Vatican's doctrine chief: Pius X Society must accept Vatican II teachings-July 24th 2012
Vatican's doctrine chief: Pius X Society must accept Vatican II teachings
.- Although the new head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is optimistic about reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, he says that the teachings of the Church – including the dogmatic content of the Second Vatican Council – will never be up for re-negotiation.
“The purpose of dialogue is to overcome difficulties in the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council,” Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller told CNA July 20, “but we cannot negotiate on revealed faith, that is impossible. An Ecumenical Council, according to the Catholic faith, is always the supreme teaching authority of the Church.”
As prefect of the Congregation, Archbishop Muller is also the President of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” the Vatican body responsible for dialogue with the Society of St. Pius X.
The commission is currently awaiting an official reply from the society to an offer of reconciliation that would give the traditionalist group Personal Prelature status within the Church. In return the society would have to accept a “Doctrinal Preamble” proposed to it by the Congregation, including full adherence to the dogmatic content of the Second Vatican Council.
In a July 19 statement, the society said it had “determined and approved the necessary conditions for an eventual canonical normalization” at its recent General Chapter, but added that it still rejected “all the novelties of the Second Vatican Council which remain tainted with errors” as well as “the reforms issued from it.”
“The assertion that the authentic teachings of Vatican II formally contradict the tradition of the Church is false,” Archbishop Muller stated.
He added, however, that between various texts of the council there are “gradations” of teaching authority. By way of an example, Archbishop Muller drew a comparison between the council’s document on social communications, “Inter Mirifica,” which carries “less weight” than “dogmatic declarations” like the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium.”
“Whatever is dogmatic can never be negotiated,” he said, while still expressing hope that the members of the Society of Pius X “can overcome their difficulties, their ideological restrictions so that we can work together to proclaim Christ as the Light of the World.”
Although the 64-year-old German is new to his current post at the Vatican, Archbishop Muller has had extensive dealings with the Society of St. Pius X in the past. As Archbishop of Regensburg in the Bavaria region of Germany for the past decade, his diocesan territory included a seminary operated by the traditionalists group.
A key problem for Rome in recent discussions seems to be the perception that the Society of St. Pius X often speaks about errors in the conciliar texts themselves.
Instead, the Vatican believes a distinction should be made between what the Second Vatican Council actually said and the sometimes problematic interpretations and applications of its teaching.
“We can all come together and avoid ideological positions if we accept the Word of God present in the doctrine of the Catholic Church,” he said.
The Vatican’s willingness to continue dialogue was indicated last month with the deployment of a high-ranking American archbishop to the commission responsible for the discussions.
On June 26, Pope Benedict switched Rome-based Archbishop Augustine Di Noia from his post as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship to vice president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei.”
Archbishop Muller, who took up office in Rome earlier this month, said he is fully committed to working for the reconciliation of all separated Christians.
“Our aim and our task is clear – to promote the unity of all the disciples of Christ in the one Church under the leadership of Jesus Christ and in communion with his vicar, the successor of St. Peter.”
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Permalink Reply by Copacabana on
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Andrea Tornielli in his article: “Lefebvrians say they can only accept doctrinal preamble on three “conditions”” published in the Vatican Insider this last Monday highlights Archbishop Muller ‘s assertions: “ “The Second Vatican Council is binding,” said the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Müller in an interview. “The declaration on relations with the media we can talk about, but the statements on Jews, freedom of religion and human rights have dogmatic implications. If these are rejected they jeopardise the Catholic faith.”"
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Permalink Reply by Dawn Marie on
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*It just gets better and better....Lord deliver us from this evil.
DM
Archbishop Müller, guardian of the Faith denies the miraculous
kreuz.net – Neue Ketzereien: An Wunder glaubt er auch nicht:
New heresies: he does not believe in miracles eitherIf it would agree with what the Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller maintains, Christianity would be mocking the audience. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller - the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI - not only has problems with the virginity of Mary, the Eucharist and the doctrine of the Church. In his rambling book "Catholic dogma: to study and practice theology" (4th edition 1995) there are at least three more points that involve serious heresies.Denial of miraclesOn the topic "miracle" Mgr. Müller writes on page 284: " The miracles of Jesus are not to be understood in the context of a definition, which is concerns a 'breaking of the laws of nature'." Such an understanding of miracles according to Msgr. Müller belongs "to the context of a deistic understanding of God and a mechanistic world view."What constitutes a miracle?A breaking of the laws of nature is of the essence of miracle. This was already maintained by the preeminent theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas († 1274). In a miracle, God acts directly on the world as first cause . He bypasses thus the secondary causes - that is, the laws of nature.Msgr. Müller is a mechanical deistMons. Müller insulted the Catholic understanding of miracles indiscriminately as "deistic" and "mechanistic". The opposite is true. This is because deism is the doctrine that God created the universe at the beginning and set it going like clockwork, not interfering in its further mechanistic working - neither by miracle nor by revelation. The qualification "deistic" and "mechanistic" hypothesis thus precisely correspond to Mons.Müller's denial of the miracle.One heresy cries out after anotherArchbishop Müller's inability to understand miracles, influences his dubious statements about the Virginal conception of Jesus and the Resurrection of the dead. In both events, the Bible as well as the tradition of Church sees a classical breaking of the known laws of nature.The guardian of Faith denies the conception by the Holy Spirit
On page 495 of his Dogmatik, Mons. Müller discusses the virginity of Mary. This, he writes. "This does not mean a departure from the biological norm" . This assertion is related explicitly to the "conception" of Jesus and the virginity of the Virgin Mary before the birth. Mary's virginity during labour Mons. Müller disputes on page 498 of his Dogmatics. There he claims that in the case of Mary's virginity during the birth, is "not" about deviating physiological features in the "natural process of birth." "Not in the context of a biologically exceptional case" On page 497, Mons. Müller closes his remarks on the virginity before birth. He again emphasized: "The meaning of faith in the virginal conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit does not reveal itself in the context of a biologically exceptional case."Invisible body?Msgr. Müller in his Dogmatik on page 300 comments on the Resurrection of Jesus with this questionable assertion: "The contemporary film camera would have neither recorded the resurrection event [...] nor the Easter appearances of Jesus to his disciples in image and sound ." And on page 303: "Whether the response of women at the grave in the early hours of Easter morning and the discovery that the body of Jesus was no longer there, a historical process in the sense described must not be decided here. It could also reflect a devotion to the grave by the Jerusalem assembly."He does not believe in the bodily resurrection
On the other hand, writes Msgr. Müller: "In any case, the mighty deed of God must have been implied in Jesus and on the dead body." Because. "A finding of the body of Jesus would have been for the enemies of Jesus, stringent counter-evidence against the identification of God with the eschatological means of salvation" One wonders here: What now? Did Jesus rise bodily or not? Mons. Müller's statements contradict each other. But, given his thesis that Jesus' miracles do not break the laws of nature, he must answer in the negative.
Cathcon- they said that someone in the Vatican should have googled Bishop Williamson- someone should also have read this book beforeMsgr Müller was appointed to his new role.
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07/25/2012
Decision on Lefebvrians expected after summer
The Lefebvrians
The Lefebvrians
Fellay’s reply has not arrived yet. But there is still some hope for the Fraternity’s three “conditions”…
Andrea Tornielli
vatican city
The reply of the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X to the doctrinal preamble that was delivered to him on 13 June has not yet reached Rome. But even if it arrives in the next few weeks, there will be no one to examine it because the Prefect of the Congregation, Gerhard Müller, is going on holiday and so are the vice-president and the secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. Even though the General Chapter of the Society of St. Pius X has concluded, Fellay could take a while to respond.
At the meeting in June, the Fraternity’s superior promised to give a response “within a reasonable lapse of time.” But Rome is very familiar with the Society’s internal situation and the delicate role Fellay Plays. Hence they do not intend to hurry the Fraternity. The latest version of the doctrinal preamble – discussed by cardinals of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and approved by the Pope – is considered by the Holy See to be definitive and not subject to any significant changes. The Vatican has pointed out that those who claim that the preamble of 13 June essentially repeated what the initial version of the text (prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in September 2011) said, failing to take the Fraternity’s proposals into account, is wrong. A Vatican Insider source confirms that “the latest version acknowledges various proposals and suggestions made by Mgr. Fellay.”
At the request of the Pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, two points were added again to the preamble: the first relates to the mass according to the Novus Ordo, the new rite of mass promulgated after the Second Vatican Council. Lefebvrians are asked to recognise not only the validity of the new mass but its legitimacy as well. This does not mean liturgical abuses cannot be criticised or that the post-Council liturgical reform and its implementation cannot be discussed.
The other point is to do with the Council and its magisterium. The Holy See cannot accept the assertion that the Second Vatican Council documentation contains “errors” and is asking the Fraternity to distinguish between the Council texts and the interpretation of the Council texts, accepting the fact that the magisterium cannot be judged by another group - in this case the Society of St. Pius X – which would end up becoming a sort of “super-magisterium”.
“The purpose of dialogue is to overcome the difficulties in the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, but we cannot negotiate on revealed faith; this is impossible. An ecumenical Council, according to the Catholic faith, is always the Church’s supreme magisterium,” stated the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Müller, in an interview with Catholic news network EWTN News.” “The claim that the authentic teachings of the Second Vatican Council – he added – formally clash with Church tradition, is false.”
As the Vatican awaits Fellay’s response, it has examined closely the circular letter (which is confidential but as usual has ended up on the web) sent by the General Secretariat of the Society of St. Pius X to the various Districts summarising the position which emerged during the Society’s recent General Chapter. The three absolute conditions (“sine qua non”) the Society of St. Pius X has put forward for an agreement with Rome have been formulated in such a way so that it leaves some room for hope: for example the request for the exclusive use of the 1962 liturgy is reiterated, but nothing is said about the legitimacy of the new mass.
The demand for the right to freely and publicly criticise “the promoters of the errors or the innovations of modernism, liberalism, and Vatican II and its aftermath” could in the end be interpreted in a less harsh way than expected. “It all depends on the response Mgr. Fellay will give to Rome,” the Vatican stressed.Getting pretty tired of all the rhetoric....
DM
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L' Osservatore Romano
Vatican City, 25 Jul 2012.
The crucial factor
We must make what has been entrusted to us shine out
“Faith is characterized by the greatest openness. It is a personal relationship with God which contains all the treasures of
wisdom. For this reason our finite reason is in perpetual motion towards the infinite God. We can always learn something new and acquire an ever deeper understanding of the riches of the Revelation. We shall never be able to exhaust them”. Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said this in a long conversation with our newspaper. At the meeting in the ancient palace of the Holy Office Archbishop Müller also spoke of his arrival at the dicastery of the Roman Curia, of his determination to become a priest, of the time he has spent as a lecturer in theology and as a bishop, of his repeated visits to Latin America. And he explained that he had learned to know and appreciate Joseph Ratzinger from his Introduction to Christianity which, already in 1968, was a best-seller.“I am grateful to the Holy Father for trusting me and for entrusting this office to me. The problems we seem to be facing are immense, if we look at the universal Church, with the many challenges to be confronted and in the face of a certain despondency which is spreading in certain milieus and which we must overcome. We also have the problems of groups – right- or left-wing, as people say – which take up much of our time and attention. This often gives rise to the danger of losing sight of our main task, which is to proclaim the Gospel and to explain the doctrine of the Church in a practical manner. We are convinced that there is no alternative to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The Revelation responds to the great questions of the people of our time”.
Astrid HaasJuly 26, 2012[tags: Congregations]
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