The unthinkable happened at noon today. It appears we
now have a Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Müller who himself
publicly dissents from certain Doctrines of the Faith.
He does not believe in Our Lady's Virginity in partu,
contrary to the teaching of Vatican II (Lumen Gentium:
57 and the Popes, Councils and Doctors cited in support
of that doctrine in the accompanying footnote 10).
Müller's reduction of this de fide physical miracle to a
generic statement about the influence of "grace . . . on
human nature" is the classic demythologizing tactic.
Even more astonishingly, Abp. Müller also apparently
holds a doctrine of Christ's presence in the Eucharist
that is Lutheran (at best): the consecrated Species are
not the true Body and Blood of Christ in his
transfigured (risen) corporality; rather, the Lord just
becomes "present" in what remains bread and wine.
Müller's view seems impossible to distinguish from
that condemned as heresy by the Council of Trent (cf. Dz
884 = DS 1652). Pope Paul VI insisted on this dogma in
his 1964 Encyclical Mysterium Fidei, and again in what
he considered the most important document of his
pontificate, the 1968 Solemn Profession of Faith. Here
the Holy Father proclaimed: "Every theological
explanation which seeks some understanding of this
mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic
faith, maintain that in the reality itself,
independently of our mind, the bread and wine have
ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is
the adorable Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus that from
then on are really before us under the sacramental
species of bread and wine."
This perennial Catholic doctrine is repeated in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, ##1374-1377. This is
to say nothing of Müller's sympathies for the liberation
theology of his close friend Gustavo Gutierrez, or his
reported statement that "Protestants are already members
of the Church" - a position that would be clearly
contrary to Pius XII's teaching in Mystici Corporis as
to what constitutes "real membership" of Christ's
Church.
The following is taken from
Müller's Wikipedia entry.
Eucharist: In
2002, Bishop Müller published the book "Die Messe -
Quelle des christlichen Lebens" (St. Ulrich Verlag,
Augsburg). In the book, he says : "In reality, the body
and blood of Christ do not mean the material components
of the human person of Jesus during his lifetime or in
his transfigured corporality. Here, body and blood mean
the presence of Christ in the signs of the medium of
bread and wine."
Liberation Theology Müller was also a
pupil of Gustavo Gutiérrez, the “father” of
Latin-American liberation theology, with whom he has a
long and close friendship. Commenting on Guitierrez,
Müller stated: "The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez,
independently of how you look at it, is orthodox because
it is orthopractic and it teaches us the correct way of
acting in a Christian fashion since it comes from true
faith." It is important to note that Gutiérrez’s
thoughts were never censured by the Holy See although it
was asked that he modify a few of his writings.[5]
Mariology: In his
900-page work "Katholische Dogmatik. Für Studium und
Praxis der Theologie" (Freiburg. 5th Edition, 2003),
Müller says that the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary is "not so much concerned
with specific physiological proprieties in the natural
process of birth [...], but with the healing and saving
influence of the grace of the Savior on human nature."
May Heaven preserve the Church against the gates of Hell
in this dark hour. |