Unfortunately, the only way to support my biases against the reigning pope and someone I'm starting to detest just as much, Cardinal Mueller, because like Bergoglio, he is incoherent and just will not shut up, is to document their babble, blather and bluster... So here goes, on Cardinal Mueller, thanks to Marco Tosatti... I was going to ask why newsmen even bother to interview Mueller, but of course, they do because they can always count on him to say something that will give them occasion to skewer him (does he really think anyone in the media is his friend?...
Bergoglians react to
Mueller's latest interview
Translated from
November 27, 2017
Does the magic circle around Papa Bergoglio feel alluded to by the criticisms expressed by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller in an interview published Nov. 26 by
Corriere della Sera? It seems so, judging by some reactions.
First, let us see what was said by Mueller, whom the pope chose not to re-appoint as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to Corriere:
"Muller, perhaps the most respected Catholic theologian [Whence comes this sudden apotheosis of Mueller as a theologian??? He's now more respected than, say, one Joseph Ratzinger? The Corriere writer must be inhabiting a parallel universe!] is the ex-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, surprisingly replaced [No doubt about it – this writer is in a parallel universe] last July by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, recounts affronted:
The Pope confided to me 'some have told me anonymously that you are my enemy', without explaining to me in what way. After 40 years of service to the Church, I felt like saying that it was an absurdity invented by gossips who instead of instilling disquiet in the pope would do better to visit a shrink. A Catholic bishop and a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church is inherently with the Holy Father. But I believe, as the 16th centurytheologian Mielchior Cano said, that the pope's true friends are not those who adulate him but those who help him with the truth and with theological and human competence. In any organization, sycophants only serve themselves'.
[Well, isn't Mueller's own account above not equally self-serving? He's starting to sound like Eugenio Scalfari in his multiple versions so far of his last conversation with the pope. If it helps make it clearer – not that it isn't already quite clear – that the meeting was far from cordial, to further underscore how humiliating it was for him, he should sit down and write out, once and for all, to the best of his recollection, exactly what he and the pope talked about that day. Not disclose bits and pieces one at a time. Obviously, I am even more peeved at Mueller for playing a victim of Bergoglio whenever it suits him, and then in the same breath, defending him to the hilt 'as a loyal cardinal would defend his pope'.]
In the same interview, Mueller says:
The tensions in the Church arise from the opposition between an extremist traditional front and an equally exaggerated progressivist front which identify themselves as hyper-papalists. They are minorities but belligerent [Brilliant analysis! Blaming the opinionists lined up for and against the pope's anti-Catholic ideology for what Mueller dismisses as mere 'tensions'! Someone playing blind to reality presuming to offer advice!]
But look out: If there is a perception of injustice in the Roman Curia, almost by force of inertia,[????] a schismatic dynamic could be set into motion which will then be difficult to correct. I believe that the cardinals who expressed their DUBIA over Amoris laetitia, or the 62 signatories of a letter of excessive criticisms against the pope , should be listened to and not liquidated as Pharisees or curmudgeons. The only way out of this situation is a clear and frank dialog. [Great! Did he perhaps dare say that to Bergoglio the last time they talked? When, from all his various accounts so far, the conversation was essentially one-sided? You can't have a dialog with someone who insists that only he is right, and everyone else must simply acquiesce or shut up.]
Instead, I have the impression that in the pope's 'magic circle', there are those who are concerned above all with spying on presumed adversaries, thus preventing an open and balanced discussion. [And there he goes again! Laying the blame on those around the pope, who certainly are not blameless, but isn't the chief culprit the pope himself?] To classify Catholics as friends or foes of the pope is the most serious damage they can do to the Church. [And who is it who habitually classifies Catholics into 'us' and 'they' but Bergoglio whose morning homilettes at Casa Santa Marta are a handbook of 'insults' directed against the Catholics he dislikes?]
One is perplexed when a journalist who is a well-known atheist, boasts of being a friend of the pope [Why be perplexed – Scalfari is as free to claim what he does as Mueller has been free to speak from both sides of his mouth about Bergoglio and many other issues!], whereas a bishop who is Catholic and a cardinal like me is defamed as an opponent of the Holy Father. I don't think that any of them can give me lessons in theology on the primacy of the Roman Pontiff.
[This entire quotation is pathetic, embarrassing, and , of course, soooo self-serving!]
Regarding the dismissal without cause of some priests from the CDF:
"Persons cannot be fired ad lib, without proof or due process, just because someone has anonymously denounced vague criticisms of the pope attributed to them". [Again, who is it who decided to dismiss those priests without cause? Certainly not the 'anonymous' denouncer(s) but the pope himself. Why not put the blame on him?]
It is obvious that
Mueller sees himself at the center of the tensions now straining and lacerating the Church, that he does not want to be classified among the adversaries of the pope, and seeks 'dialog', as suggested recently by the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Bergoglio's right-hand man.
[Are we really to set much store by a single generic and pro forma statement made by Parolin? Did he ever follow up in terms of a 'dialog' on AL, specifically? Was he not the protagonist at that disgraceful Knights of Malta episode when only the party with influence on Parolin and the pope were heard, and the aggrieved party, the then Grand Commander, was simply told to resign?]
Alberto Melloni, leader of the 'Bologna school'
[which has incessantly promoted Vatican II as having given birth to a 'new church'] which is the most leftist in the Italian ecclesial panorama, and among the advisers of this pope said:
"I don't think there is danger of a schism: the Catholic Church is united even with the differences that exist. To hear someone speak like that, someone who was head of the CDF, seems to me like he is daring to threaten the pope". [Melloni is obviously just as deranged as Mueller, or as Bergoglio, for that matter. What's wrong with these men?]
"If someone is really with the pope, perhaps it is best to just keep quiet!" [Oh, I wish he says that to the Spadaros and Grillos and Paglias!]
As for Mueller's request that all should be heard, Melloni cuts that short:
"The Church is not a fish market!" [What an inappropriate metaphor! In a fish market, or what one assumes Melloni thinks of as a fish market, everyone is speaking all at once and at the top of their voice in order to he heard. ]
One must remember that the 'Bologna school' has been very critical of the popes before Bergoglio, and its exponents have never been known to 'keep silent'.
As further reactions to Mueller, I am attaching a couple of tweets by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, the Jesuit seen by manty as one of the shadows behind the pope's dazzling media show, and by Andrea Grillo, a lay theologian who is said to have much influence at Casa Santa Marta:
The Spadaro tweet reads: "The pope's trip to Myanmar and Bamngladesh forcefully reaffirms that the Church
is] a FIELD HOSPITAL by nature – and not just temporarily – which is called on to touch wounds of every kind with the balsam of the Gospel".
[It may be Bergoglian blather, but I do not see how this can be read as a reaction to Mueller's interview].
Grillo's reads: "Mueller who asks for quality theology is pathetic – and Thomas sneers!'
[I suppose he means Thomas Aquinas?] To which
[reminiscent of the malicious Mickens Facebook exchange that got the latter fired from the Tablet], a friend of Grillo comments: "You are right. If he and Ratzinger are considered great theologians, then what we really lack is a theology of quality".
Nov. 28, 2017
P.S.
Rorate caeli's translation of Mueller's CdS interview begins with a passage that includes sentences inexplicably missing from Tosatti's account of the same passage, namely:
“There is a front of traditionalist groups, just as there is with the progressivists, that would like to see me as head of a movement against the Pope. But I will never do this. I have served the Church with love for 40 years as a priest, 16 years as a university professor of dogmatic theology and 10 years as a diocesan bishop. I believe in the unity of the Church and I will not allow anyone to exploit my negative experiences of recent months. Church authorities, on the other hand, need to listen to those who have serious questions or justified complaints; not ignoring them, or worse, humiliating them. Otherwise, unwittingly, the risk of a slow separation that might lead to a schism may increase, from a disorientated and disillusioned part of the Catholic world. The history of Martin Luther’s Protestant Schism of 500 years ago, should teach us, above all, what errors to avoid.”
[Mueller's self-inflation is remarkable! Really, there are people who "would like to see me as head of a movement against the Pope" and "to exploit my negative experience of recent months"? As far as I can see, this master of speaking with forked tongue is the only one seeking to exploit this 'negative experience' by protesting both his victimization by the pope and professing his papal fealty to the hilt. It's his version of turning the other cheek.]
P.S. #2 Tosatti follows up his report on the Mueller interview with a contribution from one of his followers that perfectly captures the absurdity of Muller's self-inflation:
'Pezzo Grosso' takes it out
on Mueller - and alas, on me!
Translated from
November 28, 2017
In Cardinal Mueller's interview with Corriere della Sera where he 'rejects' leadership of an anti-Bergoglio movement, he asks – strange, true? – that instead of insulting those who question the pope, there must be dialog with them
[though he studiously avoids saying the pope must take the lead in this dialog since it is his exhortation from Hell that has provoked all this dissension] and which reveals things about the man Bergoglio, has triggered off the 'worst' in Pezzo Grosso
['Big Cheese', one of Tosatti's most diligent commentators] who, as you will read, does not spare his poor host. But thanks to him, a smile and a chuckle these days is a rare gift… [BTW, a small note. We are not alone. These days, this blog has passed the 2.5 million mark in terms of viewership…]
Dear Tosatti, did you read Cardinal Mueller's interview with Corriere della Sera? I do not know His Eminence, but from this interview (and perhaps from previous statements of his), I have drawn an impression I would have preferred not to have. I shall express this indirectly by imagining myself in your shoes [Tosatti's] in an interview with Corsera:
Q: But you, Tosatti, are always very critical of the pope and his collaborators. Are you then an enemy of the pope?
A: Me an enemy of the pope? Are you kidding? There are some 5 million traditionalist laymen who would want me to publish an anti-pope newspaper, they have been asking me for some time to organize a daily journal that would be all and only anti-pope, simply by assembling every day everything the pope says or writes, what his supporters and advisers say and write, and all the consequent criticisms written by theologians and opponent of diverse extraction. Enough for a daily journal of at least 70-80 pages…
But I would NEVER do that, NEVER would I be at the helm of an anti-pope newspaper, NEVER! Look, few people love the pope as I do, and I am joyful that Bergoglio is pope. I was on the verge of retirement after a life as a Vaticanista, but Bergoglio gave me a new lease on journalistic life – now I am translated in five languages and read in five continents. Illustrious personages ask to write on my blog. What more could I desire? Viva il Papa! And these vile traitors and refuseniks who have been seeking to direct me against the pope, ought to be ashamed. (Of course, one wonders why ever they would have proposed it to me. But there it is!)
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/11/2017 15:02]