VATICAN CORNER
Pope Francis has decided not to have Cardinal Gerhard Müller serve any longer as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) as his 5 year term has ended. Pope Benedict in 2012 appointed Müller to lead that Congregation. No new position was announced for Müller, who at 69 is still more than five years from the normal retirement age for a bishop. The CDF is the powerful keeper of the Church’s orthodoxy and is responsible for promoting the correct interpretation of Catholic doctrine and theology. The CDF’s word has been supreme in the Vatican administration, with all documents from the other Vatican offices first needing review and approval by the CDF regarding any doctrine of faith or moral issues before publication. The new English translations of the Mass we use each Sunday went through their review. The CDF keeps tight control over congregations and councils, it can reprimand bishops and it presides over investigation of sexual abuse. The CDF has gone after ethicists who questioned the Church’s ban on artificial birth control and most recently, it took control of the leadership of Women Religious in the United States, placing temporarily control with 3 bishops. On June 30, 2017, two days before the end of his contract, Pope Francis notified Cardinal Müller that he would be released, and thanked him for his service. Muller later said the Pope gave him no reason. However, Cardinal Müller, an ideological conservative was often at odds with Pope Francis. Müller insisted that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics could not receive Communion unless they made a commitment to abstain from sexual relations with their new partners. While Pope Francis’s document Amoris Laetitia presents a process of discernment that in certain circumstances could allow some couples to return to the sacraments. When Marie Collins resigned from the Pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors, she particular cited Müller as reluctant to implement the Commission’s recommendations. Speaking about Müller, Cardinal Maradiaga – coordinator of the Council of Cardinals, in an interview, said that as a German theology professor, Müller is convinced something could only be wrong or right. Maradiaga said “the world, my brother, is not like that. You should be a little more flexible when you hear other opinions so that you don’t only say: No, this is fixed and final.” In January, Pope Francis spoke to the CDF about their role saying they are to promote and protect the doctrine of the faith, but he warned the congregation against the temptation to domesticate the faith or reduce it to abstract theories. Pope Francis wants a kinder and gentler CDF that seeks always to have “a constructive dialogue, respectful and patient with authors.” To take on the role as leader of the CDF, Pope Francis selected Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, 73, a Jesuit theologian, another appointee of Pope Benedict, and the secretary of the CDF since 2008. It is hoped that a truce may be in the works between the theologians and the bishops so that they can work together again as they did at the Second Vatican Council.
Sources: ncronline.org. cruxnow.com, catholic.org