Tuesday, July 29, 2014

CDF's Müller excoriates second-marriages theories

Sandro Magister, "Müller: 'These Theories Are Radically Mistaken'" (www.chiesa, July 29, 2014), notes that the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith refutes the ideas of those who want to permit second marriages with the first spouse still alive, observing that he is backed up by Cardinal Sebastián, who also disagrees with Cardinal Kasper, and asks, "But whose side is Pope Francis on?"

Some excerpts:
"The theories you have pointed out seek to make Catholic doctrine a sort of museum of Christian theories: a sort of reserve that would be of interest only to a few specialists. Life, for its part, would have nothing to do with Jesus Christ as he is and as the Church shows him to be. Strict Christianity would be turned into a new civil religion, politically correct and reduced to a few values tolerated by the rest of society. This would achieve the unconfessed objective of some: to get the Word of God out of the way for the sake of ideological control over all of society.

Jesus did not become flesh in order to expound a few simple theories that would tranquilize the conscience and ultimately leave things the way they are. The message of Jesus is a new life. If anyone were to think and live by separating life from doctrine, not only would he deform the doctrine of the Church by turning it into a sort of idealistic pseudo-philosophy, but he would also be fooling himself. Living as a Christian means living on the basis of faith in God. Adulterating this arrangement means realizing the dreaded compromise between God and the devil."
AND
"The facts of Scripture reveal that, in addition to mercy, holiness and justice also belong to the mystery of God. If we were to obscure these divine attributes and trivialize the reality of sin, it would make no sense to beg for the mercy of God on behalf of persons. This makes it understandable why Jesus, after treating the adulterous woman with great mercy, added as an expression of his love: “Go, and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11). The mercy of God is not a dispensation from the commandments of God and from the teachings of the Church. It is entirely the contrary: God, in his infinite mercy, grants us the power of grace for the complete fulfillment of his commands and so as to reestablish in us, after the fall, his perfect image as Father of Heaven."
This is fascinating, as our underground correspondent, Guy Noir - Private Eye, observes: "Mueller sounds quite on target and on fire here. And like he is working for a different clearing house than the one in the news for the past year! I am impressed.... And mystified. The signals from Francis sound nothing like this. And Mueller himself has in his comments sounded like anything but a friend of Traditionalists.... The Modern Church. Quite the mystery."

[Hat tip to JM]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

But what difference will it make anyway?

The doctrine is not going to be changed. The processing of annulments will be so watered down and facilitated that defense of one's marriage will be next to impossible.

That is the real joke.

There will be no need to change anything. Already the "presumption of validity" is a laughing matter.

I prevented testimony from being given in defense of our marriage, in our pending annulment case, in order to protect the person who wanted to give it. It no longer even matters in such cases when perjury is demonstrated. The testimony of the liar still has weight, when, instead, they should be formally excommunicated, immediately as the falsehood is established and their entire testimony voided, to each i and t! The Catholic clergy and the canonists do not care one whit about justice or truth, in other than words, to make it appear that they do. They are among the most seasoned politicians. Those of us defending our marriages are their victims. They are very frequently real predators. I have to believe that the suffering the Catholic Church and its functionaries have caused to my family, for over two decades, is almost an inspiration to these monsters. The more agony they are able to inflict and the more destructive to faith they can be, the better!!

There is nothing the Catholic Church can do to restore real trust in it. Those days are gone except for fools and the occasional naive soul. It is way too late for the Catholic Church to turn the tide away from its coming demise.

It is sad to see people heartened by the words of some bishops and cardinals. The game is over. I am just waiting for it to be played out.

I know the Catholic Church for what it truly is.

Chris said...

Anonymous,

Be of good cheer. Nearly 8 percent of the original disciples participated in the destruction of the founder, and the man later chosen as CEO denied 3 times that he knew the founder.

Are there scoundrels in the Church? St. John Chrysostom - if I recall - said that the streets of hell are paved with the skulls of priests. Her human defects notwithstanding, the Church is God's chosen instrument of salvation, and we must not lose heart.

Michael Ortiz said...

I believe Muller is part of God's Providential plan for His Church, which no matter how we may disfigure her, much like her Founder, will keep rising from the dead, to new life.

Look: when you see a cleric or a layman speaking the CLEAR truth of the Gospel and Tradition, you can know that the Bride speaks. Indeed, when a Prefect of the CDF speaks in this way, it is Christ Himself speaking.

Hope that has a little human chance is not really hope! to paraphrase GKC.

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

I have a jazz guitar collaboration cd where John Abercrombie's guitar comes out of the left speaker, and John Scofield's comes out of the right speaker. Maybe this thing with Mueller and Kasper is like that: Mueller on the right, Kasper on the left, and no one of consequence notices that overall the parameters are being surreptitiously widened to the left. That's the way they've flimflammed the pew boobs most of my life.