal mission was fulfilled in his bloody martyrdom in Rome at the time of Nero. In fact, that Other (Jn 14:26) who will lead Peter where he does not want to go is the Holy Spirit, who assists him so that he can "glorify God through his death" (Jn 21:19).

The Catholic Church has always understood the word of Jesus himself as the foundation of the Roman Primacy and the spiritual basis of its exercise. A justification in the political status of Rome as the capital of a world empire or the pragmatic consideration that there should be an honorary president (primus inter pares) among the bishops by virtue of a human right has always been rigorously rejected.

The office of Peter and his successors in bishops is a revealed truth from God that we accept by supernatural faith. Peter and Paul are the founders of the Church of Rome in that their apostolic teaching and bloody martyrdom gave that one Church its first apostolic foundation. "For with this Church, by reason of its superior authority, every church, that is, the faithful throughout the world, must agree, since in it the apostolic tradition has been preserved." For the disciples of that time and for the whole Church until the end of time, Peter confesses that Jesus is not a prophet or a founder of a religion, but "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16).

This judgement does not derive from purely human logic but was revealed to Peter and all believers by Jesus' 'heavenly Father' in the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt 16:17).

It is the same Christ who, before going to the Father, in the salvific event of the Ascension, gathered the apostles around himself to send them to all mankind in every time and place on earth. The risen Lord approaches the eleven disciples and says to them: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Mt 28:18-20).

As far as the Orthodox Churches and Protestant communities are concerned, the primacy of the pope with the doctrine of infallibility in ex cathedra decisions and the primacy in universal ecclesial government (jurisdictional primacy) is often perceived as a 'stumbling block', an obstacle, since individual local Churches are prevented from following their own paths of faith by adapting to their own culture and reasoning. But it is precisely the primacy of the Roman Church that offers the divine guarantee that the Catholic Church remains a universal Church and does not disintegrate into national autocephalous Churches.

A national Church with its own creed doubly contradicts the universal unity of all baptised persons in Christ.

Firstly, nations, peoples, cultures and languages produce neither subjects nor passive membranes capable of translating 'a divine background noise' into a human melody pleasing to contemporaries.

Secondly, the Word of God unites believers in the Pentecostal Spirit of the Father and the Son across cultural differences into one Church.

Against the fundamental falsification of the Christian mysteries of the unity and Trinity of God, the incarnation, the sacramentality of the Church, and the corporeality of redemption, at the end of the 2nd century Irenaeus of Lyons emphasised against the Gnostics of his time and of all times the unity (unitas) and communion of the universal Church on the basis of the apostolic tradition. "In reality, the Church, although spread throughout the world to the ends of the earth, having received from the Apostles and their disciples the faith..., carefully preserves this preaching and this faith and, as if dwelling in one house, believes in it in one and the same way, as if it had one soul and one heart, and preaches the truths of the faith, teaches them and transmits them with one voice, as if it had one mouth... Indeed, if the languages in the world are varied, the content of the Tradition is nevertheless one and the same. And neither the Churches that are in Germany, nor those that are in Spain, nor those that are with the Celts (in Gaul), nor those in the East, in Egypt, in Libya, nor those that are in the centre of the world have any other faith or any other Tradition'.

The bishop therefore also represents in his person the diachronic and synchronic unity of the Church in the succession of the apostles and the internal continuity of the Church with its origin in Christ and the apostles. Since only the Bishop of Rome is the personal successor of Peter, while the other bishops are successors of the Apostles in their entire college, the prerogatives of Simon in his capacity as Peter, as the rock on which Christ, the Son of the living God, will build His Church, also apply to the Bishop of Rome. In the course of time, the title 'Pope' has evolved to encapsulate the essential elements of the Petrine ministry of the Roman bishop in a single term.

But a crucial difference remains between the apostles and the bishops. The apostles, with Peter at their head, were direct recipients and bearers of the full self-revelation of God in Christ. The bishops and the pope, on the other hand, are bound in content to the realisation of revelation in Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. "The office (...) of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed down, is entrusted to the living magisterium of the Church alone, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. Which magisterium, however, is not superior to the word of God but serves it, teaching only what has been handed down, inasmuch as, by divine mandate and with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, it piously hears, sanctimoniously guards, and faithfully expounds that word, and from this one deposit of faith it draws all that it proposes to believe as revealed by God.

Even if the Church's doctrinal decisions in particular cases infallibly reflect revelation because they are supported by the charism of the Holy Spirit, they nevertheless require the best possible human preparation and demand to be jealously preserved and faithfully expounded, and both the Pope and the bishops are obliged to do this in conscience. Even for the general government of the Church, the Pope should first rely on the College of Cardinals, which, after all, represents the Holy Roman Church and - like the presbytery advises a bishop - advises the Pope collegially/synodally. As in all cases, an advisory body constituted by the supreme decision-maker according to criteria of complacency and patronage is of little use and does more harm than good to those in office. The latter does not need the praise that flatters human vanity, but the critical expertise of collaborators who are not interested in the benevolent gestures of the superior but in the good outcome of his office, i.e. the pontificate, for the Church of the One and Triune God.

Looking at the human weaknesses that can loom large, as in the case of Simon Peter, Joseph Ratzinger also spoke in terms of Church history of the fact that even popes can become a scandal because, as human beings, they believe they want to chart a course that is populist for the public's sake but contradicts the spirit of Christ.

Every Pope must distinguish precisely between his divine mandate and himself as an individual with all his limitations. He must not impose his private views on politics or economics and non-theological sciences on other Christians.

Nor may a Pope or Bishop or other ecclesiastical superior abuse the trust that is readily placed in him in a fraternal atmosphere to provide incompetent or corrupt ecclesiastical 'friends' with ecclesiastical sinecures or, contrary to divine right, arbitrarily depose bishops he does not personally like or interfere without just cause in the ordinary pastoral office of the diocesan bishop.

If there was a traitor among Jesus' chosen apostles, and even Peter denied Jesus in the course of the Passion, then we know that even human representatives of the Church in history and in the present can fail and abuse their office in a selfish or narrow-minded manner.

We also have an example of this in matters of faith, as Paul openly resisted Peter when he allowed himself a dangerous ambiguity in the 'truth of the gospel' (Gal 2:11-14). Our affective and effective attachment to the Pope and our bishop or pastor has nothing to do with the unworthy personality cult of secular autocrats but is brotherly love for a fellow Christian entrusted with the highest responsibility in the Church. He can also fail in this. That is why loving admonition promotes the Church more than servile hypocrisy.

But the best way to help the Pope and the bishops is through prayer. Let us trust in Jesus, the Lord of the Church, who before the Passion said to Simon, the rock on which he would build his Church (Mt 16:18): "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has sought you out to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And you, once converted, confirm your brothers" (Lk 22:31-32).

Peter's faith is the faith of the whole Church, "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name" (Jn 20:31).

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