Don Nicola Bux: Religious Prefect Fernández has discredited himself and should resign.
Vaticanist Edward Pentin yesterday published an interview with noted liturgist Don Nicola Bux about the controversial document Fiducia supplicans. In it, the long-time confidant of Pope Benedict XVI. and advisor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Faith “is not part of the authentic Magisterium” and that its author, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, should resign. If Fiducia supplicans, as he is convinced, is not part of the authentic Magisterium, then the declaration is not binding.
Don Bux spoke to Pentin about how the document was received in Italy, what he thinks of Fernández's January 4 clarification, and what all this could mean for the future of the Church and the upcoming conclave. The well-known theologian found clear words.
Because of their “proximity to the Apostolic See,” Italy’s bishops behave like “stupid dogs” who fear “reprisals.” Their attempts to justify would be viewed by believers as well as non-practitioners “as an insult to their intelligence.”
There are the faithful who know the teachings of the Church and therefore raise the first dubium ( doubts) presented : Is it possible that the Church today teaches doctrines that contradict those , which
She previously taught on questions of faith and morals, be it through the Pope ex cathedra, be it through the definitions of an ecumenical council, be it through the general ordinary Magisterium of the bishops scattered all over the world (cf. Lumen Gentium 25)?
“Certainly the declaration Fiducia supplicans does not belong to the authentic magisterium and is therefore not binding, because what is asserted in it is not contained in the written or transmitted Word of God, which the Church, the Pope or the college of bishops either definitively, that is, through solemn judgment, or proposes to believe as divinely revealed with the ordinary and general Magisterium. It cannot be followed even with the religious consent of the will and mind.”
The problem, says Don Bux, is that “the majority of the baptized are ignorant because for decades social issues have been preferred to catechesis.” This has consequences: “For irregular heterosexual and homosexual couples, the following now applies: love is love.”
But those “who use logic” are of course of a different opinion and oppose this postulate. This is the second dubium of the five cardinals from summer 2022: Is it possible for a priest to bless marriages between homosexual people under certain circumstances and thereby suggest that homosexual behavior as such does not violate the law of God and man's path to God? This doubt is linked to another: does the teaching held by the general Magisterium remain valid that every sexual act outside of marriage, and in particular homosexual acts, constitute an objectively serious sin against the law of God, regardless of the circumstances in which they take place, and regardless of the intention with which they are carried out?
The declaration of Faith Prefect Fernández on January 4 “is therefore a classic attempt to paper over the cracks”.
Benedict said Don Bux, “in his remarks of April 11, 2019," described the origin of the debacle of Catholic morality and thus of the division among Catholics, "because the cohabitation of both a heterosexual and a homosexual couple is no longer considered sinful”
“The division or schism that was previously hidden has now come to the surface. Whether it will be formally declared at a future Church event, such as a synod or conclave, remains to be seen. The next pope will certainly have to do the math and decide whether he wants to deepen the division or resolve it by calling a council. Whoever will be the candidate for the papacy will have to be asked in the meetings before the conclave to answer the accumulated Dubia.”
The resistance to Fiducia supplicans appears primarily in Africa and Eastern Europe and not in the West because “in the Western Hemisphere after the Second Vatican Council, relativistic ideology” penetrated moral teaching and destroyed natural law.
"A Jewish friend who heard about Fiducia supplicans said to me, 'Does the Pope not know the Bible?' Not to mention the mockery of Muslims and the alienation of the Orthodox, who have now declared unity with the Catholics impossible. Fiducia supplicans and the subsequent statements are the result of the ignorance of Prefect Fernández.”
The teaching is pastoral, “but if the pastor does not know it, he cannot do pastoral work”:
“The drama of the Church today is the separation of pastoral care from doctrine, that is, the separation from the love of truth. And that will cost us dearly, as John Paul II predicted. Pope Francis should abolish the fiducia supplicans and replace the prefect with a man of “certain, sound and pure doctrine,” in the words of the apostle to Titus.
The current situation will therefore have a significant impact on the coming conclave. According to Don Bux, the next pope will have to ask himself the question:
“What is the mission of the church: to adapt to the world or to save it?”
The unity of the Catholic Church is endangered by Fiducia supplicans , said the renowned Liturgist, “because in practice it accepts opposing views among churches scattered all over the world on such an essential moral truth. An example: the new bishop of Foggia said his church would be the 'Church of Francis who blesses all'. But isn’t the Church the Church of Jesus Christ?”
“Fernández has discredited himself by publishing a document that is the opposite of that of his predecessor, Cardinal Ladaria, in 2021. Is this a 'further development' or rather a doctrinal heterogeneity? The Dicastery and the Holy See have exposed themselves. Someone has already renamed the Dicastery 'for the destruction of the faith'. The suspicion of ignorance and bad faith will weigh on Fernandez in every document he signs. He should resign.”
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Bux is a liturgist and a very limited one at that. He is not a theologian.
ReplyDeleteHe's out of his depth,
I think Bux is correct about Fiducia Supplicans. This document is not binding on the faithful because it is heretical. A same sex couple can never be blessed as a couple because their relationship is of its nature disordered and sinful. It is an act of mercy to refuse a same sex couple a blessing because the Church does not wish to confirm them in their sin but to lead them towards atonement and repentance.
ReplyDeleteSo instead of an insider who's been a priest at work in the Vatican for decades and advising various dicasteries while teaching at the University of Bari, we should trust the judgement of an anonymous Gaybrielle who favors the reductionist liturgical puerility of the Bologna school and hates the traditional moral witness of the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteThe blessing of Catholic people in irregular relationships of any kind is meant, not to validate their state but to reassure them that Christ is with them in their struggles and imperfections.
ReplyDeleteTo forbid these folks a blessing is to act the hypocrite and sin against the mercy of God.
PC, most people take it the way they want to regardless of the facts.
ReplyDelete