The focus of the CDF's request focussed on homosexuality, civil unions between persons of the same sex, the admission of women to the priesthood and "gender theory."

Flannery was suspended in May 2012.

His signature on the C.D.F. document would allow him to return to public ministry.

He declined to sign the document and made the C.D.F. letter public on Sept. 16.

He described the process that brought him to this point as "unjust," saying he had "no chance to defend myself, no appeal system, no direct communication, the judgment passed and sentence decided before I even knew what was happening."

"Maybe I am deceiving myself," he said to America by email, "but I believe I can do more for the church by exposing in every way I can the unjust process, rather than trying to get Francis to wave a wand and return me to the ministry."

The C.D.F. said today: ‘We did everything possible to dialogue with Father Flannery. It wasn't always easy.'

Father Flannery, one of the founders of the Association of Irish Priests in 2010, which now counts in its membership around 30 percent of all Irish priests, said he was astounded by the fourth proposition renouncing gender theory he was asked to sign because, he said, he has never spoken on the subject.

If we have any advice to give to Father Flannery, we would give it to Father Flannery, but I believe that out of respect for everyone, and in particular for him, we would give this advice to him in private. We did everything possible to dialogue with Father Flannery.

It wasn't always easy. We did everything possible.

At a certain moment, we had to take some measures, which never involves a judgment on the person, because that is always reserved to Our Lord, but on his teaching or on his behaviour.

Therefore, we tried always to maintain our respect for Father Flannery. But the duty we have [in the C.D.F.], according to what is laid down by the church, is to safeguard the faith and to point out something that is not in conformity with the faith.

This is a very unpleasant responsibility of the C.D.F., very unpleasant, but it is our responsibility and it would be a failure on our part if we did not exercise our responsibility and set it aside and not say a word when in certain moments, painfully, many times, it has to be said.

The instruction from Rome for Father Flannery came in a letter from the Italian archbishop Giacomo Morandi, secretary of the C.D.F., to the superior general of the Redemptorist Order, the Rev. Michael Brehl, on July 9.

The letter does not mention Pope Francis, and there is no evidence that the pope was involved in the decision to issue it.

Archbishop Morandi said he had received a letter from Father Brehl on Feb. 27, which proposed that the C.D.F. consider permitting Father Flannery to return to public ministry.

"The specific task of the C.D.F. is to elaborate doctrine and defend it, and the pope as shepherd has to engage in a pastoral approach which does not disregard doctrine but looks at the persons where they are."

America has learned that the Council of the Irish Redemptorists, believing that a new climate prevailed in Rome, had sent a letter to Father Brehl requesting him to lift the suspension on Father Flannery, since it was the Redemptorists who had imposed the suspension, under pressure from the C.D.F.

Father Brehl referred the matter to the C.D.F.

The issue was discussed at a meeting in Rome on Feb. 27 which seems to have involved Redemptorist and C.D.F. officials.

The archbishop's letter of July 9 came with a document from the C.D.F. containing four "recent doctrinal propositions" on the topics in question.

It asked that Father Flannery give his written assent to each proposition and said that once the C.D.F. received the signed statement, "a gradual readmission of Father Flannery to the exercise of public ministry will be possible."

But, it said, "he should not be asked to speak publicly on the above-mentioned topics, which have caused problems in the past."

Each of the propositions Father Flannery was asked to sign was prefaced with relevant extracts from St. John Paul II's apostolic letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis"; Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortations "Amoris Laetitia" and "Querida Amazonia"; the Catechism of the Catholic Church; the code of canon law; and a document from the Congregation for Catholic Education on gender theory.

The texts of the propositions are:

1. According to the Tradition and the doctrine of the Church incorporated in Canon Law (c.1024), a baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.
2. Since the homosexual practices are contrary to the natural law and do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity, they are not approved by the moral teaching of the Catholic Church (cf. CCC 2357).
3. The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator (CCC 1660). Other forms of union do not correspond to God's plan for marriage and family. Therefore, they are not allowed by the Catholic Church.
4. In so far as it contradicts the foundations of a genuine Christian anthropology, gender theory is not accepted by Catholic teaching.

The style of the letter from the congregation and the document Father Flannery was asked to sign has raised serious questions.

As is evident from Father Flannery's case, the C.D.F. is still using the same procedures that prevailed under the pontificates of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Several Vatican sources consulted by America confirmed this, though none wished to go on record for this article because they were not authorized to speak. Continue reading

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had recently made an official statement deeming this language improper for the conferral of baptism.

Not only did this affect Father Hood himself and the many people who had received sacraments from him, but it also brought about significant questions from the people of the church about what the case means for sacramental life.

The person acting as minister must intend to do what the church intends to do with the sacrament.

Most prominent among these questions are the sacramental validity of the baptisms, confessions, marriages and more that Hood performed during his priestly ministry.

Fr John Baldovin, S.J., a sacramental theologian and professor at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, offered America explanations for many of the important questions that have arisen as a result of Father Hood's case.

Baldovin noted that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has the authority to say what is and is not valid when it comes to sacramental language and form.

Theologians, however, also have the right to raise questions, he said.

It is important to recognize, Baldovin noted, that other forms of baptism have been used validly in the church throughout history.

Even today, some Eastern churches, both Orthodox and those Eastern Catholic churches in union with Rome, use a different form.

Some early churches used an interrogatory form in which the baptismal candidate was asked a set of questions about his or her belief in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and was immersed in the baptismal font after each affirmative answer.

Baptism is unique in that any person can be its minister.

Baldovin points out, though, that the person acting as minister must intend to do what the church intends to do with the sacrament.

Importantly, that intention must be expressed both internally and externally.

While it could reasonably be assumed that Deacon Mark Springer baptized Hood with goodwill in his internal intention, his external expression of the sacrament—even if its aberration from the essential form was an honest mistake—is what the statement from the C.D.F. invalidates.

The central question of the case lies in the matter of sacramental validity—in other words, the church guarantees that God's grace is present in the sacramental act.

Baldovin makes an important suggestion about validity's meaning and impact: "Too many people think invalid means unreal."

On this point, he stands in agreement with the Letter to the Faithful From Archbishop Vigneron of Detroit that addresses the case of Hood.

Vigneron urges hope when he writes that "[t]he Church, following the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, recognizes that God has bound Himself to the sacraments, but He is not bound by the sacraments."

While we can be sure that God acts in sacraments properly conferred, Baldovin said, the boundaries of God's grace and power are not delineated by the sacraments alone.

The deacon's errors were meaningful and should not be repeated, he noted, but they do not necessarily limit God's power to act. Continue reading

Father Matthew Hood learned that he was not a baptised Catholic earlier this month after watching a family video of his baptism and where some words were changed.

The words used at his baptism are not sanctioned by the Church.

Hood remembered a video of his own baptism ceremony in which the deacon said: "We baptize you…."

Hood realised his baptism wasn't valid - which meant he wasn't confirmed nor ordained.

According to sacramental theology, only a baptised Catholic can validly receive the other sacraments, since baptism is the means by which a person enters the Church and is incorporated into the body of Christ.

The trouble was, in the three years since his ordination, Hood had worked as a priest, baptising people, confirming them, celebrating Masses, offered absolution and marrying couples.

Once he realised Hood called his archdiocese. He needed to be ordained!

But first, after three years of acting like a priest, living like a priest, and feeling like a priest, he needed to become a Catholic!

First, he needed to be baptised.

After receiving the sacrament of baptised he was confirmed and received the Eucharist. He made a retreat, was ordained a deacon and on August 17 he was ordained a priest. (As pictured.)

Hood called the ensuing two weeks "a roller coaster".

"My heart goes out and breaks for those for whom I've celebrated Mass, Mass intentions I've offered, the confessions I've heard, and especially the sacraments of anointing of the sick that I've celebrated for people on their deathbeds, my grandmother included among them," Hood said.

St. Thomas Aquinas once famously said, "God binds Himself to the sacraments, but He himself is not bound by them."

Hood said, The Lord is still merciful and fully capable of imparting grace even when human error occurs.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit has acknowledged "human error has resulted in disruption to the sacramental lives of some members of the faithful" and vowed to remedy the situation for those impacted.

"As far as God ‘taking care of it,' we can trust that God will assist those whose hearts are open to Him", the Archbishop said.

On August 6, the Vatican released a document saying that baptisms using the word "we baptise" rather than "I baptise" makes the baptism invalid.

A doctrinal note accompanying the CDF letter said it has received number of cases in which baptisms have been administered using the words: "In the name of the father and of the mother, of the godfather and of the godmother, of the grandparents, of the family members, of the friends, in the name of the community we baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The document was signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria, head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, and by the department's secretary, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Detroit Catholic
• Crux
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

His complaint is that he had no warning and the termination was a summary dismissal.

I don't know where the cardinal has been in recent months. But it doesn't seem to have been in Rome.

Or if he was in Rome, he must have kept his winter muffs covering his ears and fogged goggles to (not) see with.

Even from a great distance - I live in Bangkok - it's been obvious to me that if he didn't change his tune, he wasn't long for his job.

In recent months, the cardinal's had three of his clerical employees sent packing from the CDF for their reported resistance to the current pope's agenda.

Again, and as the world knows, the two lay people who resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors left explicitly because of their frustration with the obstacles and blockages that CDF staff placed before action and reform. Cardinal Müller denied there was any problem.

For him then to invoke nothing short of his entitlement to remain as the reason he's most upset puts him, at least for me, in a parallel universe.

Clerical entitlement

Entitlement is just the most loathsome feature of clericalism.

It's what the retarded seminary system inculcates; it's what operates at too many levels of Church governance; and it's a million miles from the sort of sacrificial service Jesus exhorted the Apostles to in John's Gospel on the night before he died when he washed their feet and insisted, despite Peter's protests, they should do this to others.

Cardinal Müller's complaint against the pope is also about the process of his removal.

It is the complete absence of any sense of irony in this line of complaint that leaves me dumbfounded.

The cardinal headed an office in the Vatican whose modus operandi has been for about 500 years to ignore due process, deny natural rights and force those they've targeted to turn up to cross examinations where the accused is not given prior warning of the charges, who has made them or what evidence the charges are based on.

Müller is on very thin ground pursuing this line of attack to say he's suffering from lack of due process.

But what's more, what a spectacle to the world this display from Cardinal Müller is.

The abject lack of self-awareness as he digs his own hole deeper is something to witness.

Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again

Everyone in any workforce, me included, is contracted for a job for a specific length of time, which then comes to an end.

Sometimes hopes for reappointment are disappointed. And at other times, employees - and some of them senior - are fired.

I've had that happen in my professional life.

It wasn't pleasant and I could have spent a lifetime in the vinegar bottle complaining about it to anyone silly enough to keep listening to me. Or, as the song goes, "you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again".

And guess what? That has been the start of some great things in life for me.

Reversals are God's opportunity to be God in our lives, if only we let Him, let go of control and start being led by the Spirit. And after all, isn't that what the Christian journey is about?

All of us in any workforce have moved on from jobs we enjoyed but in which our time has come to an end.

Some of us have been moved from a task we thought not finished.

Either way, things change.

Why?

Really because we kid ourselves if we think our lives are only in our hands. This is no lasting city, as the Letter to the Hebrews (13,14) reminds us.

And that is especially so in the Vatican.

There, all appointments are by the grace and favour of the boss - the pope - and no one should be deluded to think they have a job for life. Only the pope has a job for life or until he resigns. He's unique.

Everyone else is there to work for the company.

If you don't like the company's policies - and you're entitled not to like them - then the alternative is to go home to the diocese or religious community you were ordained to serve.

One of the worst things clericalism does to male celibates is given them a role as a substitute for a life and a personality.

In his present circumstances, Cardinal Müller has a chance to reclaim both.

• Father Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of ucanews.com
• First published in LaCroix International

"His task should have been to explain the reforms and translate them for the world at large; not to break with tradition, but to write a new chapter of tradition. Instead he acted as the pope's inquisitor", the diplomat is reported to have said.

Die Zeit is high-quality German weekly.

The publication devoted a whole page to the decision by Pope Francis not to renew Müller's appointment as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF).

The theologian Wolfgang Beinert says that the relationship between Pope Francis and Müller had never been very intimate from the outset.

He said their chemistry was different and by nature they do not fit together.

Müller insisted, "I was always loyal to the pope and always will be as a Catholic, a bishop and a cardinal."

But he also emphasized that it was the task of the pope and the bishops to adhere to the truth of the Gospels and to preserve church unity.

And he has sharply criticised Pope Francis for the "unacceptable" way in which he has been treated.

"He did not give a reason - just as he gave no reason for dismissing three highly competent members of the CDF a few months earlier," Mueller told the Bavarian daily Passauer Neue Presse.

Müller is regarded by many Vatican watchers as the leading critic of the what the Pope wrote about family and love in Amoris Laetitia.

In the encyclical, Francis suggested that under certain circumstances divorced and remarried people should be allowed to participate in communion.

Four cardinals subsequently wrote a letter to the Pope expressing their concerns (dubia) about what he said.

Müller said that, rather than publishing the dubia in a letter and making the discussion public, it would have been better to treat the issue in a confidential meeting.

He made sure to point out that he had never taken sides in the dubia debate.

"And this is where I must stress with all due clarity that the attempts up to now by Cardinals Schoenborn, Kasper and others to explain how we can achieve a balancing act between dogma, that is church teaching, and pastoral practice (concerning communion for remarried divorcees), are simply not convincing,"

"Source

• LaCroix
• Die Zeit
• Image: Catholic Herald/CNS

Redemptorist Fr Gerry Moloney was editor of Reality magazine in Ireland.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's displeasure with some of the liberal content of the magazine was broken to him in May, 2011.

The CDF told the Redemptorist superior in Rome that Fr Moloney was to be removed as editor with a month's notice.

This demand was accompanied by a list of allegations and findings against the magazine.

The superior, Fr Michael Brehl, later said the CDF case was shoddy and amateur, with statements being taken out of context and a lot of "reading between the lines".

Of particular concern to the CDF was a special issue in 2009 on women in the Church.

Fr Moloney said there was no explicit call for women's ordination, "though several pieces did call for women to be given full and equal partnership in the Church".

The then-prefect of the CDF, Cardinal William Levada, became involved in the case.

The order hammered out a compromise with the CDF.

Fr Moloney could remain as editor subject to five conditions.

The conditions stipulated that he could not publish anything that was supportive of the ordination of women; critical of mandatory celibacy; in favour of general absolution; opposed to the Church's stance on homosexuality; and could be seen as disrespectful of the person of the Holy Father.

In addition, a censor would have to approve the content of every issue prior to publication.

Fr Moloney eventually resigned as editor of Reality in 2014 for medical reasons.

He said the whole affair left him dumbfounded.

He especially objected to the fact that the CDF never spoke to him personally.

Fr Moloney was one of 15 signatories to a recent letter to Pope Francis and the CDF calling for reform of the Vatican's investigation processes and for greater accountability and transparency in its methods.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Abeldanger.org

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith this week issued a new document, Iuvenescit Ecclesia ("The Church Rejuvenates").

This is the first document from the CDF in Pope Francis's pontificate.

The letter stated bishops and new movements should recognise each other as "co-essential".

Bishops must respect "the particularity of individual charismatic groups, avoiding juridical straitjackets that deaden the novelty which is born from the specific experience".

The groups must obey the local bishop and avoid "any danger that the charismatic entities might be considered in some way as running parallel to the ecclesial life".

The 32-page document is addressed to bishops around the world.

It addresses the relationship between hierarchical and charismatic gifts in the life and mission of the Church.

The new document insisted that both the hierarchical and charismatic gifts are given by God in order to build up the Church.

Therefore, they always must be in harmony and complement one another.

The bishop, "he who has received the gift to lead in the Church, has also the responsibility of keeping watch over the good exercise of the other charisms, in such a manner that all contribute to the good of the Church and to its evangelising mission," the document said.

Speaking at the release of the letter, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, noted difficulties that can arise.

He said that "there have been some problems" with some of the lay movement groups setting themselves up as a sort of "counter-power to the bishops".

At the same time, CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that a vision of the Church in which the bishops control everything "is not our vision".

"Bishops are not the superiors, the commandants of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit is," Cardinal Müller said.

The letter affirmed that the "Holy Spirit distributes the charismatic gifts to whomever he desires".

"The same Spirit gives to the hierarchy of the Church the capacity to discern the authenticity of the charisms," the letter added.

The document provided eight criteria that bishops can use in discerning whether a certain group's charism can be properly inserted in the wider Church.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic News Service
• Iuvenescit Ecclesia
• Image: Catholic Herald

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to release Iuvenescit Ecclesia ("the Church grows young") on June 14.

It will be the CDF's first major document issued during the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Continue reading

Francis was asked during a meeting with leaders of female religious congregations about women deacons and their role in the early church.

The Pope responded that he had spoken about the matter some years ago with a "good, wise professor" who had studied the use of female deacons in the early centuries of the Church.

Francis said last Thursday that the professor had told him that female deacons had helped the early Church, particularly in baptising women.

This was when the practice of Baptism at the time called for full immersion of the person's naked body in water.

But Francis said it remained unclear to him what role such deacons had, so he agreed with the sisters that it would be a good idea to set up a commission to look at the issue.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, later said Pope Francis did not say in his remarks that he intends to introduce the ordination of women deacons and even less the ordination of women as priests.

Many historians have said that there is abundant evidence that women served as deacons in the early centuries of the Church.

According to a report in UK Catholic Herald, Francis told the congregational leaders he would get the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to tell him if there had been studies on the matter.

In 2001, the International Theological Commission, which advises the CDF, issued a document which concluded that female deacons in history were not "purely and simply" equivalent to permanent deacons.

The commission spoke of the unity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

But it also mentioned a clear distinction between the ministries of the bishop and the priests on the one hand and the diaconal ministry on the other.

At the meeting with congregational leaders, Pope Francis said women could not preach at Mass because the priest is serving "in persona Christi" and should therefore give the homily.

He promised that the Congregation for Divine Worship would send the congregational leaders a full explanation of this.

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Herald
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Catholic Sun

In March, an international group of 15 bishops, nuns, priests and lay people wrote to Pope Francis and the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith calling for reform.

Many of the signatories to the letter have been subject to CDF investigations and some had subsequently lost their positions.

The Irish Times reported Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, stating it is very unlikely there will be any public response from the CDF.

Fr Lombardi said he had not read the letter.

Other Holy See insiders suggested that there was nothing new in the theologians' critique, adding that it looked like similar criticism "voiced 10, 20 or 30 years ago".

Irish Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery, who Rome has silenced, did receive a type of response from the CDF.

Fr Flannery said the CDF had instructed his superior general to send him a copy of "To Promote and Safeguard the Faith", a 2015 CDF publication.

Fr Flannery cited an article in the Italian publication La Repubblica that stated, "Francis knows well the curial way of stopping careers of theologians and bishops, using the dossiers."

"As archbishop of Buenos Aires and head of the Argentine Bishops' Conference often he saw candidates for episcopal appointments rejected by the Vatican," the article stated.

Recently, Swiss theologian Fr Hans Küng said he has sensed a "new freedom" in the Vatican.

Fr Kung said this after he received a personal response from Pope Francis following an appeal from theologian for debate on papal infallibility.

Augustinian theologian, Fr Iggy O'Donovan, one of five Irish priests to have signed the letter about CDF theological investigations, told The Irish Times: "Küng has got it wrong. He is hopelessly optimistic. Pope Francis is a well-intentioned man but the Curia is fiendishly difficult to reform."

Sources

• Irish Times
• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Tony Flannery blog
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

An international group of bishops, nuns, priests and lay people have written to Pope Francis calling for reform.

They have specifically called for an end to anonymous denunciations.

Many of the letter's signatories have been the subjects of investigations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and some have subsequently lost their positions.

The 15 signatories include Australian Bishop Patrick Power, theologian Fr Charles Curran and Irish Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery.

The letter was also sent to CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Muller.

The signatories argue as the CDF acts as "investigator, accuser, judge and jury" the process cannot offer justice

They state that the procedures are characterised often by a lack of adequate defence or possibility of appeal.

The writers state that current norms are outdated and follow a model based on "the absolutism of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe".

The letter-writers propose propose eight principles that should be followed in any Vatican investigation of a theologian.

They centre on requests for an open process, marked by opportunities for theologians to respond to allegations made against them.

The writers' also mention that often in investigations a theologian's work is taken out of context and call for involvement of those being investigated "from the beginning" to help clarify any issues immediately.

The signatories also propose a new procedure for investigations, moving final responsibility for the matter to the Vatican's office for the Synod of Bishops.

They envision that such a procedure would take place in two steps: First, with a limited investigation at the doctrinal office; and then, if necessary, through a seven-member expert committee set up by the synod office.

Four of the committee members would be appointed by the Vatican; three by the theologian in question.

Within six months of the start of the investigation, they suggest that the committee would outline a "process of reconciliation" between the theologian and the universal Church.

The letter was sent in March, but thus far there has been no formal notice of receipt by the Vatican.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Courier Mail

Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, headed the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, which St John Paul II put in charge of overseeing cases of clerical sex abuse against minors in 2001.

Speaking to Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta rejected past media charges against Cardinal Ratzinger.

Archishop Sciciluna is the head of a board within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that deals with appeals filed by clergy accused of abuse.

Before he was named an auxiliary bishop in Malta in 2012, Archbishop Scicluna spent 10 years as promoter of justice at the doctrinal congregation, handling accusations of clerical sex abuse.

Archbishop Scicluna said it is "unfounded and unjust" for some media to have asserted that Cardinal Ratzinger covered up abuse when he was head of the doctrinal congregation.

Abuse cases were being handled "on the level of the local dioceses", the archbishop said.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, many bishops were basing their decisions on the woefully inadequate theory that these crimes were caused by surrounding conditions.

"And that's why, instead of reporting the guilty, they moved them from parish to parish. But they remained predators wherever" they were.

After 2001, Cardinal Ratzinger would hold a special meeting every Friday with his staff, Archbishop Scicluna said, to study the cases before them and to launch a trial.

"We all saw his suffering," which often left him absolutely speechless during the meetings, the archbishop said.

He said the future pope was "indignant as well as deeply affected" by the abuse scandal.

Cardinal Ratzinger condemning it in his well-known Way of the Cross meditation in 2005 when he said, "How much filth there is in the Church."

In a press conference on the flight back from Mexico, Pope Francis said Benedict XVI deserves applause for his handling of the sex-abuse crisis, particularly in the time before his election to the papacy.

"He was the brave one who helped so many open this door," Francis said.

Archbishop Sciciluna said every bishop and cardinal should see the film Spotlight which depicts the investigative journalism that exposed the abuse scandal in Boston archdiocese.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Catholic Culture
• Image: Life on Dover Beach

The claim against Cardinal Gerhard Müller came from the former chairman of a lay diocesan council in Regensburg, Germany.

Cardinal Müller was bishop in Regensburg between 2002 and 2012, before he was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In an interview in the German weekly Die Zeit, former Regensburg lay diocesan council chairman Fritz Wallner described how then-Bishop Müller, and his vicar-general, Fr Michael Fuchs, during this time "systematically" prevented abuse cases from being investigated.

One example cited concerned Germany's famous "Regensburger Domspatzen" boys' choir.

A report this year found three times as many boys involved with the choir had been abused between 1953 and 1992 than had been reported by the diocese.

Publication of the report saw 60 more victims come forward.

Mr Wallner called for Fr Fuchs, who is still vicar-general of Regensburg, to step down.

In 2005, then-Bishop Müller disbanded the lay diocesan council, Mr Wallner said, "as he wanted to hold the reins firmly in his own hands and that proved fatal for inner-church investigation of abuse".

When the first accusations of abuse at the Domspatzen choir were revealed in 2010, the trustees urged further investigation, Mr Wallner said, but the diocesan authorities "put the brakes on".

"Many more victims would have been listened to then but Müller's 'Regensburg System' prevented the truth from coming to light," Mr Wallner pointed out.

Regensburg diocese is now setting up a special board, on which victims will also be represented, to discuss further ways of investigation of abuse cases.

Mr Wallner said that in 2007 then-Bishop Müller installed in a parish a priest who had been sentenced for sexually abusing minors in a previous parish.

After the priest was arrested for child abuse in this new parish, then-Bishop Müller said he had previously been assured by the man's psychiatrist that the priest was "healed".

Then-Bishop Muller said the priest had denied the abuse 12 times to his bishop's face.

Mr Wallner said Müller ignored the 2002 German bishops' conference's guidelines on dealing with abusers.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, confirmed investigations were being carried out in the CDF, led by Cardinal Gerhard Müller

But the spokesman denied the cardinal's involvement in any wrong-doing.

"The superiors of the dicastery, especially Cardinal Müller . . . have absolutely nothing to do with the affair," Fr Lombardi said.

Germany's Bild newspaper claimed investigators carried out a raid at the CDF and confiscated 20,000 euros (US$21,976) in cash.

The funds had been paid by dioceses around the world for the investigation of sexual abuse cases.

The newspaper claimed the funds had been used by Cardinal Müller for private and business expenses.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Müller has said in an interview about "mercy" that Jesus did not "make cheap discounts on the truth".

Asked by the Catholic News Agency if one could be merciful and still correct doctrinal errors, the cardinal said "if a father doesn't correct his children, but justifies or minimises their mistakes, he wouldn't love them and would drive them to disaster".

"In the end, a father who doesn't help his children to recognise their mistakes doesn't really esteem them and doesn't have trust in their ability to change."

The cardinal also said: "Mercy is contrary to the laissez-faire . . . is this not God's attitude toward man: it is enough to read the Gospel and see how Jesus acted, who was good but at the same time didn't make cheap discounts on the truth."

Elsewhere in the interview, Cardinal Müller said "Mercy isn't just free-market loving each other".

"When God bursts into the life of man, in the measure of his acceptance, it tends to change also the way he looks at things, his attitude, the criteria of his actions and thus, by grace, also his behaviour."

Sources

• DW.com
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Voice of the Family

"The Church's job is to reflect the point of view of her head and founder: Jesus Christ," Cardinal Gerhard Müller said in Chile earlier this month.

The cardinal was speaking at a Mass during a plenary assembly of Chile's bishops' conference.

"The Lord did not follow the world's ‘marketing' plan with all its loud and annoying methods," Cardinal Müller said.

"He did not write a book, rather he founded a community, the Church, which is his body."

"Jesus never wrote a book, neither did he leave any object related with his person.

"Rather, he directed his teachings to his disciples, specifically to twelve regular men of his day, and he told them to evangelise the whole world."

"Much confidence is required to understand how such an improbably method could have succeeded," the cardinal said.

He then addressed the issue of the shrinking proportion of Catholics in Chile, down from 70 per cent of the population in 2002 to only 55 per cent in 2015.

"Today, a painful purification is in course," he said, "but it is the same as when Jesus overturned the tables."

"Purification is painful and disquieting. May it do its work. Let us remain faithful and not become discouraged. Some left, but we must remain faithful in dialogue with Jesus in his Church."

Meanwhile, Pope Francis told Slovakia's bishops that youth are tempted to "hedonism, mediocrity and instant success".

The Pope told the bishops visiting Rome for their ad limina visit that "young people need to have from you clear instructions about doctrine and morals, to build, in the city of man, the city of God".

"In our day, it is even more necessary to illuminate the path of people with Christian principles, seizing the opportunity the current situation offers to develop a new evangelisation, which, with a new language, makes it easier to understand Christ's message," he added.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• Catholic World News
• Image: Mumbai Laity

The topic of conversation: How should the official come out?

Krzysztof Charamsa was still employed at one of the Holy See's most powerful offices, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But after decades of hiding, the 43-year-old gay Polish priest wanted to come out with a flourish.

He was no longer afraid to confront a Church he saw as intrinsically "homophobic" and proposed a symbolic news conference outside the headquarters of the Congregation — the very institution charged with defending and disseminating Catholic teachings around the globe.

But Emilio Sturla, a public relations consultant who worked closely with gay Catholic groups and was helping Charamsa, strongly suggested he reconsider, both men recalled.

The public and the Church, Sturla insisted, would see such a move as too incendiary.

"But that's what he wanted," Sturla said. "To be provocative." And that's what he did.

Their conversation suggests how even before it happened, Charamsa's high-profile debut — including its timing right before a major Vatican meeting of the Church hierarchy — was already controversial among the small group of gay Catholics aware of his plans.

Charamsa's move brought the expected denunciations from the Church and religious conservatives, who pointed out that he had violated his vow of chastity and the Church's teachings on homosexuality.

More surprisingly, his actions have also sparked a split among gay Catholics.

The Church officially teaches that homosexual desires are not sinful unless acted upon and calls on gays and lesbians to live lives of chastity.

It teaches that gays are deserving of human dignity. But it also describes homosexual acts as a sin that is "intrinsically disordered" and a "grave depravity".

As Pope Francis opens the door to more inclusion of gay people, Charamsa's coming out — and the reactions to it — cuts to the heart of a debate raging among gay Catholics worldwide: Should they use gentle dialogue or open confrontation in pushing for change? Continue reading

Sources

• Washington Post
• Image: Famille Chretienne

Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa told a private Italian television channel that he has never met such a lobby in the Vatican.

"I met homosexual priests, often isolated like me . . . but no gay lobby," said Msgr Charamsa.

He added that he also met gay priests who were "homophobes" and had "hatred for themselves and others".

"But I also met several fantastic homosexuals who are some of the best ministers in the Church," he said.

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In a long interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday, Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa, 43, announced he is gay and has a partner.

He later held a news conference with his partner, a Spanish man, and gay activists at a Rome restaurant.

Msgr Charamsa, a Polish theologian, said he is "ready to pay the consequences" of his coming out.

"But the moment has come for the Church to open its eyes to gay believers and to understand that the solution which it offers to gays, namely total abstinence from a love life, is simply inhuman," he said.

He added: "It seems to me that, in the Church, we don't know homosexuality because we don't know homosexuals, yet we have them all over the place."

"With my story I want to shake the conscience of the Church a bit."

Msgr Charamsa disputed that biblical passages forbad genuine same-sex love.

The Vatican responded by stating that Msgr Charamsa would be unable to carry out his previous work at the CDF.

He will also have to stand down from lecturing at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

"Other aspects of his situation shall remain the competence of his diocesan ordinary," said Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ.

Msgr Charamsa said he knew he would have to give up his ministry.

The Vatican said Msgr Charamsa's dismissal had nothing to do with his comments on his personal situation, which it said "merit respect".

But it said giving the interview and planning a later demonstration was "grave and irresponsible" given their timing on the eve of the synod on the family.

There is believed to be a book is in the offing which may reveal further details of Msgr Charamsa's 12 years of hidden life inside the Holy See.

In a blog on the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference website, Bishop Charles Drennan of Palmerston North wrote about CDF official's actions.

Sources

• The Independent
• BBC
• Irish Times
• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference blog
• Image: CBS News

The order, signed by the CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prohibited the visionaries from spreading messages.

A prohibition was previously imposed on some of the visionaries from holding public meetings in Italian dioceses.

The CDF move is being seen by some as "black smoke" from the Vatican about the supernatural aspects of the Medjugorje phenomenon.

Continue reading

Cardinal William Levada, 79, was stopped at about midnight on August 20 on the state's Big Island.

A police spokeswoman said the cardinal was pulled over after a Kona patrol officer saw him driving erratically.

Cardinal Levada was driving a 2015 Nissan Altima and was alone in the car at the time.

He was reportedly on vacation with priest friends when the arrest occurred.

After he was charged, he was released from police custody after posting US$500 bail.

The cardinal is required to appear in Kona District Court on September 24.

"I regret my error in judgment. I intend to continue fully cooperating with the authorities," Cardinal Levada said in an email statement issued on August 24 by San Francisco archdiocese.

When asked how the archdiocese handles situations like this, spokesman Michael Brown said that in this specific case, "'punishment' is not a factor".

Cardinal Levada is a former archbishop of San Francisco and before that of Portland, Oregon. He was elevated to cardinal in 2006.

In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, a post he held for seven years.

In 2012, he stepped down from presidencies of the International Theological Commission, the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei".

He participated in the conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013.

In June next year, he will turn 80, after which he will not be able to vote in future conclaves to elect popes.

Sources

• Hawaii Tribune Herald
• Huffington Post
• Daily Mail
• Catholic Hierarchy
• BBC
• Image: San Francisco Archdiocese