Cardinals Revolt Against Pope Francis DDF Appointment

Just before Christmas, rumours abounded that Pope Francis was about to appoint a German radical to the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, the prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith has been in post since the Summer of 2017, when Pope Francis removed Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former bishop of Regensburg.

Mandates at the Roman Curia are for five years. On July 1, 2022, Ladaria's term expired. Since it was not renewed, it has been clear since then that Francis is looking for a successor.

Reliable voices from the Vatican already stated that it was certain that Ladaria's successor would be the German bishop Heiner Wilmer of Hildesheim.

Bishop Wilmer is also firmly within the consensus of the German episcopate that the radical reinvention of Catholicism being proposed by the German Synodal Way is necessary.

Writing in Catholic World Report, George Weigel stated that such an appointment would seem a papal repudiation of the man Pope Francis previously appointed as Prefect of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, his fellow-Jesuit, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer.

This is because "in his address to the German bishops gathered in Rome in late November, Cardinal Ladaria offered a calm but devastating theological critique of the German Synodal Path that Bishop Wilmer so fervently supports – and which he in fact embodies. In that address, the cardinal reminded German Catholicism that it is part of a universal Church that has settled teachings on the goods of human love and its expression; a Church that must reject gender ideology as incompatible with the biblical Word of God; a Church that is governed by bishops by the will of Christ; a Church that has determined that it has no authority to admit women to Holy Orders; and a Church that reads the “signs of the times,” not through opinion polling among ill-catechized Catholics, but through the lens of ancient, timeless, and irreformable convictions grounded in revelation.

What would it mean – what would it signal to the rest of the world Church – for the Holy Father to appoint as Cardinal Ladaria’s successor a man who, we may suppose, finds Ladaria’s critique of the German Synodal Path unacceptable? Would Pope Francis be repudiating his own “Letter to the People of God Journeying in Germany,” to which Ladaria referred at the beginning of his address to the German bishops, and which urged the Synodal Path to listen less to the alleged signs of the times and more to the enduring truths of the Gospel?"

I found the idea that Pope Francis wanted to appoint this man to this position quite startling. But it would show us exactly that when the Pope didn't turn up to the German ad limina, it was because he didn't agree with the dressing down given to the Germans by Ouellet and Ladaria. Extraordinary. It would show that Francis wants the German ideas and we would know that this is what the Synod on Synodality is all about.

Now a new German article by Giuseppe Nardi at Katholisches.info (translated here on Rorate Caeli) states that Cardinals have revolted against this appointment:

"Reports that the appointment of an ultra-progressive bishop like Wilmer was imminent startled parts of the church hierarchy. Some cardinals organized a consistent opposition to Wilmer's nomination and made clear their opposition to Santa Marta as well. Cardinal Müller seems to have played a not insignificant role in this. He had, after all, already led the cardinals' opposition to a family synod with prefabricated results in October 2015, at that time still as prefect of the faith. Francis raged and reacted with a warning against a "hermeneutic of conspiracy.""

The article continues:

"Now it seems to be thanks to Cardinal Müller who, with numerically strong support in the College of Cardinals, was able to persuade Pope Francis to refrain from appointing Wilmer as prefect of the faith.

Francis, however, is known for his reluctance to let his intentions be thwarted. So for the future, they say in Rome, there is no guarantee. The fact is, however, that Wilmer's failure to be appointed, which was already considered "certain" in the third week of Advent, has a concrete reason: part of the College of Cardinals revolted against it -- successfully for the time being."