Cardinal Müller and the Destruction of the Church
On Thursday, October 6, Gerhard Cardinal Müller discussed the ongoing Synod on Synodality and other topics in a roughly 30-minute interview on EWTN’s The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.
The World Over and especially the Papal Posse have provided a truly invaluable source of reporting throughout the Franciscan Pontificate. The reporting there has proven to be a real reality check for papal tailgaters & sycophants that their cynical narrative is failing to touch anyone but those who hate the Church and want to destroy her. I have always found it comforting to know that I was not the only one who felt dismayed at the direction Pope Francis was taking on any number of issues.
Just take the Pontifical Academy for Life, for example. Set up in 1994 to defend and promote the Church's teaching on life, on 18th November 2016, Pope Francis dismissed virtually everyone involved and appointed a new staff. Since then we have seen the Academy hijacked and transformed from a faithful evagelisation institution, to an organisation which seems to have as its only function, the challenging of settled Church teaching on abortion, contraception, indeed the whole range of life issues (as detailed here by Dr Janet Smith and Eric Sammons).
This is only one example. Anyone watching what is going on and who cares deeply about the Church would surely have to take issue with what the Pope is doing? No wonder Cardinal Müller is so clear in this interview.
From the beginning of the interview, Pope Francis’s lack of clear vision and the (mis)understanding of the synodal process being peddled by the pope's lackeys were explained. The discussion centered around what have become familiar talking points of papal critics who recognise the aims of the global synod to undermine and discredit Catholic doctrine. For example, Arroyo introduced the Synod as essentially “polling” Catholics and non-Catholics about the Church, and Müller referred to it as a “plebiscite.” Arroyo suggests that a “national survey” that only involved “an average of one to 10% of baptized Catholics” globally could not possibly be representative of the whole. As Counter Cultural Father pointed out, two "factions" - a very small proportion of the parish took part in his own parish:
Both Arroyo and Müller also came down hard on the Maltese Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Mario Grech, although in my opinion, not nearly hard enough, given Grech's seriously worrying record as a bully, an abuse cover up expert (so also here) and the one who pushed through the deeply problematic Maltese guidelines, perhaps the act that secured his red hat in Francis' simonistic Pontificate?
At one point in the discussion, Cardinal Müller used really unprecedented language, warning that the current synodal process could indicate a “hostile takeover of the Catholic Church,” and even seemed to suggest that it could destroy it. “If they will succeed, that will be the end of the Catholic Church,” Müller said.
From the beginning of the interview, Pope Francis’s lack of clear vision and the (mis)understanding of the synodal process being peddled by the pope's lackeys were explained. The discussion centered around what have become familiar talking points of papal critics who recognise the aims of the global synod to undermine and discredit Catholic doctrine. For example, Arroyo introduced the Synod as essentially “polling” Catholics and non-Catholics about the Church, and Müller referred to it as a “plebiscite.” Arroyo suggests that a “national survey” that only involved “an average of one to 10% of baptized Catholics” globally could not possibly be representative of the whole. As Counter Cultural Father pointed out, two "factions" - a very small proportion of the parish took part in his own parish:
"neither of these are representative of the typical person in the pew (if that is the idea) the vast majority of whom simply declined to participate.
The process is only really of interest to those who are unhappy, one way or the other, or to the 'professional Catholics' who make up so much of the commentariat (and they are typically unhappy, too...). So for all the listening of the listening Church, what will be heard is a very distorted account of the views of the Faithful. Is that really how we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit?"
CC Father's comments articulate the utter futility of the synod process which was seen by so many from the very beginning. Especially anyone with any experience of such processes would immediately recognise the flaws and could predict what would result: a boomer whinge-fest.
Both Müller & Arroyo recognised the Synod as a process designed to change the Church’s teachings on every controversial topic brought up during the local and national phases of the synod. Müller later said of the synod participants, “They think the doctrine is only like [a] program of a political party who can change it according to their votes.” Of course, Pope Francis has repeatedly made clear that synodality is not at all a democratic or parliamentary process, and that bishops ought not to treat it like one. That some may have still done so is evidence of a program coming from the top. Regardless, why instigate a survey when the answers are so obvious, unless you want to mandate change? Although some argue the “hostile takeover” narrative is contradicted by the fact Pope Francis has shown himself willing to intervene in synodal processes gone astray (as he did in Germany’s Synodal Way), and not to take up each and every recommendation made during past synods (as in Francis’s answer to the question of ordaining the “viri probati” raised at the Pan-Amazonian Synod in Querida Amazonia). These examples drew criticism from those who the Pope had engaged to promote the ideas within the processes (like the loony missionary Bishop Erwin Kräutler who claimed he'd not converted a single person). The recent claims by the Flemmish Bishop Bonny (discussed here) would also seem to demonstrate Pope Francis is onside with the radical change agenda; certainly he has not denied or corrected the renegade Bonny.
Both Arroyo and Müller also came down hard on the Maltese Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Mario Grech, although in my opinion, not nearly hard enough, given Grech's seriously worrying record as a bully, an abuse cover up expert (so also here) and the one who pushed through the deeply problematic Maltese guidelines, perhaps the act that secured his red hat in Francis' simonistic Pontificate?
Müller at one point correctly stated that Grech is “not a recognized theologian. He has no importance in the academic theology.” - the former CDF Prefect only really stops short of calling him a complete imbecile, which Grech is rapidly showing himself to be; out of his depth and talking nonsense.
They were especially critical of remarks by Cardinal Grech to the attendees of a recent gathering organized by the Leadership Roundtable where he said, “What has the Church to fear if” LGBT and divorced and civilly remarried Catholics “are given the opportunity to express their intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience? Might this be an opportunity for the Church, to listen to the Holy Spirit, speaking through them also.” Müller understood this as “a hermeneutic of the old cultural Protestantism and modernism, that is, individual experience on the same level as the objective revelation of God.” Grech's rhetoric here brought to mind the warnings of Fr Periera OP I posted here:
They were especially critical of remarks by Cardinal Grech to the attendees of a recent gathering organized by the Leadership Roundtable where he said, “What has the Church to fear if” LGBT and divorced and civilly remarried Catholics “are given the opportunity to express their intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience? Might this be an opportunity for the Church, to listen to the Holy Spirit, speaking through them also.” Müller understood this as “a hermeneutic of the old cultural Protestantism and modernism, that is, individual experience on the same level as the objective revelation of God.” Grech's rhetoric here brought to mind the warnings of Fr Periera OP I posted here:
"Error manifests as a failure to love people enough and properly: by lying to them and blessing their disordered unions, by confirming them in adultery and fornication, by affirming their grave errors like abortion and rewarding them with Communion without repentance. It is the failure to love people’s souls and a willingness to risk their eternal salvation. And all this for the sake of being inclusive and nice, for the sake of making ourselves popular. It is the grievous failure to be authentically pastoral and genuinely loving."It is a false charity to pretend to these people that their behavior is acceptable and does not contradict Church teaching and natural law, just any sinful behavior does. The whole point of following Christ is to stand against such false equivalence. Surely the "trans" issue highlights the importance of the need to stand firm on and speak clearly as opposed to the confusion promulgated by Pope Francis who "signals left then turns right". Meanwhile, we can recognise already the damage the Pope's words have done; the pain and confused they have caused with UK dioceses having to stand against their own schools and parents up in arms while teachers applaud homosexuality, transgenderism and other disordered behaviours.
The Church is prophetic…even if this time the synod ends in disaster, the faithful remnant will stand with Jesus and His teachings and the culture will fail, when this happens people will be longing for a place where the dignity of male and female, the significance of masculinity and femininity are proclaimed…then they’ll come back and the Church will pick them up and rebuild the culture like the Good Samaritan taking the wounded man to the inn to be cared for, because that is what the Church does!
Throughout the interview, Müller and Arroyo demonstrated how the synod is a political and ideologically driven undertaking, in which unchangeable moral doctrines were under assault by modernists and secularists. At one point, Arroyo asked, “As someone who has dedicated his life to protecting this doctrine and extending it, what must you think as you watch a system being created where all of that doctrine seems to be up for grabs, Your Eminence? Where anyone can, by a popular vote, we can toss out or pull in doctrines of the moment?” Arroyo and Müller both spoke of the leaders of the synodal process as working towards a predetermined (and heterodox) outcome as well as engineering a “play for Vatican III,” as Arroyo put it, adding “to kind of create a ‘pop-culture’ Vatican III.” You have to admit, they are on to something, something which is well illustrated by the cartoons posted on the Synod Facebook page which are objective designed to push falsehoods, as I detailed here.
Cardinal Müller’s talk of the “destruction” of the Church overshadowed his other statements, however. His first reference to destruction came when speaking about the committee undertaking the process of drafting the synod’s “Document for the Continental Stage.” Müller said, “the result was clear before all these investigations and questions. They had just formulated the end and then they are dreaming of another Church that has nothing to do with the Catholic Faith, absolutely against it. And they want [to] abuse this process for shifting the Catholic Church, and not only in the other direction, but in the destruction of the Catholic Church.” - You would have to have a pretty poor grasp of theology to disagree!
Later, Arroyo asked Müller to respond to an Instagram post from the Synod.va account that included various artistic renderings from local reports that had been sent to Rome (see my post here). One widely criticised image included “a female priest prominently featured…in the center, along with a young man in a Pride shirt.” as Arroyo accurately described. Cardinal Müller described this as a “Marxistic form of creating the truth by presenting his own power…They have the intention to substitute their own subjective ideas against the revealed reality of Jesus Christ, and this is a destruction of the Catholic Church.” One can only wonder why the synod’s social media account shared an illustration of a woman in a chasuble! Certainly, the Church’s teaching on the ordination of women is one of the issues that has been most frequently raised by synod participants at the local levels. The role of women in the Church will almost certainly be discussed at the October 2023 meeting, including women’s ordination, if for no other reason than that it is a teaching that causes many Catholics to struggle. Again, CC Father addresses this in his blog post:
Throughout the interview, Müller and Arroyo demonstrated how the synod is a political and ideologically driven undertaking, in which unchangeable moral doctrines were under assault by modernists and secularists. At one point, Arroyo asked, “As someone who has dedicated his life to protecting this doctrine and extending it, what must you think as you watch a system being created where all of that doctrine seems to be up for grabs, Your Eminence? Where anyone can, by a popular vote, we can toss out or pull in doctrines of the moment?” Arroyo and Müller both spoke of the leaders of the synodal process as working towards a predetermined (and heterodox) outcome as well as engineering a “play for Vatican III,” as Arroyo put it, adding “to kind of create a ‘pop-culture’ Vatican III.” You have to admit, they are on to something, something which is well illustrated by the cartoons posted on the Synod Facebook page which are objective designed to push falsehoods, as I detailed here.
Cardinal Müller’s talk of the “destruction” of the Church overshadowed his other statements, however. His first reference to destruction came when speaking about the committee undertaking the process of drafting the synod’s “Document for the Continental Stage.” Müller said, “the result was clear before all these investigations and questions. They had just formulated the end and then they are dreaming of another Church that has nothing to do with the Catholic Faith, absolutely against it. And they want [to] abuse this process for shifting the Catholic Church, and not only in the other direction, but in the destruction of the Catholic Church.” - You would have to have a pretty poor grasp of theology to disagree!
Later, Arroyo asked Müller to respond to an Instagram post from the Synod.va account that included various artistic renderings from local reports that had been sent to Rome (see my post here). One widely criticised image included “a female priest prominently featured…in the center, along with a young man in a Pride shirt.” as Arroyo accurately described. Cardinal Müller described this as a “Marxistic form of creating the truth by presenting his own power…They have the intention to substitute their own subjective ideas against the revealed reality of Jesus Christ, and this is a destruction of the Catholic Church.” One can only wonder why the synod’s social media account shared an illustration of a woman in a chasuble! Certainly, the Church’s teaching on the ordination of women is one of the issues that has been most frequently raised by synod participants at the local levels. The role of women in the Church will almost certainly be discussed at the October 2023 meeting, including women’s ordination, if for no other reason than that it is a teaching that causes many Catholics to struggle. Again, CC Father addresses this in his blog post:
"I volunteered to run the parish meetings to consider the synod questions. What I realised (inter alia) was that listening is not in itself a neutral activity. Thus when I heard a small (but vociferous) number of people (n=2) saying that it was an injustice that women are not admitted to leadership positions in the Church, and specifically the priesthood, I reflected that how I heard - and the meaning I derived - from that argument depended on the assumptions, beliefs, values, and so forth that I already held. And inevitably so.
If I listen as a Catholic, understanding that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women; and particularly as a thoughtful and informed Catholic, who understands some of the reasons for that reality, then what I hear is an expression of a lack of catechesis: these poor women have never heard, or at least never understood (and therefore never accepted) the Church's teaching. It is lamentable, but no fault of theirs, in all probability. We have been failing to teach the Faith (and in particular the difficult bits) for a whole generation or more.
Whereas, if I listen without a full Catholic understanding, and particularly if I have imbibed a worldly perspective on such issues, I might reach a different conclusion: that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the Synod to change the Church.
So that is risk number one; what it requires, of course, is listening with discernment, to distinguish the Heilige Geist from the Zeitgeist.
But I fear that I see a lack of such discernment being played out on a large scale at the moment."
I found Cardinal Müller’s profound remarks—not to mention the ease with which his interviewer steered his responses—fairly measured given the depth of the crisis. Müller is, after all, a former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and knows that EWTN’s viewers are likely already fearful about the future of the Church which seems to be free-wheeling towards some form of Anglicanism at a startling rate. If you found it startling, that's because it is! What is happening is startling, and worrying. And with the Synod on Synodality, we see the same pattern as we have at every other Synod Pope Francis has convened: we see the same wretched topics time and time again, wrapped up in the Amazon, or the family or whatever faux cover he decides to use to push his agenda.
For a cardinal to suggest that the Church might be destroyed because of inside collusion in an anti-Catholic agenda should shock us all. It is certainly possible to express real concern about recent developments in the Church while also communicating that God is in control and remains faithful to his Church. Yet Cardinal Müller successfully conveyed the seriousness of the situation.
If I listen as a Catholic, understanding that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women; and particularly as a thoughtful and informed Catholic, who understands some of the reasons for that reality, then what I hear is an expression of a lack of catechesis: these poor women have never heard, or at least never understood (and therefore never accepted) the Church's teaching. It is lamentable, but no fault of theirs, in all probability. We have been failing to teach the Faith (and in particular the difficult bits) for a whole generation or more.
Whereas, if I listen without a full Catholic understanding, and particularly if I have imbibed a worldly perspective on such issues, I might reach a different conclusion: that the Holy Spirit is speaking through the Synod to change the Church.
So that is risk number one; what it requires, of course, is listening with discernment, to distinguish the Heilige Geist from the Zeitgeist.
But I fear that I see a lack of such discernment being played out on a large scale at the moment."
I found Cardinal Müller’s profound remarks—not to mention the ease with which his interviewer steered his responses—fairly measured given the depth of the crisis. Müller is, after all, a former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and knows that EWTN’s viewers are likely already fearful about the future of the Church which seems to be free-wheeling towards some form of Anglicanism at a startling rate. If you found it startling, that's because it is! What is happening is startling, and worrying. And with the Synod on Synodality, we see the same pattern as we have at every other Synod Pope Francis has convened: we see the same wretched topics time and time again, wrapped up in the Amazon, or the family or whatever faux cover he decides to use to push his agenda.
For a cardinal to suggest that the Church might be destroyed because of inside collusion in an anti-Catholic agenda should shock us all. It is certainly possible to express real concern about recent developments in the Church while also communicating that God is in control and remains faithful to his Church. Yet Cardinal Müller successfully conveyed the seriousness of the situation.
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