Cardinal Gerhard Müller: “Their goal is the transformation of the Church into a welfare organization”

By Javier Arias (InfoVaticana)

German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview in September to the Spanish-language website InfoVaticana. In the interview, published on September 23, the cardinal addressed in frank language questions on the recent consistory of cardinals held in Rome at the end of August, and on the dramatic situation of the Church in Germany.

A few weeks ago you participated in the Consistory of Cardinals in Rome. What were your feelings at the end of the Consistory?

Cardinal Gerhard Müller: First of all, I thanked the Holy Father for having reconvened a consistory after a pause of many years, so that the cardinals could discuss with him the situation of the Church in the world today. But the topic was limited to the discussion of the document already published, Praedicate Evangelium, on the reform of the curia and on the Holy Year 2025.

Some cardinals regret not having been able to speak as much as they would have liked. Was there an opportunity for the cardinals to express their concerns to the Pope?

Cardinal Müller: There was no opportunity to discuss the hottest issues, such as the frontal attack on the Christian image of man by the ideologies of posthumanism and gender madness or the crisis of the Church in Europe (there are no more priestly vocations, churches are empty on Sundays, etc.). The critical contributions referred to the theory of the papacy as unlimited power of divine right over the whole Church, as if the Pope were a Deus in terris (“God on earth”). Cardinal Ghirlanda, SJ, just named the Pope’s most important advisor for the reform of the curia, believes that everything that the Popes have said or done in the course of the history of the Church is dogma or law de jure divino (“by divine right”). This contradicts the entire Catholic tradition, and in particular the Second Vatican Council: the idea that bishops and priests have the authority only to perform sacramental acts, while the Pope is in exclusive possession of all jurisdiction, which he can delegate at will to the clergy or laity.

In reality, in the sacrament of Holy Orders, Christ confers on the bishop (or priest) the authority to preach, sanctify and govern (even to administer justice). The Pope does not confer jurisdiction on a bishop, but only assigns a specific diocese to a bishop, who is not a representative of the papacy, but of Jesus Christ (Lumen Gentium 27). In an ecumenical council, consecrated bishops exercise their part in the jurisdiction of the universal episcopate not as delegates of the Pope, but by virtue of the authority conferred on them by Christ. The theory of the Pope as autocrat, taken from the Jesuit theology of the 19th century, not only contradicts the Second Vatican Council, but undermines the credibility of the Church with this caricature of the Petrine ministry.

The promise of an ecumenical mediation of the Pope’s Catholic doctrine (cf. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Ut unum sint) as “the perpetual and visible principle of the unity of the Church in the truth of Christ” (cf. Lumen gentium 18; 23) becomes frankly ridiculous.

What are the issues currently of greatest importance in the Vatican? 

Cardinal Müller: By “Vatican” we mean the accidental institutions of the Holy See. But I am speaking here of the ministry of the Roman Church, that is, of the Pope with the college of cardinals (and the institutions of the Roman curia) for the communion and unity of all the local Churches in the truth of divine revelation and in the sacramental mission of bringing all men to the knowledge of Christ, the Son of God and the only mediator of salvation.

Cardinal Müller:

The German Synodal Way: “One would not know whether to speak of tragedy or comedy”

A somewhat controversial question: why does the Church talk more and more about ecology, the planet and other issues, and less and less about Jesus Christ and his teachings?

Cardinal Müller: In a world where the meaning and purpose of the human being are materially limited to temporal and transitory contents (such as the acquisition of power, prestige, money, luxury, pleasurable satisfaction), it is easier to become interested in being agents of this program of a “New World Order without God” (according to capitalist or communist readings). “What good is it for a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we must also obey his word: “Rather seek his kingdom and the rest will be given to you in addition” (Lk 12:31). There is no rigid opposition between the eternal/spiritual goods and the temporal/perishable necessities of life. But first let us ask God, our Father, for His Kingdom to come and for His holy will to be done in heaven as on earth. And we also ask for our daily bread, the forgiveness of our sins as we forgive those who offend us, and salvation from all evils that result from our sinful separation from God, the origin and goal of every human being.

In his succession to St. Peter, the Pope unites the whole Church daily in the confession of Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). And Christ builds His Church on Peter, the rock, giving him and the bishops the authority to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, to administer the sacraments and, as good shepherds, to lead Christ’s flock to the good pasture of the Word and Grace.

The whole Church is following the steps of the German “Synodal Way” with attention and concern. What do you think of the decisions of the fourth assembly of the German Synodal Way?

Cardinal Müller: In theatrical language, one would not know exactly whether to speak of tragedy or comedy about this event. All the texts, very abundant but not very profound, do not concern the renewal of Catholics in Christ, but rather the surrender to a world without God. The only theme among all the themes is sexuality. However, it is not understood as a gift from God given to human beings as created persons (in our masculine and feminine natures), hence the responsibility to participate as father and mother in God’s work of creation and in the universal will of salvation for one’s offspring, but rather as a kind of drug to put the basic nihilistic feeling to sleep with the utmost satisfaction of pleasure.

Both Cardinal Marx and Bishop Georg Bätzing have supported texts asking the Pope to change sexual morality, the ordination of women and the vision of homosexuality: what do you think? Cardinal Müller:

There are two errors in this that only theologically ignorant people can make: 1) the Pope does not have the authority to change the teaching of the Church, which is rooted in the revelation of God. By doing so, he would exalt himself as a man to be above God. 2) The apostles can teach and order only what Jesus has commanded them to teach (Mt 28:19). It is precisely the bishops, as well as their next successors, who are called to the “teaching of the apostles” (Acts 2:42) in Sacred Scripture, in the Apostolic Tradition and in the accurate doctrinal definitions of previous decisions from the papal chair, or in ecumenical councils. “The Roman Pontiff and the Bishops […] do not accept any new public revelation as belonging to the divine deposit of faith” (Lumen gentium 25; cfr. Dei verbum 10).

Did you have the opportunity to speak with any of the bishops in Germany who hold these offices?

Cardinal Müller: According to the logic of power, which shuns the truth as the devil shuns holy water, it makes no sense for them to talk to the former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. But even [German] Cardinal [Walter] Kasper, who once was celebrated as an ally on the question of Communion for the divorced and remarried, is silenced by them after his critical statements on the synodal path.

In your opinion, what is the reason for trying to reform the Church by changing all morals, principles, teachings and traditions?

Cardinal Müller: Many well-paid officials of the “German Church” establishment (the largest employer in Germany) suffer from the fact that the Church’s teaching on marriage and the 6th and 9th commandments of the Decalogue contradicts the mainstream of society because of the sexual revolution of 1968. They cannot bear the contradiction with the will of God in their personal behavior and the derisive comments of their contemporaries on the “Catholic world of faith and morals left behind in the Middle Ages.” For this reason they also want to project themselves as modern and follow the vanguard of the sciences of psychology and sociology. They want to be of the present and not be considered outsiders (a “sordid son of the nation,” as the bishop of Aachen complained).

August 27, 2022, Vatican City. Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of 20 new cardinals presided over by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s (Photo/Grzegorz Galazka)

Cardinal Müller:

“The Pope does not have the authority to change Church teaching”

Do you think that the Church in Germany risks starting a schism with Rome?

Cardinal Müller: In their blind arrogance, they do not think of division, but of taking over the universal Church. Germany is too small an arena for them to exercise their governing ideology in; they claim a leading role in the universal Church. Their purpose is none other than to impress the whole world with their wisdom and to free backward and uneducated Catholics and their bishops in other countries, including the Pope, from the burden of divine revelation and commandments.

Their goal is the transformation of the Church of the Triune God into a worldly welfare organization (an NGO). Then we would finally have arrived at the “religion of universal brotherhood,” that is, a religion without the God of revelation in Christ, without a Truth that goes beyond finite reason, without Dogmas and Sacraments as means of Grace necessary for salvation — all as described by the great Russian philosopher of religion Vladimir Soloviev in his book A Brief History of the Antichrist (1899). In it, the world ruler of Godless universal philanthropy is contradicted by “Pope Peter II,” who makes the following confession to the Antichrist who has installed himself on the throne of God: “Our only Lord is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.”

What do you think the future holds for the Catholic Church at the universal level?

Cardinal Müller: When one sees the megalomania of our politicians and ideologues, from Beijing to Moscow and from Brussels to Washington, one cannot expect much good for the future of humanity. A true future for every human being in life and in death can only be expected of God, who out of love gave his Son for the salvation of the world (cf. Jn 3:16). In a world where men presume to be God, to create and redeem themselves (cf. the main advisor of the New World Order: Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus), we Christians are left with only the testimony of the Word and, if necessary, of the blood, that only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, because he has conquered the world, its arrogance and its sin, and death as the price for sin. Only when we do not worship the “beast” of the abyss (ungodliness), his statue and his false prophet, do we gain life and dominion with Christ, who embraces our temporal and eternal future. Because temporal and eternal death no longer have power over us (cf. Rev 20:6). We have peace of heart in the Son of God, who says to his disciples: “In the world you will have your struggles, but take courage: I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).

This interview originally appeared in Spanish on the website InfoVaticana.com; English translation by Inside the Vatican.