For Cardinal Mueller, a humble faith is good for theology

Last updated on: January 4, 2017 at 7:04 am by CNA Daily News

For Cardinal Mueller, a humble faith is good for theology 2017-01-04T07:04:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Vatican City, Jan 4, 2017 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The ideological efforts to change Catholic doctrine after the Second Vatican Council were deeply misguided, said Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a leading interpreter of Benedict XVI.

“Ideology,” he said, “is always a proud attempt to subject the Word of God and the doctrine of the Church to the prejudice of one’s own thoughts, with the aim to obtain a manipulative power over the faithful and their lives.”

Theology is different, the cardinal explained, because “theology is the humble reflection on faith that rises up from listening to the Word of God.”

For this reason, “any fear that the Council might provoke a breach with the tradition of the Church is not only heretical: it would dismantle the meaning of supernatural mediation.”

Cardinal Mueller spoke at the Pontifical Gregorian University for the Dec. 14 presentation of the Italian edition of the seventh book in a series of Joseph Ratzinger’s complete works. The seventh volume contains all the writings the man who served as Benedict XVI wrote about the Second Vatican Council, including writings when he was an expert advisor to Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne.

The complete works are curated by Cardinal Mueller himself.

In his remarks, the cardinal said the Second Vatican Council’s wake included a conflict between theology and ideology: “the expected Pentecostal renewal was replaced by the perspective of a ‘Babylonic’ confession of faith and by the attempt to contradict the thought of the theological school.”

All of this was “not a work of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit always listens to the Church in love and truth.”

“Defecting from faith and counterfeiting faith, and the division from the Church that follows, are fruits of another spirit that is not the Spirit of God,” he explained.

Cardinal Mueller cited a famous expression of Benedict XVI: his Dec. 22, 2005 Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, in which he spoke of a “hermeneutic of continuity” to interpret the Catholic faith.

Cardinal Mueller emphasized: “without a hermeneutic of continuity and of reform, the Church would secularize itself, and would turn into something more similar to a humanitarian organization.”

If this would happen, he said, “there would be no reason to be part of the Church.”

Cardinal Mueller underscored that “the hermeneutic of reform and continuity is nothing more than the hermeneutic of faith as it is testified by the Holy Scripture, that lives in the apostolic tradition interpreted in the authentic way of the magisterium. Certainly, the Church is founded on revelation, and not on the magisterium.”

Cardinal Mueller further reflected on the nature of ideology. In light of 20th century developments, “we noted that ideology is nothing more that the claim of some human being to dominate the moral conscience of other people.”

He added that “renewal” and “mainstream” are secular terms. He suggested their use are “the signs of ideological strongholds raised against the consciousness of God.”

These ideas, he added, “can be glimpsed in the philosophical roots of the Enlightenment, idealism and materialism, that is, in the ideological turn Europe lived through in the last centuries.”

Cardinal Mueller said these ideologies may fall short.

“The question is whether man can really find his foundation and his self-fulfillment without recognizing his constitutive bond with the sovereign Creator and Reconciler,” he said.

Vatican

Previous Post

January 4, 2017

An old anti-Catholic law has resurfaced in Georgia

Next Post

January 4, 2017 A look inside the little-known 'spoon trail' of Chile

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How was Elijah taken up to Heaven?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Carried by angels Chariot of fire After his passing After his walk with God