The Mount Rushmore of neo-conservative herodom is starting to get crowded; its newest inductee being the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Cardinal Muller.
Since his recent sacking and near instantaneous elevation to the Mount, much has been written about Muller’s allegedly tenacious defense of the Faith, but nothing quite so sappy and inaccurate as the quasi-canonization written by Vaticanista Marco Tossati as published by First Things.
In preparation for his article, Tosatti consulted “the confidential notes” that he made during the “last four years regarding the German cardinal and his relations with the reigning pontiff.”
He writes:
“The notes are the result of many private conversations with high-ranking people in the Vatican who enjoyed the cardinal’s friendship. It appears that Müller experienced life under Bergoglio as a sort of Calvary.”
Calvary?
That’s strikes a pretty powerful image, but if you’re expecting Tossati’s notes to reveal tales of a man who demonstrated a willingness to lay down his life for the good of souls, forget about it.
Tossati tells us:
“The first step of Müller’s Calvary was a disconcerting episode in the middle of 2013. The cardinal was celebrating Mass in the church attached to the congregation palace, for a group of German students and scholars. His secretary joined him at the altar: ‘The pope wants to speak to you.’ ‘Did you tell him I am celebrating Mass?’ asked Müller. ‘Yes,’ said the secretary, ‘but he says he does not mind—he wants to talk to you all the same.’ The cardinal went to the sacristy. The pope, in a very bad mood, gave him some orders and a dossier concerning one of his friends, a cardinal. (This is a very delicate matter. I have sought an explanation of this incident from the official channels. Until the explanation comes, if it ever comes, I cannot give further details.) Obviously, Mūller was flabbergasted.”
So, what does this story tell us?
Well, a number of things, but certainly not that Muller is some sort of Christlike figure who suffered for the sake of the Kingdom (and this in spite of Jorge’s striking resemblance to our Lord’s persecutors).
It does tell us, however – or better stated, it confirms for us – that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has little regard for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which also happens to be the centerpiece of Catholic life.
To be charitable, we should probably assume that he does not believe what the Church holds concerning the nature of the Mass (e.g., what it is and what takes place therein, speaking of Calvary), otherwise he never would have insisted upon interrupting it.
Muller, on the other hand, apparently does have at least some sense for the sacredness of the Mass, and yet…
When it came time to choose between showing deference to a rude little Argentinian who thinks his agenda is more important than the saving work of Jesus Christ, and the Lord Himself, he chose the former.
And this was the “first step of Muller’s Calvary”?
If nothing else, the man is consistent as throughout his tenure at the CDF under Bergoglio, when push came to shove, Muller chose likewise.
Tossati himself practically acknowledges as much, writing:
“Since the publication of the dubia, Müller has been in a very difficult situation. He has been split between loyalty to the pope, and loyalty to the magisterial teaching of the Church on marriage and the Eucharist.”
While there is some truth to what Tossati is saying (and a shameful truth it is indeed), the reality of Muller’s dilemma is really better understood as loyalty divided between Francis, the author of Amoris Laetitia, and “Saint” John Paul the Great Ecumenist, author of Familiaris Consortio.
Look, Muller’s a conciliar conservative. For men like him, not only do the “deep roots” of the Faith extend no further than the Second Vatican Council (see John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis 3 for context), they also live by the credo that whatever the current pope happens to teach is necessarily Catholic.
That is why Muller has maintained in one breath that the civilly divorced and remarried cannot be invited to Communion, and in the very next declared that Amoris Laetitia “does not concern a danger for the faith.”
The same is true of Muller’s companion on the Mount, Cardinal Burke.
He gets that Amoris Laetitia is utterly irreconcilable with Familiaris Consortio, but given that the former also came from the man in white, either it isn’t really papal teaching, or if it is, it simply contains some confusing and ambiguous statements that stand in need of clarification.
At one point, Tossati states, apparently with Muller’s public complaints about the way he was dismissed in mind:
“Despite Müller’s statements—he has been a good soldier to the end, and even beyond.”
Sure, he has been a “good soldier,” but only insofar as we are clear that he has chosen to serve the rebellious Generalissimo rather than the King.
When our leadership turned its back on Tradition at VII & espoused false ecumenism putting the CC on a par with schismatics & infidels, they lost the inspiration of the Holy Ghost & with it the credibility & sanctity that only God can provide His Church with. Pope Paul VI admitted that Satan had entered the sanctuary through a fissure but neither he nor any of his followers in the Papal Office could (possibly didn’t want to) stop the rampant takeover by his demons.
How Satan must have gloated at the trashing of the Liturgy of Ages, the downgrading of the Sacraments, the replacing of the tabernacle from its central position to a corner where few can view it. The replacement of our altars with a kitchen table facing the congregation & turned away from the East, Holy Communion in the hand & standing instead of on the tongue & kneeling. The cessation of teaching the faith in schools & forceful preaching of the gospel from the altar all came about by men purposely placed by demonic forces to bring about the demise of the One Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church and is now culminating in this tyrannical, demonic, sodomitical & political set-up ever. Its author has to be Satan!
Cardinal Müller, along with most of the present Hierarchy, is torn between the politically correct doctrine of the NWO & an innate belief that such a system is hell bent on annihilating God’s Word & replacing it with Soros’s. He was offered an ideal opportunity to bring this appalling administration to account by signing the Dubia & issuing the formal correction publicly but flunked it, demonstrating that his red hat does not stand for martyrdom after all but rather weak-kneed capitulation to a pope that had already shown his distaste for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by insisting on interrupting it on behalf of one of his cronies. We might ask what did ++ Müller really know about the sordid drug-fueled sodomy parties in an office of the former CDF & ++ Cocopalmerio & staff’s participation in them.
The solution: daily prayer
An elder said, “There was a very rich farmer who, wishing to teach his sons farming, said to them, ‘Children, you are aware how I have become rich. You too shall be rich if you will listen to me.’ ‘Please, Father, tell us how,’ they said to him. He, tricking them into not being negligent, said to them, ‘There is one day in the year on which a man becomes rich if he is found working. But, on account of my advanced age, I have forgotten which day it is. So do not neglect to work every day in case that blessed day turns out to be a day on which you are not working, and you have worked all the year round in vain.’ So too shall we find the way of life if we work unceasingly.”
Desert Fathers
But…but…but the “conservative” Rorate Caeli calls Tosatti “the great Marco Tosatti.”
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/07/for-record-francis-first-always.html
I’m confuzzled!
These modern day prelates have a choice to make. Catholic tradition or bowing to Francis. They are cowardly men and choose Francis. Would to God that one of they had the courage to say that Francis is an enemy of the faith and then let the chips fall where they may.
Sorry, Transubstantiation
Why is Morgan Freeman carved into the mountain?
This article gets the “worst written article award” on this site.
Meandering, and ultimately meaningless article.
You’re much better than offering us this, Louie.
VCR, these modern day prelates have already made their choice when they threw in their lot with V2 and the Novus Ordo. You fool yourself picking sides between conservatives and liberals. This battle is between Catholics and Modernists.
“Mount Hushmore”
So weird you would say that because my immediate thought was ,”the man really has a way with words.” I thought the article was very well written and I loved the ending. You go Lou.
The article points out the folly of the hero worship engaged in today by catholics grasping at straws trying desperately to make the hierarchy seem kinda Catholic. Mount Hushmore…Ha! Good one, Rushintoit!
I agree, Tuffy. Louie has a brilliant mind.
And it is easy to see that Louie is a “good solider” in the army of his / our Heavenly Queen.