Cardinal Marx Gorges on Sumptuous Meal --- Enjoys 9 Million Euro Palace

Edit: Cardinal Reinhold Marx is the classic, bloated, gluttonous, greedy, oozing metaphor for the typical churchman, but his leftist politics keep him and his German Tax-Church mostly above all criticism by the world press.

Edward Pentin and NCR used to link to us. We'd also like to think he's indebted to us, but he's one of the few professional journalists in the English speaking world who points these hypocritical lapses out, so we won't cry too much.

Cardinal Marx is clearly intouchhable.

[NCR] Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is attending the Synod on the Family as president of the German bishops’ conference, is allegedly holding extravagant dinners for synod fathers at a multi-million euro villa in Rome owned by the archdiocese of Munich.

Around 20 bishops from a number of countries attended a lavish dinner at an archdiocesan-owned guesthouse located on Via delle Medaglia d’Oro last Sunday.

According to an informed and reliable source, there was such an abundance of food “the bishops’ stomachs were hardly able to take a break.” Another similar banquet is planned tomorrow.

http://m.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/cardinal-marx-hosting-extravagent-dinners-for-synod-fathers#.VicAAFI8LKA

Faithful Bishop Tebartz-van Elst Will Not Have to Pay Damages to His Former Diocese

Edit: no one is asking Cardinal Marx to foot the bill for his 51 million EURO wreckovation.

The Roman Bishops' Congregation in agreement with the  Secretary of State, considers that an examination for compensation payments as well as the opening of a corresponding canonical process would be inappropriate.

Limburg (kath.net/KNA) The resigning Limburger Bishop, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (archive photo) need not pay compensation to his former diocese. The Roman Congregation for Bishops in consultation with the State Secretariat considers that an examination of compensation payments as well as the opening of a corresponding canonical proceedings would not be appropriate, according to the Diocese of Limburg on Wednesday. The diocese had raised the question of material reparation due to the [allegedly] high construction costs to the diocesan palace by the ordinary, Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg.

According to information provided by the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the decision of the Vatican Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Limburg, Bishop Manfred Grothe, now in a personal meeting in Rome. "Now the decision has been made, it will also make clear what the next steps of rehabilitation should be," said Grothe on Wednesday in Limburg.

He and his Permanent Representative, Cathedral Rector, Wolfgang Rösch had stayed in Rome for the past week for talks at the Vatican. Grothe considered the meetings held in Rome in sum as constructive and purposeful. The common goal of the Holy See and the Diocese of line either, "the way has been cleared so that a new bishop can get a good and unencumbered start in his new office as soon as possible," Grothe said.

Currently, it's unclear when Limburg will again get a new bishop. "I hope and we are working towards that," says Grothe, "that by the summer of 2016 the chapter canons will have elected a bishop of Limburg to be appointed by the Holy Father."

Tebartz-van Elst had offered the Pope his resignation on October 2013 as Bishop of Limburg. Being perceived by many [Diocesan personnel and journalists] as having an authoritarian administration over the construction costs of the diocesan residence amounting to approximately 31 million EUR and the concealment of these costs, leading to general indignation [From professional Catholics and journalists] had contributed decisively to this step being taken.[Not true. Everyone knows that Cardinal Marx spent more money on his Diocesan wreckovation projects for 51 million EURO or his cute residence in Rome for 16 million. To date, there has been no outrage or calls for Cardinal Marx's resignation.  Furthermore, it's really disappointing to see the Neoconservative commerce website take this line, but it's not surprising.] On 26 March 2014, the Pope accepted the resignation. Last December, Tebartz-van Elst was appointed the 'delegate for catechesis, of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.' The end of March, he began his work in Rome. (C) 2015 Catholic News Agency KNA GmbH. All rights reserved. Archive photo Bishop Tebartz-van Elst (c)

kath.net/Paul Badde

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Media: Are Poland's Bishops Rejecting the Marx-Proposal to Meet and Agree on His Heretical Proposals?

Edit: very likely.

Preparation for the Synod of Bishops: Warsaw church newspaper "Idziemy" writes, they should go to a meeting to bring the Polish Bishops' Conference President Gadecki "to convince him to take the position represented by Cardinal Marx."

Dachau (KAP / kath.net) The DBK-chairman Reinhard Cardinal Marx is said to have proposed at the beginning of May to the Polish bishops, who had come on the 70th anniversary of Dachau Liberation in Bavaria during the meal, to hold a meeting. This was reported by Würzburg Catholic newspaper "Die Tagespost", citing the US newspaper "National Catholic Register" and the Warsaw church newspaper "Idziemy". This meeting reportedly, according to Marx should have the objective "to work towards a consensus" regarding a common position at the Synod of Bishops in the autumn. The 14th Ordinary General Assembly of Bishops will be held from the 4th to the 25th of October at the Vatican on "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church in the Modern World".

The proposal by Marx was, however, rejected by the Polish bishops. The Polish journal "Idziemy" writes in a comment, the President of the Polish Bishops' Conference and leader of the Polish synod delegation, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, stand in the teaching on marriage "without a doubt" faithful to the teaching of St. John Paul II. But it they would,  in Marx's proposed meeting, said Gadecki "to persuade him to take the position Cardinal Marx represents". 

Link to kath.net...

Update: the German Bishops' Conference is denying this, and only specifies that representatives are meeting to clarify the points at which they disagree.  Weasels.

Official and Secret: Double Bishops' Synod -- Where Was Cardinal Schönborn?

Cardinals Reinhold Marx and Walter Kasper

(Rome) While the secret meeting of the new progressivist Rhenish Alliance took place on Whit Monday in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Pope Francis gathered the Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. On the 25th and on the morning of May 26, the Pope personally directed the work.

Member of the Council is the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The president of the Austrian Bishops' Conference was the great absentee in these secret meetings, which  took place a remove of less than three kilometers from the Vatican, at the Gregoriana.

Cardinal Schönborn, the great absentee at the secret meeting?

Is  Vienna's Archbishop keeping his distance from the Franco-German "Illuminati" circle? Or was he  only prevented in the secret meeting because of  a scheduling conflict? It is clear that the Austrian Cardinal was only staying away on Whit Monday in Rome while on an official mission in the Vatican. Whether he or other senior members of the Council of the Synod Secretariat were also participants in the occult meeting subsequently, to exchange information or to make arrangements, is not known.

During the Synod of Bishops in 2014 and following this to Cardinal Schönborn ended with waving flags the camp of Kasperianer to both in terms of discrimination and in terms of homosexuality. During the Synod, the Archbishop of Vienna had exceeded the German Cardinal Walter Kasper far exceeded with a proposal to radicalism. Schoenborn pleaded for the recognition of a general "gradualness" in all the sacraments (see "Subsistit in" transferred to the sacraments - loose "conditions" for Remarried Divorcees Schönborn and "Love is Love" - Cardinal Schönborn's Tribute to Homosexuals and Perverse logic ).

Crudely stated: A "graduality" which makes no place  for evil or negative because the ideal is recognized in the "gradual"  in the one more and the other less. It's the same way, according to Schönborn,  in interpersonal relationships as well, no matter what. In many, the ideal is not fully realized, but in all, at least a little, because they were focused on another human being. The Church did help people striving for the ideal, but in the end are the conditions for the reception of the sacraments (see especially Cardinal Schönborn and the Revolutionizing of Morality ).

Vienna Archbishop December 2014, defenders of the Catholic marriage sacrament in the negative implication toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, in 2015 Cardinal Schönborn has held back with substantive statements on the Synod of Bishops.

Instrumentum Laboris for Prepared for Final Editing- New Methods of Work at the Synod?

In the press release from the General Secretariat for the meeting of the Synod Council, the presence of the Pope was stressed. "Since Holy Father Francis presides,  this  importance is stressed by   his presence,which he attaches to the synodical way."

The Kasperians Archbishop Forte and Cardinal Tagle were officially in Rome

On Whit Monday, "the Council examined in detail the project of the Instrumentum laboris ", i.e., the Relatio Synodi, the final report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in October 2014 "supplemented by numerous incorporations by the responses to the Lineamenta were included in received questions by the the Bishops' Conferences and other organizations which apply to them, but also by numerous contributions of different ecclesial realities and of individual believers who were sent to the General Secretariat."  The scrutiny of the text offered the possibility to  "complement and improve its bid."   The "thus revised text corrected by councilors  was entrusted to the General Secretariat for final editing and translation into various languages, and  publication." The publication is to be carried out, according to  the press office of the Holy See,  in "a few weeks".

Finally, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri  "has presented proposals to update the working methods at the forthcoming Annual Synod of Bishopsi". The press release did not describe any  details  for the areas in which the rules of the Synod would be changed. Cardinal Baldisseri and Undersecretary Fabio Fabene were received on the morning of May 26 by Pope Francis at a private audience before the work of the Council was continued.

The XIV. Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will be held from 4th-25th October held at the Vatican in 2015.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / CR

It's Been Carefully Noted That the "German Front" of Kasper and Marx is Crumbling

Conscious of His Power, But no Longer the Controversial
German Voice in Rome 

(Bonn / Rome) South of the Alps it has been carefully noted that the "German front" in terms of "new mercy" is not as stable as it initially  appeared on first impression, or at least such an impression was conveyed. Is registered especially been noticed that six German bishops in the line of Kasper / Marx have been rejected. 

If the German cardinal Walter Kasper is considered head of the rebels, then it is  Cardinal Gerhard Müller as  the highest ranking of his opponents is also a German.  With Cardinal Walter Brandmüller and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, two more Germans of international weight  raise their voices against Kasper's attempt to bridge the gap between the teachings of Christ and the "real life" of many people by adapting to the latter by passing over the doctrine and mission of Christ over in silence.

More German Signatories of the appeal to Pope Francis as Answer to Synod Questionnaire

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau

It is also closely noted in Rome, among some it is  welcome, while others greet it with unease that the second questionnaire of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops generated little interest in  the German dioceses. A lack of interest that the full-bodied announcement with a threat of schism by the President of the German Bishops' Conference, that there was a "state of emergency" for the German church's divorced and remarried is not supported. It is reported that more Catholics of the German-speaking countries have signed the Appeal to Pope Francis  then responded to the questionnaire. The appeal of faithful Catholics, whose first signatories include Cardinals Burke and Brandmüller, and  Bishop Athanasius Schneider who invite the Pope and the Synod of Bishops to reaffirm Catholic marriage and morality against attempts at erosion in no uncertain terms.

Faithful Catholics are simply motivated by the desire to follow Christ in fidelity to the Church established by Him.

Now in these days in Rome the news quickly made the rounds that six bishops of the German Bishops' Conference have renounced allegiance to the Cardinals Kasper and Marx. Six out of 27 bishops are not even a quarter of the German diocesan bishops. In Rome, however, the principle is still sound, that one can not change the word of God by majorities. It was first part of the Synod of Bishops in October 2014 where it was  Cardinal Raymond Burke, who recalled the essential elements of the Catholic Faith in an intervention. The formation of a counter group in the German Bishops' Conference thus represents an important step.

Six German Bishops Rehearse the Uprising

Five Bishops Support Bishop Oster

Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstatt, Bishop Konrad Zdarsa of Augsburg, Bishop Friedhelm Hofmann from Würzburg and Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz have  renounced allegiance to the  BTB President and Munich Archbishop. Cardinal Marx has to feel encircled by dissidents in Bavaria. Here, the actual dissenters sit at the Palais Holnstein, while gathered around the Bishop of Passau Oster mustering chief shepherds  in full communion with Rome.

In this respect the hopes of the young Bishop of Passau are fulfilled.  Until recently it yet looked as if he would meekly submit to the powerful archbishop of Munich-Freising (see Passauer Distancing - And an Easter Bunny Crawled under Marx's Wing in German).

The bishops of Regensburg, Augsburg, Eichstatt, Würzburg and Görlitz announced three days ago in a public letter of thanks to a statement by  Bishop Oster where he defended  Catholic marriage and morality. Thus, a lone voice quickly became a chorus. It is conceivable that other bishops should come whose voices have yet remained unheard so far besides  the high-handed Cardinal of Munich.

Rejected ZdK Demands

In letters of appreciation for Bishop Oster, his five brothers wrote  last MAY 16:

"We live now in a highly secularized society in Germany. This fact should not discourage us and make us look at the guidance of the mainstream, but it should be seen as an opportunity to rediscover the uniqueness of the Christian vocation in the world today. Yours was a  frank and faithful proclamation of Jesus' teaching in the Gospels and the development of the relationship with Him as a reward that enriches our life, as you have done it in your replica, but it is an indispensable requisite.

We are therefore convinced that even many believers  are most grateful to you for your clear words. "

The letter was  a detailed opinion sent by Bishop Oster on 11 May from his Facebook page. In it he refuted point by point the 'reform' exposures, which they (ZdK)  collected at their plenary meeting on 9 May in Würzburg by the Central Committee of German Catholics (see BDKJ spokesman acting as Homo lobbyist - ZdK calls "unconditional acceptance" in German), The requirement of ecclesiastical blessings for homosexual couples is only one point in the long ZdK catalog.

From the Single Courageous Bishop Oster, the Lonely Voice Quickly Became a Group

Cardinal Marx Consecrated  Oster a Bishop

Bishop Oster was the brave one who reacted quickly and decided on his  own initiative and disagreed publicly with the Association of Catholics ZdK. He objected so implicitly also to his "Reformation" brothers in the episcopate, because Cardinal Marx had taken position in the ZdK paper. The Munich Archbishop remained so mysterious that the observers interpreted the reaction as expressions of sympathy towards ZdK which could  play to openly for tactical reasons.

Unlike Marx, Bishop had Easter then had to accept  some  irreverent criticism, particularly on the Internet portal katholisch.de that is funded by  the German Bishops' Conference. The internal church struggle  is quickly becoming a sniper's duel in Germany. Whoever defends  Catholic doctrine, must dress warmly. Rebels and renegades have occupied numerous key positions for many years, particularly in the official Catholic media. The tragedy of the German Church is also  that the bishops are hedged around by an exclusive church apparatus.

Oster's step will help to clarify the fronts. Six bishops have shown their Catholic color. Others conceal themselves in calculating silence. In Rome it has been noted  what is happening north of the Alps. Many prelates referred simply to  any representatives of the Kasper-proposal summarily as "the Germans".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Focus.de/Diözese Passau / Facebook bishop Easter (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Great Support for the Appeal to Pope Francis -- Little Resonance for the Synod Questionnaire of the German Bishops

(Rome) More than 225,000 Catholics have been greeting the upcoming Synod of Bishops by signing an appeal to Pope Francis on the future of the family. Among the signatories, the contact with "concerns and hopes about the future of the family" are  Catholic Church leaders, including four cardinals, 21 archbishops and bishops and numerous Catholic personalities from church, politics, science and social issues. The appeal is an appeal and invitation to Pope Francis, for "a clarifying of words" against the "general confusion"  that was caused by hints and announcements: "In fact, we could see a general perplexity, because of the possibility that in the bosom of Church, a breach was torn, which would allow a tolerance of adultery: The admission to the Eucharist of divorced and remarried couples and acceptance of homosexual partnerships, a state is produced which must be condemned categorically, because these are contrary to the commandments of God and the laws of nature."

"Unwholesome Winds of anti-Christian Lobbies"

The reason for the appeal was the course of the first part of the Synod of Bishops, which took place in October 2014: "Holy Father, on the basis of information that was disseminated on the occasion of the last Synod we had found with pain  that for many millions of believers the light of this seems to waver torch, triggered by the unwholesome winds of  the   anti-Christian lobby's championing of the lifestyle, puts it in the appeal, the under www.ergebenebitte.org was published in the English  (see also report International Appeal to the Pope on the Future of the Family ).

"Our fears arise from witnessing a decades-long sexual revolution promoted by an alliance of powerful organizations, political forces and the mass media that consistently work against the very existence of the family as the basic unit of society. Ever since the so-called May 1968 Sorbonne Revolution, a morality opposed to both Divine and natural law has been gradually and systematically imposed on us so implacably as to make it possible, for example, to teach the abhorrent “gender theory” to young children in many countries.

Catholic teaching on the Sixth Commandment of the Law of God shines like a beacon in face of this ominous ideological objective. This beacon attracts many people—overwhelmed by this hedonistic propaganda—to the chaste and fecund family model taught by the Gospel and in accordance with natural law."

Even in Germany, There is Little Response to the Questionnaire of the Synod of Bishops

Influential media, such as Le Figaro and La Croix in France reported on the great support for the appeal, while barely more responses have been received to the second questionnaire of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.  As was unofficially reported, for example in the diocese of Mainz Bishop Cardinal Karl Lehmann, there were only 21 replies. In the diocese of Essen of Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck only 14. "This seems to be the basis of assertions that German Catholics were behind the anti-Roman positions of Cardinals Walter Kasper and Reinhard Marx," said Corrispenza Romana .

Among the first signatories of the appeal to Pope Francis is Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina are, Janis Cardinal Pujats, Raymond Cardinal Burke, Archbishop John Paul Lenga, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto, Archbishop Wolfgang Haas, Professor Josef Seifert, John-Henry West (LifeSiteNews), John Smeaton (Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child), James Bogle (Una Voce International), Thomas Ward (National Association of Catholic Families), Jean Pierre Maugendre (Renaissance Catholique), Slawomir Skiba (Polonia Christiana), Mathias von Gersdorff (Tradition, Family, Private Property - Germany), Robert Royal (Faith and Reason) and many, many others.

The appeal and the petition is supported by Katholisches.info [and it goes without saying, the translator of this article.]

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: filialappeal.org
Trans: Tancred  vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

April Fool's Joke and Serious --- Good Friday Processions in Paris and Munich

Pope Francis Blesses Political Stunt Prop

(Paris / Munich) From April Fool's back to serious. As a number of readers immediately realized  that the report on the Prohibition of the Good Friday processions was an April Fools joke. The French Blog Salon Beige wanted to illustrate the latent to open aversion shown by the French Government against Christianity in a joke. A serious issue was packaged into a joke.

At  several Parisian parishes, Good Friday processions are held as usual again this year.

So back to serious. Tomorrow is Good Friday, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the most influential supporter of the Kasper theses among the diocesan bishops is leading the Good Friday procession in Munich. He will wear the so-called "Lampedusa Cross", which was made on the Italian Mediterranean island to bring attention to the "fate of asylum seekers." This was announced by the archbishop's press office  yesterday.

Cardinal Marx's politically correct Good Friday procession

In July 2013, the island of Lampedusa was thrown in the spotlight when Pope Francis made his first trip abroad there.

The "Lampedusa Cross" is made of two planks of a ship, with which immigrants from North Africa came to the island, which belongs to Italy.  Lampedusa is off the coast of Tunisia and is the first destination of migrant vessels coming today mainly from Libya to bring illegal immigrants to Europe. Lampedusa is the first place where the arrivals are first received by the Italian Government  before being sent to  Sicily or the European continent.

The 60 kg cross was made by the carpenter Franco Tuccio of Lampedusa and shown to Pope Francis on April of 2014 at St. Peter's Square and blessed by him. It is apparently the symbol of a "spiritual relay race". "Whoever requests it,  gets it," said Emmanuele Vai, Casa dello Spirito, Director of the Foundation e dell'Arte, which supports the action.

"Lampedusa Syndrome"

Cardinal Marx and the Cross

Cardinal Marx thus leads a "crossroads of peoples", who are gathered in "the various linguistic and ethnic groups", said the press office of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. The motto of the Good Friday procession is "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." It will provide the focus,  on the "often life-threatening exodus of asylum seekers."

In Italy, critics speak of a "Lampedusa syndrome", which had been introduced into the political debate. In this escapees and refugees would be interwoven with migration and migrants and generalized into the extreme example of immigrants in fragile boats in  distress off Lampedusa and stylized into a symbol that serves as a taboo for the immigration debate in Europe.

In reality, distress tragedies - thank God - even off Lampedusa, are a rarity. In addition,  only a tiny part of Europe's immigration comes by sea to Lampedusa. It is therefore inappropriate to give the impression to make Lampedusa a synonym for millions of migrants to Europe.

"The Cardinal always has the pulse of the times and the State"

Cardinal Marx thus puts the accent on Good Friday by manipulating a politically-correct issue. "The Cardinal  always has the pulse of the times and the State," said a Bavarian canon, who wishes to remain anonymous, with an ambiguous smile. "He's  taken a heavy cross to bear" in reference to the weight of Lampedusa Cross. 

The SSPX spoke in connection with the Pope's visit to Lampedusa 2013 of a "slant-progressive simplification" of a complex issue.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Famiglia Cristiana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Bishops' Synod: Is Kasper's Star Sinking?

Is the Star of Cardinals Kasper and Marx Sinking?

(Rome) Cardinal Walter Kasper OR Cardinal Carlo Caffarra? "Even Pope Francis is distancing himself from the first and moving closer to the second.  And holding on to Cardinal Müller. And promoting the African, Sarah. All are resolute defenders of the Catholic teaching on marriage." With these words, the Vatican expert Sandro Magister introduces his latest analysis of the upcoming Synod of Bishops on marriage and family.

Magister is one of the most attentive observers of Rome.  Is there a reversal taking place in Rome? Is a door being flung open, which will now be closed again? In time? Or too late? Magister does not identify the reasons for an apparent shift in the attitude of Pope Francis.

The fact is that the statements of the President of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Reinhard Cardinal Marx, at a press conference on 26 February to the end of the DBK Spring Assembly were not only criticized by CDF Prefect Gerhard Cardinal Müller, but by completely "unsuspected" high and highest Church representatives, including those in the circle of  Pope Francis. Whether it is something personally felt by the Pope, is not known.

Cardinal Marx established a blatant schism threat as leverage to force the forthcoming Synod of Bishops of him and Cardinal Kasper formulated "opening" to the admission of remarried divorcees to Communion and the recognition of homosexuality. Since not the Synod, but the Pope makes decisions following the Synod, the threat was ultimately the Pope. It is therefore in early March, Santa Marta have come to a vociferous displeasure outbreak of a Latin American Pope's confidant in the presence of Francis.

Here's the official translation from Magister's site. 

,

Synod Exchange: Kasper falling, rising Caffarra

by Sandro Magister

ROME, March 20, 2015 – “This does not resolve anything,” Pope Francis has said with regard to the idea of giving communion to the divorced and remarried. Much less if they “want” it, demand it. Because communion “is not a badge, a decoration. No.”

In his latest big interview Jorge Mario Bergoglio threw cold water on the expectations for substantial change in the doctrine and practice of Catholic marriage, which he himself had indirectly fostered:

Los primeros dos años de la “Era Francisco” en entrevista a Televisa

 “Overblown expectations,” he called them. With no more references to the innovative theses of Cardinal Walter Kasper, which he had repeatedly extolled in the past but now seems to be keeping at a distance. On the other hand, for some time now Pope Francis has looked with growing attention and esteem at another cardinal theologian, who upholds ideas on the “Gospel of marriage” that are perfectly in line with tradition: the Italian Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna.

As a professor of moral theology, Caffarra was a specialist in marriage, family, procreation. And this is why John Paul II wanted him at the head of the pontifical institute for studies on marriage and the family that he created in 1981 at the Lateran university, following the 1980 synod dedicated precisely to these themes. So a stir was created last October by the exclusion of any representative of that institute - which since its foundation has spread all over the world - from the first session of the synod on the family. But now this gap has been filled, because last March 14 Pope Francis appointed among the advisers of the general secretariat of the second and last session of the synod, scheduled for October of this year, none other than the vice-president of the pontifical John Paul II institute for studies on marriage and the family, Professor José Granados."In order to solve anything," said Pope Francis in relation to the idea of ​​giving communion to divorced and remarried.  Especially not when they "want," they say.  For the Communion is not "a cockade, an award. No." 

[Continued at link below]

Introduction / Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo / MiL / Caffarra.it / portals Famiglia

Link to Sandro Magister...

Link to Katholisches for German translation...

AMDG

Cardinal Müller: "Diocese Are Not Branches of the Bishops' Conference"

Prefect of the CDF after recent statements of DBK-President Marx: "The President of the Episcopal Conference is no more than a technical presenter, this title is not linked to any specific teaching authority."

Vatican (kath.net) The claim that a Bishop's Conference was "not a branch of Rome", "gives me the cue to remind you that the dioceses are not branches of the Secretariat of the Episcopal Conference or [branches of] the diocese, whose bishop President of the Bishops' Conference is." This was Gerhard Müller Cardinal (photo), Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith, for the Catholic French magazine, Famille Chrétienne. He had been previously asked what he thought of a statement "where a German bishop had stated that the Bishops' Conference, which he was presiding, was no "branch of Rome," he was referring to remarks by Reinhard Cardinal Marx, President of the German Bishops' Conference . Müller explained further: "A Bishops' Conference is not a Particular Council, [it is] a lot less than an Ecumenical Council. The President of the Episcopal Conference is no more than a technical presenter, there is no special teaching authority linked with this title. "The attitude that a Bishops' Conference is not a branch of Rome," brings with it the danger to revive a certain polarization between the local Churches and the Universal Church which had come rest in the First and the Second Vatican Councils. The Church is not the sum of national churches whose presidents would choose a boss on a universal level."

On the question of whether some teaching or disciplinary decisions about marriage and the family could be delegated to the Bishops' Conferences, the Prefect of the CDF replied: "This is an absolutely anti-Catholic idea that does not respect the catholicity of the Church. Bishops' Conferences have authority in certain topics, but they possess no magisterium against  the magisterium without a pope and without communion with all the bishops."

"The Church is not a philanthropic organization. It is not enough if we say that we respect the views of all and wish good for all," Müller explained further. Indeed it is not too difficult, only present the gospel as a therapeutic agent, but this does not correspond to the requirements of Jesus. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and receive all manner of slander because of me, said Jesus. The first Apostles, the Church Fathers, the great bishops of the Church had so often to sail against the wind. Why should this be any different for us? Link to kath.net... Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com AMDG

"Renaissance" Not "Reconquista" -- Cardinal Marx: "The Church's Doctrine Must Develop Further"

(Munich) Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Cardinal of Munich and Freising was interviewed for the March issue of the French Jesuit journal Etudes. In it he says that the Church needs "Renaissance" and not "Reconquista." At the Synod of Bishops of the cardinal spoke of an "open Synod" on the family, because "the teaching office may continue to develop."

"We do not need religious entrepreneurs, but witnesses of both genders," says the President of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) and a member of the C9 Cardinal Council to advise Pope Francis. The Italian translator of the interview for Vatican insider who knew what to do with the German gender-speech, translated the site with "Zeugen und Zeugnisses."[Inclusive language for the word witness has no English equivalent.]

"An important step toward reaching people is the step towards self-evangelization," said the most powerful German prelate dialectically. The Chairman of the President of the European Bishops' Conferences COMECE also said: "We ourselves as a church must read the Gospel again and again and learn to live with it."

"The term 'New Evangelization' gives me problems"

March issue of "Etudes" with Marx Interview

The term "new evangelization" is a concept, said the Cardinal, which causes him "problems". "I admit that I 'have my problems with the concept of the new evangelization. It could be confused with the model of a spiritual, Reconquista,' as it is a question of reconquering lost ground. But it's not about restoration or repetition of what once was, but a new beginning, a new approach, in a new situation. And it is not simply a communication problem. This would mean that if we had more people and more money and more media coverage, we could achieve the goal. I can accept very well the concept but if it is to emphasize that we do have, not only in Europe, but as a whole, in a new situation for the faith and we must respond with renewed thinking. Actually, this is really a process that the whole Church goes through throughout history. The Gospel is always new, Ecclesia semper iuvenescens, the Church is always young, so the Church Fathers have said.

Because with "many concepts and discussions about new evangelization, I have the impression that many think: The great history of Christianity lies behind us and ahead of us is an insecure and rather frightening future. So you can not evangelize in any case,"  said the cardinal.

The Church can bring the Gospel " forth in all fields of human activity, thought,  adding value to commerce, continuity, and questions to think about. The cultural workers, politicians, philosophers and artists are open to conversations and meetings. I experience this again and again. But in our words, actions, in our liturgy, public appearance,  and in the specific pastoral care on site it must be visible through the quality of our work. I think in this context often of the term "Renaissance". Yes, I believe in a renaissance of the Christian faith, but it is a long way of deep religious and spiritual renewal," said Archbishop Marx of Munich.

Synod: "Will Decide the Future Prospects of the Church in the Field of Marriage, and Family"

At the Synod of Bishops on the family  the cardinal said, "Clearly  on one side, great expectations were awakened while fears were aroused on the other side. All this has been shown during the discussion in the Synod Hall and in the working groups. The Holy Father has made it clear once again in his closing speech, just how much he has also  appreciated and desired  open debate. This is an important step forward. For particularly in the field of marriage and family the future prospects of the Church will be decided. It is too early for an appraisal. After one Synod, there is another Synod! "

The Pope, according to Marx, "guarantees unity with  tradition and the Church's unity internally. But that is why it is necessary to openly argue with each other in a spiritual way about the future path of the Church in these existential questions that clearly touch  almost all people and all the faithful." "Of course you have to make sure that it will not be a political-tactical process. I do not know if we have always avoided this. It requires a fundamental openness and a real confidence to find common ground. There may indeed be no winners and losers at the end of a synodal path, but all need each other to try and think of others and our new common steps going into the future," said Cardinal Marx.

"Doctrine of the Church must Develop"

Basically the DBK- President described  the family Synod like this: "In teaching, the Church must indeed develop without giving up its  position, but throughout the entire history of the Church, its dogma is still developing and has been deepened. This is also true with regard to marriage and family. So there is no end point for the search for truth."

The "open society" is at this moment of time "yet, is also progress in  the gospel. So the question is not whether the majority share in our opinion, but whether we are also a pluralistic society that still has something to say to our way of life and our thoughts and many can win the way for many to follow  the Gospel in the fellowship of the visible Church"  said Cardinal Reinhard Marx for Etudes .

The complete German translation of the interview was published by the German Jesuit journal Stimmen der Zeit.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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Quo Vadis: President of German Bishops' Council Wants to Give the Church to Prince of this World

Attempt to take stock after the Spring Plenary Meeting of the German Bishops' Conference. A kath.net commentary by Dr. Michael Schaefer to statements by Cardinal Marx and Bishop Bode

Hildesheim (kath.net) The German bishops and with them German Catholicism have stood against each other for many years in a growing tension. On one side is the felt the compulsion to defend Catholic doctrine within the meaning of the two previous Popes, and on the other hand, the desire to find a place for social development of the nation. This feeling of tension was reinforced by two other factors: one is the persistent depression in the face of accelerating and organizational measures barely glossing over the decline of Church life; on the other hand, the pressure of a predominantly 'reform-oriented' ecclesiastical system.

Ever since the introduction of the so-called dialogue process ("so-called" because it was played out with handpicked representatives of the ecclesiastical establishment largely behind closed doors) it became apparent that the willingness continue to bear the tension described, was on the wane. It suddenly become known by the two family synods in the world Church, that the question of divorced and remarried presented itself in the eyes of many bishops as the opportunity of a pastoral accommodation for one of the "hot potatoes" without making a too substantial shift from the teaching of the Church. It must have become all the harder after the Synod of last autumn in the insight tha a clear "yes" required for the proposed new features, as the promised majority (90% + x) of the world Church, was not possible.

With the Spring Plenary Assembly ended, the bishops have decided, and probably also irreversibly, started to take the bull by the horns. It is now clear that the German episcopate will take in the question of the divorced and remarried quite independently of the Synodal discussions in October in its own way. The battle cry of "We are not branches of Rome" can in make no room for interpretation in this matter.

The bishops should be clear that the "pastoral solution" to the question of the divorced and remarried can only be a beginning of the end for much of Catholic sexual morality. Because this is so in consideration of an oversized ball and chain for all those who want to be on equal footing with the surrounding society. Bishop Bode has with his notification on the necessary evaluation of cohabitation before marriage, a clear indication given that it - and certainly not just him - there there is a mandatory need for a program of increasing acceptance.

One would severely miss the importance of the meeting at Hildesheim, if they confined their views on the question of the divorced and remarried. Cardinal Marx (including obviously preeminent among the potential "dissident" bishops of Regensburg, Passau and Eichstätt) not only brought this issue forth with his brothers, but staged a coup in a major way. "The great history of Christianity is not behind us but before us" - this is not just a pithy statement, but an expression of a quite specific vision.

According to this vision it is from now on that Christianity will not come from the past, to read the tradition, but to design the future "experimentally". Faith cannot "be kept as a treasure", for the Church had rather take in view its upcoming world-historical mission: to be "useful for the unity of the human family." In the globalized world, it needs a religion that would bring together people from different backgrounds and to understand and moderate social tensions associated with the process of globalization. And no religion is better suited for this task than Christianity. "A globalized, universal church in a globalized world."

One can not deny the brilliance of this vision and the optimism with which it is presented.

The church that doesn't take itself too seriously, but is completely absorbed in the service of humanity - doesn't that sound wonderful? What role can it play faced by such tasks, yesterday the mood still hard pressing with facts about church attendance, lack of priests, etc?

The Church as an entirely positive, respectful, understanding, life-companion of individuals in small and humanity at large - does not cut through the Gordian knot of an ailing institution at a stroke? Can not the Church apparatus happily gather again behind its chiefs under this program? An inveterate Philistine who does not follow that and rejects the new epoch! And yet it is probably inevitable that the pathway outlined here is critically examined.

Will the morality of the Catholic Church really be disposed of so easily in questions of human sexuality? How much responsibility will be needed (according to Bishop Bode is now next to Scripture and Tradition as a further theological knowledge source!) Not to interfere with the "real life world of men"? And even if the program falls to the dregs (Fifty Shades of Grey salutations): who in this society is concerned that his sexual practice is calculated and approved by the Catholic Church?

Even more fundamentally, is the now constantly touted contrast between the dented and dirty Church, "out on the street" for the people and the Church, from "within" is thrilled with the pure, but ultimately useless truth would not be an arrant bugbear? Does not just their knowledge of the self stand based on this truth, the Church always enables them to be with us and fills them with a burning desire to bring these people from "outside" to "inside"? Is faith not yet a treasure and should it not be protected very well in a world, whose church assisted unity according to all experience violently opposes it? Can the Church still claim of itself to be the foundation established by the Lord Jesus Christ, if it does not quite specifically give the graces to the people who are entrusted to her alone, to whom the Lord entrusted them alone and whose charge wasn't just the membership of the human family, but is implied by the inclusion in the "Una Sancta"? Can they "live usefully" sub specie aetemitatis without recalling to the people every day, the hard evangelical truths of sin, justice, and to do penance?

And since when has the Church been at all interested in being part of "great historical moments?"

German Catholics will have to ask themselves whether they want to go with the upstream in the last days and the chosen path. Whether for the pottage of lentils, they will accept a "great future as a tool of the unity of the global human family" giving up the principle of the Apostle Paul, "tradidi quod et accepi - I have handed down to you what I have received."

Perhaps there are not so few who will come to the conclusion that: non possumus!

Dr. phil. Michael Schäfer was assistant of the Romano Guardini Chair of the LMU Munich and works in the management of a Stuttgart-based, international management consultancy. He leads the blog summa-summarum.blogspot.de

Link to Kath.net... Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com AMDG

Record Building Costs in the Archdiocese of Munich and No "Swank Cardinal" - Campagne -- The Background

Expenditure Politics of the German Bishops' Conferene

(Munich) "Are punitive measures soon to be weighed against the power hungry Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Cardinal of Munich and Freising?" Asks Corrispondenza Romana . Will the German press launch a campaign against the "Swank-Cardinal"? Will Rome exile Cardinal Marx   for a break in a monastery and then  cashier him coldly? If you read the numbers on the cost of construction for the Archdiocesan campus in Munich, one would have to expect a repeat of the outrage, as occurred in the case of Limburg, only harder.

The Archdiocese is currently building a chancery  in the city on the Isar. Now, the costs have been published. 51 million euros for the beautification of the Archdiocese, says Vicar General Peter Beer. At seven and a half million more than recently estimated, because the roof was to blame. Whether you have reached the end of the story, it seems not yet to be clear.

The diocesan employees were outsourced for the construction and distributed to six locations with additional costs. There they have to stay longer than planned. Probably until the end of the 2015.

Limburg Bishop Subjected to Public Lynching

However, it is surprisingly quiet in the media forest. The calm before the storm? Not at all. Really amazing when you think back to the smear campaign against the Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter van Elst Tebartz who went through all the tabloids last year. From the "bishop of bling" was the kind of talk  which was circulated by the media or better by the cocoa poured to the amusement of the "people".  There was talk about a gilded bathtub  and particularly brave, intelligent contemporaries   actually made a determined search, but they could find nothing.

The bishop was summoned to Rome and is supposed, according to his own claims, to have had an encouraging conversation with Pope Francis. And so it happened: the "hopeful" bishop had been banned by the Pope to a convent and after being allowed to mull  over the matter with some Montegras, so that the pious people of God might not yet even think of an uprising, he was deposed.

If in Doubt It's Against the "Conservatives"

The reason was suddenly no longer the money. The bishop had divided the diocese. In fact, it was because the bishop was, according to the progressives, a  "conservative",  "pious" and "normative", they have broken away from him. But in the German Conference of Bishops in Rome and saw it differently. They wanted to see it differently anyway. The maxim is too long: in  a case of doubt for the faithful shepherd. Since we in our time should but always consider the positive things, can also be applied to the devise: translated "When in doubt, for the Progressive". Ideal are bishops who find themselves  easily "in the middle of society," so when in doubt they rub elbows with "progressive" secular elites too much.

Cardinal Meisner defended his brother Limburger and praised his "theological depth and decidedly Catholic orientation". A description of the Tebartz van Elst that already stood out from the majority of the German bishops. But nobody wanted to hear, media, liberal laity and priests and Brothers in the Episcopate had tasted blood. The hypocrites indeed railed mightily  about the money, but in reality it was about a factional dispute within the Church. The mob, which calls for the crucifixion, is there  always.

Behind Money Debate There Was Factional Dispute in the Bishops' Conference

It was just Cardinal Marx, who vehemently and also in Rome campaigned for the removal of Tebartz van Elst. So loudly that Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne at that time  pointed to the lack of "episcopal fraternity" being exhibited at the time for the Limburger Pastor, who was actively exposed by  some clergy and lay church officials to a public lynching. Meisner called out Cardinal Marx explicitly by name. And what the attitude of the German bishops was really  concerned with: Only a handful of bishops in the Bishops' Conference had resisted the Marx-Woelki-Langendörfer-Synod which attempted to enforce the sexual revolution in the Church.

The Archdiocese of Munich is to rebuild its chancery for 51 million euros. Maybe even more. Nevertheless, there will be neither a front page on the Bild newspaper with a portrait of Cardinal Marx and the accusatory headline "Swank-Cardinal". There is neither a cost-campaign, nor accusations of being in a race to spend  against the President of the German Bishops Conference. The indifferent silence to Munich's case reveals the "Bling" campaign directed against Limburg as a hypocritical intrigue.

Limburg's deposed Bishop Tebartz van Elst belonged to the disruptive minority in the Episcopal Conference, which defends the priest celibacy, which is against a "democratization" of the Church with free elections of bishops and priests, who is against women priests, against the genuflection before the zeitgeist,  against the sale of the marriage sacrament in favor of remarried divorcees, and against  "gay marriage," wild marriages and all other "gradual" forms of cohabitation.

Cardinal Marx, however, is DBK President, he represents the majority. He may, as a members of the Synod in Rome continue unabashedly to represent a "new openness" and "new charity",  demanding a change in pastoral practice and even the Church's teaching on the sacrament of marriage. Any questions?

What happens to bishops, who disturb too much that "episcopal unity", seem to have become a very valuable commodity among Zeitgeist sailors, at least where Progressives set the tone, that's well known, especially since the dismissal of Bishop Rogelio Livieres of Ciudad del Este .

Text: Andreas Becker
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches..

AMGD

Marx: "German Bishops Stand Behind Kasper" -- Schönborn Also

Cardinal Marx and behind, Archbishop Zollitsch

(Rome) "The majority of the German bishops are in agreement with Kasper's proposal," Cardinal Reinhard Marx said on Monday, and so made outright admission of remarried divorcees from Communion. He took in the Synod Hall     immediately after the Relatio of the Rapporteur Cardinal Erdo.  Austria's Cardinal Schönborn agreed with Kasper. The German-speaking bishops in the Synod of Bishops immediately went on the offensive and sought to assume leadership. The new edition of the Rhenish alliance has already taken place in the German language area. The "Liberal" party is well organized.

Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference , soon also Chairman of the Conference of European Bishops' Conferences, representative of Europe in the C9-Cardinals' Advisory to advise Pope Francis for reform of the Curia and management of the universal Church and chairman of the new Economic Council of the Holy See. A man with influence and in full awareness of his power .

German Offensive

"The Synod has a very open atmosphere," said the German cardinal. Even his Austrian counterpart, Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn immediately signaled a readiness to be open  regarding the "positive elements" of civil marriage.

"We have discussed and deepened this topic and I've written the Secretariat of the Synod to inform him" about the German position, Cardinal Marx, whom Benedict XVI. named in 2008 as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, with which he has enabled his rise to his the current positions. Marx, born in 1953, has been Bishop of Trier since 2002  and before that  in 1996, he was Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn.  

"In Germany we have decided that the debate should be public. Pius XII. had spoken of the public opinion in the Church and we need to see the family as it is today and talk about all issues and all challenges with pastoral sensitivity. For Christians, the truth is not a system of ideas, but a living person with whom we are in  dialog," said  Marx at the press conference of Vatican Radio .

In the Synod Hall there is  no climate of conflict, just to listen and be respectful. One must look at the complexity of reality and also to the life stories of people who are or were not always all positive or all negative.

No to Faster Approval of the Nullity of Marriage Instead of Communion for Remarried Divorcees

Marx also added that the German bishops were not interested in an acceleration of the marriage annulment process.  Benedict XVI. had already called for an acceleration of  methods while dealing with the same content, as a possible answer to the drama of failed marriages, because it is lawful to examine the validity of the marriage.

Cardinal Schönborn stands behind Kasper: the new Rhenish Alliance

But the German bishops  do not want to keep putting it off. They demand as the only acceptable response to  current "real life", the approval of remarried divorcees to Communion. At least, this is the suggestion  of Cardinal Marx.  Because if the marriage foundered after many years, it is difficult to decide whether the marriage validly occured or not. Finally, want to "we do not want to think about   a kind of 'Catholic divorce'', said the Cardinal dialectically.

Cardinal Burke Spokesman of the "Conservatives"

On the afternoon of the first day   Synod,  after Cardinal Walter Kasper , Cardinal Raymond Burke also took the floor. He belongs with four other cardinals, as  the author of a book against Kasper's proposal. Cardinal Kasper is,  with papal benevolence, the spokesman of the "liberal" party, Cardinal Burke is regarded as the spokesperson of the "Conservative" party. In psychological guerrilla warfare that was tried before the Synod, to set the traditional to beset the Cardinal with rumors and threats of pressure. It is noticeable also that in the external perception of the Synod, what penetrates widely to the outside was represented as the opinion of the "Liberals", while those of the "conservatives" on the other hand,  should have been largely suppressed. The progressive Dehoniana journal Il Regno, which is close to the school of Bologna, set up a special website to continually report on the Synod's activity. A filtered reporting.

Cardinal Schönborn's (expected) Shoulder to Shoulder with Kasper

In the afternoon, Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna and President of the Austrian Bishops' Conference and Ratzinger disciple, spoke up. He shared a number of Kasper's statements about the existence of elements of Christian marriage in the civil marriage: the public obligation, the duty to the spouse, the stability and more. As the Second Vatican Council has recognized that the true Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church, but it is possible to recognize elements of  Church also in the other churches and Christian communities, so it would be possible, given these positive elements of Christian marriage to recognize civil marriages. Therefore, with Kasper's  consideration, one could, for a time of penance, consider the situation of remarried divorcees on a case by case basis, and admit them to the sacraments.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Il Foglio / eponymousflower.blogspot
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches....
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