Cardinal Müller and Cardinal Marx Join Forces Against the SSPX in Germany

[Katholisches] We document here a letter from Reinhard Cardinal Max, expressly forbidding the marriages conducted by priests belonging to the Priestly Society of St. Pius X.

To the
Honorable
Members of the Permanent Council of
the German Bishops' Conference
__________________________________

To the
Highly Honorable Members of
the German Bishops' Conference
and the Vicars General

___________________________________

Most honorable gentlemen,

The Cardinal Prefect of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Cardinal Gerhard Müller had addressed my letter of May 11, 2017,  delivered to the consideration Permanent Council in which I expressed my concern about the possibility of granting authority to the priests of the Priestly Brotherhood of St. Pius X. on (on June 1, 2017). It expresses in its reply an understanding of our concern about the "still ongoing ecclesiastical illegality of the Society of St. Pius and the situation which has not yet been clarified" and stresses that it is "in the competence of the respective local ordinarius" to whom it grants the authority to conclude a marriage. He explained that the decisions taken by Pope Francis in favor of the pastoral needs of believers are determined by the consideration that the Priestly Fraternity is on its way to full communion.

Since we are able to meet the pastoral needs of the faithful who request a marriage in the liturgy of the Vetus ordo (extraordinary rite), by applying our guidelines for the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum for the German dioceses of 2007, the Permanent Council of 19 June, 2017 reaffirmed its decision of April.

In order to promote uniform handling in the German (Arch) dioceses, the Permanent Council has decided to make a corresponding text proposal available to members of the Permanent Council for publication in the Official Journal ( Annex ).

In this way, in agreement with the Cardinal Prefect, we take appropriate account both of the pastoral requirements and the church circumstances.

Oremus pro invicem.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard Cardinal Marx

Annex to the letter of the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (PA V 3044)

In agreement with the Cardinal Prefect of the Pontifical Commission, Ecclesia Dei, the Permanent Council of 19 / June decided:

Appeals from the faithful requesting a marriage in the liturgy of the Vetus ordo (ritus extraordinarius) are to be passed on to the respective ordinaries. This will ensure that the request is taken into account and that a priest is entrusted, according to the guidelines for the Summorum Pontificum of 2017. The marriage preparation, the preparation of the marriage protocol and the registration of the marriage are carried out according to the ecclesiastical provisions. There is no provision for granting power to priests belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.
Link to Katholisches...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cardinal Müller Sabotages SSPX Reconciliation on His Way Out

Edit: the following is a complete translation of the letter from the Cardinal as confirmed by Rorate and the excerpt of which appeared at the Remnant.  One would almost think that he'd turned over a new leaf, but he was only likely biding his time to strike out before he left.  Here he is in this letter asking for what look more or less like the unsatisfactory conditions expected of the Society before a gaggle of Old Liberal Cardinals (Schönborn, Marx) along with Müller himself were assigned to the committee overseeing the negotiations.

Maybe Ecclesia Dei will throw this letter out and continue as they were before?  Here it is:

From www.medias-presse.info comes the following excerpt of a letter from Cardinal Müller to Bishop Bernard Fellay. According to www.medias-presse.info, Cardinal Müller's letter was communicated to all SSPX members by the SSPX General House.

Excerpt from Cardinal Müller's letter:

“As you know, Pope Francis has many a time manifested his benevolence towards your Priestly Society, granting, in particular, to all priest members the faculty of confessing the faithful validly and by authorizing local Ordinaries to grant licences for the celebration of the marriages of the faithful who follow the pastoral activity in your Society. Furthermore, discussions are continuing concerning questions relative to the full re-establishment of the communion of your Society with the Catholic Church.

In relation to this, with the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff, I judged it necessary to submit to the Ordinary Session of our Congregation (which met on May 10 last) the text of the doctrinal Declaration which was transmitted to you during the meeting of June 13, 2016, as the necessary condition in view of the full re-establishment of communion. Here are the unanimous decisions of all the members of our Dicastery in this regard:

1) It is necessary to require the adhesion of the members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to the new formula of the Professio Fidei dating from 1988 (c.f. annexe). Consequently, it is not sufficient to ask them to express the Professio Fidei of 1962.

2) The new text of the doctrinal Declaration must contain a paragraph in which the signatories declare in an explicit manner their acceptance of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and those of the post-conciliar period, by granting to said doctrinal affirmations the degree of adhesion which is due to them.

3) The members of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X must recognize not only the validity, but also the legitimacy of the Rite of the Holy Mass and of the Sacraments, according to the liturgical books promulgated after the Second Vatican Council.”

www.medias-presse.info adds that Cardinal Müller concluded the letter saying that “during the Audience granted to the Cardinal Prefect on May 20 2017, the Sovereign Pontiff approved these decisions”. The French website also adds that in his accompanying letter to SSPX priests, Father Christian Thouvenot, Secretary General of the SSPX, recalled the words of Bishop Fellay after the meeting of the major superiors in Anzère, Switzerland, on June 28 2016:

“The Society of Saint Pius X does not seek primarily a canonical recognition, to which it has a right because it is Catholic. The solution is not simply juridical. It pertains to a doctrinal position which it is imperative to manifest [...] Divine Providence will not abandon Its Church whose head is the Pope, Vicar of Jesus Christ. That is why an incontestable sign of this restoration will reside in the signified will of the Sovereign Pontiff to grant the means for re-establishing the order of the Priesthood, the Faith and Tradition – a sign which will be, furthermore, the guarantor of the necessary unity of the family of Tradition”.

*** The Professio Fidei of 1988 refers to the Professio fidei et Iusiurandum fidelitatis in suscipiendo officio nomine Ecclesiae exercendo (Formula to be used for the profession of faith and for the oath of fidelity to assume an office to be exercised in the name of the Church) dated July 1, 1988 (coincidentally the day after the 1988 episcopal consecrations in Ecône) and published in the Acta Apostolica Sedis in 1989.

The Profession of Faith is as follows: I, N., with firm faith believe and profess each and everything that is contained in the Symbol of faith, namely:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God,born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.

Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.

AMDG

New CDF Prefect Insists on Hermeneutic of Discontinuity

The CDF's New Doctrine Gardener!

Edit: Isn't defining doctrine the job of an ecumenical Council or a Pope?  Kreuz.net has noticed it.  Here, the new head of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith, stops nearly short at declaring the unprecedented doctrines ancillary to the Second Council as dogmas.

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/ziegenbock/Interesting

The following is an interview which the new Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller in the today's anti-Catholic Suddeutsche Zeitung.

With all the problems with Catholic Bishops denying central tenets of the Catholic Faith, there was still no mention by the journalist of the fact that most of the Church's Bishops don't really abide by the Vatican Council.

It would be equally nice if they asked the Archbishop about how it is he can deviate from orthodox teaching himself and call himself a defender of orthodoxy, or how he managed to get away with moving a predator priest around his Diocese in order to protect him.

Can one who can't even protect the children of his Diocese be expected to defend the doctrine of the Catholic Faith, which he himself doesn't seem to hold in its entirety?

[Suddeutsche Zeitung] Another work area which you have undertaken, are the negotiations with the Traditional Society of Pius X [sic]. They have rejected the terms by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith for a return to the Catholic Church. Is this the end of the negotiations?


One belongs to the Catholic Church when one has to fill certain requirements -- above all an orientation to Holy Scripture, the Tradition and to the Church's teaching office. Whoever does not accept parts of that, puts himself then in a certain distance from the Church, even if he describes himself as Catholic. If the Society wants to resolve this separation, they must accept, what belongs to Catholic teaching -- and that means that the Second Vatican Council is binding. Naturally: one can discuss the relationship to the media. The statements on Judaism, religious freedom, the human rights have, in contrast, dogmatic implications. These can not be rejected without militating against the Catholic Faith.

 The General Superior of the Society has put already put you under suspicion of heresy. Is that finally nipped in the bud?

 We must await the official explanation froim the Society. Our position is clear. [No it's not]

  The Society has stated otherwise: that the Pope is eager to unify with the Society. Only the CDF is against it.

 That is only media politics, which doesn't have anything to do with reality.