So, Francis has chosen to relieve Cardinal Gerhard Muller of his position and has appointed the Spanish Jesuit Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer as the new Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Jesuit publication America Magazine offered commentary reflective of the optimism shared by many a so-called “progressive” as a result of the move:
“It is destined to have far-reaching consequences, not the least of which is to ensure that the C.D.F. and its prefect are rowing with and not against the pope on key issues, including the interpretation of ‘Amoris Laetitia,’ synodality and cooperation with the commission for the protection of minors.”
Catholics of a neo-conservative kind, as well as many of a more traditional bent, by contrast, are reacting as if this latest development represents a major step backward in terms of defending the Faith in light of the Bergoglian offensive.
For them, the loss of Muller is tantamount to the death of a modern-day St. Athanasius.
John Henry Weston at LifeSite News, for instance, initiated the canonization process thus:
“From his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in 2012, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has spoken out for orthodoxy amid a chorus of opposing voices in the Vatican.”
In reality, far from being the voice of orthodoxy in Rome, Muller is, and always has been, just another modernist man-of-the-council.
Consider, for example, his attachment to Liberation Theology.
In February of 2014, Mueller hosted an event in Rome to present his book “Poor for poor: The mission of the Church,” which is a collection of his writings on Liberation Theology as learned at the knee of its founding father, Gustavo Gutiérrez.
Not only was the Prefect’s mentor present that day, he was honored at the event; a show of support from the head of the CDF that would not have taken place during the reign of Pope Benedict XVI; i.e., Muller’s true colors were being shown.
And then there is his approach to Amoris Laetitia…
Let’s be honest, other than a handful of juicy soundbites offered in media interviews – something Muller will presumably continue doing going forward – his track record in defending the Faith against this blatant attack has been pathetic.
How quickly so many seem to forget that the dubia was addressed not only to Francis, but also to Cardinal Muller, who has also chosen not to answer.
That Francis apparently ordered him not to answer in no way relieves Muller of his responsibility to do so before God.
And let us not forget as well that Muller was initially critical of the Dubia Brothers, voicing his displeasure over the fact that the dubia require a “yes or no” response.
He even went so far as to say that Amoris Laetitia does not represent a danger to the faith, and therefore, no fraternal correction is necessary!
And this is what qualifies as speaking out for orthodoxy?
As I wrote back in December:
The proper duty of the CDF, like that of every other Congregation in the Roman Curia, does not change according to the current Pontiff’s daily mood swings. Rather, the duties of the various dicasteries are formally documented; in the present case, in the 1988 Apostolic Constitution, Pastor Bonus:
“The proper duty of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world; so it has competence in things that touch this matter in any way … To safeguard the truth of faith and the integrity of morals, the Congregation takes care lest faith or morals suffer harm through errors that have been spread in any way whatever.” (Pastor Bonus, Articles 48,51)
Get that?
The CDF “has competence” to safeguard “faith and morals” by preventing errors “spread in any way whatever.”
Spread in any way whatever…
NB: There is no special exception for errors promulgated throughout the Universal Church by a madman bishop in white posing as an oracle for the “God of Surprises.”
Catholicism, like it or not, is an “all-in” proposition; not because I say so, but because Our Lord said so:
He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. (Mt. 12:30)
As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Muller was a monumental failure; precisely when the Church and her faithful most needed him to carry out his duty well, he wavered. In the aftermath of Amoris Laetitia, rather than gather with the Lord, he scattered.
Sure, he occasionally made some public comments in defense of the truth, but to the non-Catholic and the ill-formed alike these appeared as little more than Gerhard’s opinion vs. Jorge’s opinion, and hey, the boss is the boss.
Missing from Cardinal Muller’s response was a firm and clear condemnation of the blasphemy and heresy put forth in Amoris Laetitia in light of the immutable doctrines of the faith, for example, as articulated in the dogmatic teachings that were set forth by the Council of Trent (as mentioned numerous times in this space).
Even short of this, there is much more that Muller could have done.
It has been widely reported that the CDF had submitted some 20 pages of suggested corrections to the text of Amoris Laetitia prior to its publication, only to have those suggestions ignored by its humble author.
And why did Muller make these corrections available to Francis in the first place?
To promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world was his duty. Simple, but guess what? That obligation did not cease just because the head honcho would have none of it.
As Francis made his evil intentions all the more plain, a man of true Catholic conviction would have released those 20 pages of corrections to the public and endured whatever consequences doing so might have invited. (Let us pray that the Lord will grant the grace necessary, if not to Muller then to someone else, for that to happen soon.)
In conclusion, while it is reasonable for us to expect Luis Ladaria Ferrer to fail even more spectacularly than his predecessor as head of the CDF, the fact of the matter is little to nothing has changed.
If Müller weren’t just another modernist man-of-the-council, he’d never have been given the position at all. Since the Judas Council, an undiluted Catholic can’t rise through the ranks of the Judas “Church,” just as a prohibitionist could never become CEO of a brewery.
Well said AlphonsusJr.
Time is of the essence. The Modernist’s know they have to work as quickly as possible to destroy the last remnants of the true faith and elected Jorge to be the uncompromising vehicle to get the job done. He has to ensure the future success of the Revolution by putting into power the committed revolutionaries, those trustworthy heretics and apostates who can be counted on to continue the Party programs of destruction and demolition and in the complete reorganization of the workings of the fake church to ensure continued success.
We know one of the characteristics of all revolutionaries is they will support anyone, any thing, or any proposal as long as it serves to uphold or advance the Revolution. The enemies of my enemies are my friends. It is only the Revolution that matters. When circumstances change, when their successes are counted, they reassess their “friends” and the past and if their “friends” and whomever or whatever was done in the past that served their purposes then do not serve them now, their “friends” become their enemies and the past is irrelevant. They can safely ignore over overturn anything their past “friends” (JPII, Benedict XVI) said or did that does not comport to the future progress of the Revolution.
Would you change if you had all of the power and wealth and diabolical hearts, minds and souls the Modernist’s have?
Would you change if your mission, your goal to transform and then destroy the Catholic faith has found one success after another?
“There were no differences between me and Pope Francis,” said Cardinal Müller…” @rorate-caeli.blogspot.com. Despite ++Müller’s constant rebuttals that AL does not change Catholic Doctrine we all know that it does by a change in praxis which is rooted in Doctrine & reflects it. If he had been staunchly orthodox he could never have made that statement & he would have signed the Dubia at the outset. The fact that he didn’t even show courtesy to the Dubia Four by replying to the copy they sent him, but actually publicly reprimanded them for making it public, surely says something of ++Müller favouring PF over Christ. He went even further in his reprimand by actually blocking them from issuing the formal correction as promised, whispering ‘schism’ when the CC is visibly in tatters. Did he forget that Pope Paul VI in 1972 actually stated: “It is as if from some mysterious crack, no, it is not mysterious, from some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the Temple of God.” That was forty-five years ago so he is well behind the times.
Although Spanish, I don’t know much about his successor as he has spent most of his priestly life in Rome, but the recent reports of a drugs-filled homosexual orgy & charges laid against Msgr. Luigi Felching Capozzi, secretary to ++ Coccopalmerio (who put his name forward for a bishopric), will be a baptism of fire & one we all should await with interest. In no way can the Vatican be let away with this while ++ Pell & now Müller are being made scapegoats to suit the NWO new religion agenda. The next to go will be ++ Sarah & Burke. At what stage will universal Catholicism say enough is enough & close the door after you.
So true, Louie. Nothing will change and expect it to get worse. I’ve heard that at the Vatican the first thing they check the bishops for is for a backbone. If they find one, they are disqualified. Are there ANY fearless catholic bishops left???
Ezekial 16:14-15 And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.
But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to every passenger, to be his.
Louie, I freely admit that you are much better informed than am I and I also admit that I am in agreement with much that you say. I do suggest, seriously however, that you try to not respond or place criticisms as if you are writing a script for the Marx Bros. To refer to the Four Cardinals who sent the Dubia to Cardinal Mueller and to the Pope as the “Dubia Brothers” is extraordinarily disrespectful to them. For reasons best known to Himself God has permitted Pope Francis, Anti-Pope Francis or just plain Francis (I don’t know which he is) to occupy the Seat of Peter. To me that indicates that we are galloping towards a Chastisement unless sufficient Catholic souls can be found to offer up sufficient Prayer, Penance and Sacrifice to alleviate it. I suggest that you are in an ideal position to urge Catholics to focus on this result.
Dearest Louie,
This remains, as it only can, stage craft par excellence, at a scope, breadth, and depth, that would make Shakespeare blush in bewilderment. There is no conceivable deception which can trump this inversion of reality as the “novus ordo church” or the “conciliar church”, which is as it can only be, the church of the Antichrist. The diabolical disorientation of the mind which continues to foster the belief that not only a faux Roman Pontiff as Francis, who is clearly a murderer of Truth, could actually and literally be the Vicar of Christ Jesus in this world whose Prince is Lucifer, but at the same time that the “next in line” as the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is also a murderer of Truth, and in that utter capacity could actually be the Prefect of the CDF, is not only breath taking but asphyxiating, in its clearly, manifest reality.
For those with eyes that see and ears that hear, by virtue of the reception of the grace of Almighty God alone, the words of The Mother of God, our Mother and our love, as the Mother of the One Who Is Love at LaSalette, have clear meaning in this time, coupled with the inerrant words of Saint Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 3-11. Saint Paul, again for those with eyes and ears which allow for the reception of truth, because of grace alone, is clearly speaking of the Holy Roman Pontiff, as the only one in this world who as “he”, held the spirit of Iniquity at large, until “he is removed from the enemies’ path”, at which time the son of perdition makes himself manifest in the world. There is no other “he” in this world that could have held the man of perdition off over the centuries but for the Holy Roman Pontiff, the Bishop of Rome, as the Vicar of Christ. Our Lady of LaSalette warned us clearly in the language, “Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”, that Rome would end its tenure as the “Eternal City” as it would lose the faith. Rome cannot both hold the faith as the Eternal City whose Bishop is the Vicar of Christ and also lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist at the same time, as that places an affront to the law of non-contradiction, defying right reason whose Author is divine. Our Lady of LaSalette also promised us that, “The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay.” The Church will not be readily visible thus and in that time, the world will be in dismay. Although not readily visible, it will remain until the end of time as the Son of God made man, Jesus the Christ commanded. Christ did not promise that His Vicar would be visible until the end of time and to the contrary Saint Paul allowed for our knowing that he would not be visible, as he would be “taken out of the way”, and then the person of the Antichrist would be revealed.
The Truth is hard as He is a divine Person and He said, “You think I came to bring peace. I came to bring the sword.”, as it is in division that the truth springs forth and is plainly seen. This Truth will rip families apart and only those human persons who receive the grace of fortitude and perseverance will prevail in this time, as has been known to Almighty God into all eternity. Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort prophesied that the saints of the last days would be the greatest Saints that Holy Mother Church had known.
A false church can only have a false pope and a false prefect of the congregation of the doctrine of faith. Francis is a pope and Mueller is a prefect of a congregation of the doctrine of a faith, but neither of these men can be representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ, as this places an affront to the Thomistic law of non-contradiction, as being cannot both be and not be at the same time and under the same respect. The “same respect” here relates to the authentic Church of the Son of God. These two emissaries of Lucifer simply cannot represent officially the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, as Christ commanded, “You are either with Me or you are against Me.” Those who murder Christ as Truth Himself cannot be with Him. A child understands this clearly. I pray this helps. In caritas.
All it takes in the Novus Ordo church to be considered a watchdog of orthodoxy, is to call out sins against the 6th and 9th Commandments.
If you deny the Resurrection, Transubstantiation and other dogmas of the Faith, like Mueller does, that’s no big deal. But by golly, he is strong on who’s sleeping with who (except when he’s not), and that’s all that matters; so he’s a champion of the conservative branch of the Novus Ordo church.
Just published on The Remnant website:
http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/3266-cardinal-mueller-s-letter-to-bishop-fellay
What should we make of this?
Here’s something that we can do right now. Pray with all your heart today’s Matins on behalf of the HOLY Catholic Church.
“to ensure that the C.D.F. and its prefect are rowing with and not against the pope on key issues” — on a boat whose bottom they already riddled with holes and which is sinking faster than the Titanic.