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Müller speaks: The Church, a house of many rooms
The new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Abp. Gerhard
Müller, granted his first interview after his appointment to KNA, the German bishops's news agency (in German). Dutch Catholic blog In Caelo et in Terra has provided a translation, to which we made minor adaptations:

KNA: Archbishop, what is your feeling regarding your appointment?

Müller: Gratitude for the confidence that the pope has in me. It is not an easy task, considering the whole universal Church; but it is a beautiful assignment to be able to serve the pope in his teaching office. The position has a universal ecclesiastic dimension – and has nothing to do with centralisation.

KNA: When did you learn that you would be going to Rome?

Müller: Some time ago. But the change of office needs to run its ordered course.

KNA: Do you know why the pope has appointed you? Did he want a German, a theologian, someone he trusted?

Müller: It certainly wasn’t about nationality, and as Catholics we all belong to the universal Church. But the Holy Father knows me, and my theological work, not only as an author, but also as an expert of the Synod of Bishops in Rome and in the committees of Ecuмenism and Faith of the German Bishops’ Conference.

KNA: When do you start in your office?

Müller: I have already started, on July 2.

KNA: You are now one of the most important people in the Vatican, and one of the closest collaborators of the pope. What will be your first steps?

Müller: I have already met with the superiors of the Congregation, in order to get an overview of the daily procedures and duties. The scope is very broad: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith consists of three departments: the doctrinal, disciplinary, and marriage departments. The prefect is at also president of the Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission. We have about fifty immediate employees. Then there are the “Feria quarta”, the meetings of cardinals, which take place every four weeks.

KNA: What are your major priorities?

Müller: The Congregation is responsible for the promotion of the doctrine of the faith, and not only for its protection. The 1965 reorganisation of the dicastery placed this positive aspect in its heart. It is about the promotion of theology and its basis in Revelation, to ensure its quality, and to consider the relevant intellectual developments on a global scale. We cannot simply and mechanically repeat the doctrine of the faith. It must always be associated with the intellectual developments of the time, the sociological changes, the thinking of people.

KNA: What do you want to emphasize especially? What do you want to especially deal with in the near future?

Müller: The Congregation has the task of supporting the pope in his Magisterium. We must guide ourselves based on the emphases he makes in his pronouncements. During his visit to Germany, Benedict XVI put the question of God at the centre. He also spoke of the ‘worldliness’ of the Church – a topic not only intended for Germany. It is about a right understanding of the nature and mission of the Church; about finding the right balance between isolating onself from the world and adapting to it – so that we can truly serve the world in the name of Jesus Christ. In particular, we have to counter a widespread apathy in matters of faith. The ‘Year of Faith’, with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Council and twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, will be an essential contribution to this.

KNA: You begin your service in a turbulent time for the Vatican. Or is the Vatican currently back on its feet again?

Müller: I don’t know much about this concretely. It remains to be seen what the investigations will reveal. What seems important to me is that the good works of the many hundreds of employees in the Curia are not overlooked. They are unfairly associated with these individual actions; the impression is created that everyone is involved. That is totally out of the question.

KNA: Another major topic in Rome is the anniversary of the Council. What do you expect from looking back to it?

Müller: We do not need a hermeneutic that is imposed upon the Council from the outside. It is important to explore the hermeneutic that is included in the Council itself: the hermeneutic of reform in continuity, as the Holy Father has repeatedly underlined. A Council is an expression of the highest Magisterium of the Church in communion of bishops and the Pope.
In this sense, the Second Vatican Council was a wonderful event, albeit from a somewhat different type than some previous councils. It was its legitimate intention to respond not only to certain errors and correct them, but to provide an overall view of the Catholic faith. It was not so much concerned with individual elements, but with the big picture, the vast architecture of the Church represented by large rooms where you can feel at home and dwell joyfully.

KNA: The Council, however, also created problems, for example, for the Society of Saint Pius X.

Müller: Everyone who calls oneself Catholic will also have to keep the principles of the Catholic faith. These are not pre-formulated by the CDF or by anyone else, but given to us in the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which has been entrusted to the Church. Therefore, one cannot simply pick from it what fits in a given structure.
Rather, one must be open oneself to the whole of the Christian faith, the whole profession of faith, the Church’s history and development of her teaching. One must be open to the living Tradition which does not end somewhere – say, in 1950 – but goes on. Inasmuch as we appreciate history with its great achievements, we must also see that every era is also directly related to God. Every era has its own challenges. We cannot declare a [specific] historical time as the classical standard, but we move along from one summit to the next one.
Labels: After the talks (Holy See-SSPX), Müller, Vatican II at 50
Posted by New Catholic at 7/05/2012 09:47:00 AM

This guy is not only boring, but he could truly be described as a relativist.  

He says on the one hand that the church must be many big rooms for people to dwell in joy but then he says that the SSPXers must accept the whole picture.

What?  No big room for the SSPXers to dwell joyfully in?

On top of the other nonsense, this guy is dull.  

Through the next few years, he will deliver some theological whoppers!  You can count on that!

Quote from Muller:
The Congregation has the task of supporting the pope in his Magisterium

So, the CDF is now at the service of the "authentic" or "authorized" Magisterium. In other words, to do what pleases the Pope or the College of Bishops . The term "authentic" or "authorized" Magisterium, refers to either the person of the pope or the College of Bishops.

1989 Profession of Faith, last paragraph says:
"What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive."

Quote from Muller:
It was its legitimate intention (VII) to respond not only to certain errors and correct them, but to provide an overall view of the Catholic faith.

Do they mean: To invent their own church?

This coming Advent, the "new 1962 missal" (updated according to SP & UE) will be in use. it is already in print to celebrate the "Year of the (loss of) Faith. If the SSPX continues using the 1962 Missal, they will look very foolish. As I mention already on another thread, the lat time we had a "year of the Faith" was the very year that the "Oath Against Modernism" was done away with. Read John Vennaris article:"The Oath Against Modernism Betrayed" again.

If the more "conservatives" Catholics don't jump of the fence right now and switch sides and finally defend Tradition or at least, get out of the way!!! and let us do it, they will be guilty of participating in Rome's sin by Consent, silence and defense of the ill done.

As far as Bishop Fellay,  he needs to resign and convert or be thrown out!

I think this is a good point.. Doesn't this also get this man closer to a papal post?

Not sure what you mean by this.  

Perhaps what's happened is Bxvi has seen the impossibility of a Sspx regularization and is going to now 'take out the stick', as i believe +Williamson said once, and have a new headline position on the society.

If this is the case, I would say, "Thanks!"

This is undoubtedly the case and it became a forgone conclusion once the letter of the Three was made public.  At that moment, any smooth transition of the SSPX to operating under the auspices of the conciliar anti-church was rendered impossible and Ratzinger, whose legacy and image has been so totally and rightly smeared by corruption and abetment of systematized child rape, that nothing less that total victory in this matter would be the necessary PR victory.  So now he'll play the role of the gentle father, deceived and betrayed at the eleventh hour, who now must be more firm in his method of correction.

I just came across the article below. Would the new CDF approve this? If sinners can not conform their lives to the Church teachings, will they (CDF) conform their teachings to acomodate their sins? After all, "The Church,(is) a house of many rooms"



Latest News
'Rethink line on divorce and gαys'
5 July 2012

The Church must rethink its approach to remarried divorcees and gαy relationships, the world's youngest cardinal has said.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, 55, made his comments in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit and said that while the Orthodox Church considers only the first marriage sacramentally valid, divorce and a second marriage is tolerated. Asked whether this could be a model for the Catholic Church, he replied that the Church should talk about it.

Commenting on gαy men in relationships he said he tried not to see them as just violating natural law but as people trying to take responsibility for each other in lasting partnerships. "We must find a way of allowing people to live without going against church teaching," he said.

Above: Cardinal Woelki. Photo: CNS

I just came across the article below. Would the new CDF approve this? If sinners can not conform their lives to the Church teachings, will they (CDF) conform their teachings to acomodate their sins? After all, "The Church,(is) a house of many rooms"



Latest News
'Rethink line on divorce and gαys'
5 July 2012

The Church must rethink its approach to .... gαy men in relationships, he said he tried not to see them as just violating natural law but as people trying to take responsibility for each other in lasting partnerships. "We must find a way of allowing people to live without going against church teaching," he said.

Above: Cardinal Woelki. Photo: CNS

You can bet that he's a homo himself.