The Pius Fraternity apparently maintains its confrontation with the Catholic Church despite the Vatican's reconciliatory gestures. As reported by the "Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger", the next date of priestly ordinations, which are forbidden to the four bishops of the Pius Brotherhood, is scheduled for the end of June. Meanwhile, the Bishops' Conference has offered clarifying talks to the Central Council of Jews.
The Catholic German Bishops' Conference wants to mitigate the damage done to its relationship with the Central Council of Jews because of the Pope debate. Chairman Archbishop Robert Zollitsch has invited the Central Council to a clarifying discussion. Meanwhile, the secretary general of the Central Council, Stefan Kramer again called on the Pope to clearly distance himself from the Pius Brotherhood and Holocaust denier Richard Williamson. In a letter from the Bishops' Conference to Kramer, it says: "The discussion of the past few days proves that one should reare oneself of common ground and solidarity, instead of aming an inability to dialogue."Kramer also emphasized the common ground between the two religions, but said it was being disrupted by the Pius Fraternity. The pope should end this "field trial" with the Pius Fraternity, "because he risks splitting the church and losing perhaps hundreds of thousands of forward-looking Catholic members," Kramer said.
Jaschke: Revise decision The auxiliary bishop in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Hamburg, Hans Jochen Jaschke, echoed Kramer's demand. At the same time, Jaschke blamed the Vatican for the Pope's criticism in Germany. The occasion for this was given by the Vatican itself "through a sloppy decision that was not properly prepared". He is sure that the denial of the Holocaust has not reached the pope. Jaschke criticized the pope's decision. He ames, however, that the latter can repair the damage by admitting his mistake and quickly revising the decision.
Bishop Muller rejects criticism of the Pope by the Central Council of Jews Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller of Regensburg rejects criticism of Pope Benedict XVI from the Central Council of Jews in the debate on dealing with the Pius Fraternity. The "righteous indignation" over Holocaust denier and traditionalist bishop Richard Williamson does not entitle anyone "to insinuate aberrant motives on the part of the pope or even to make demands that are not covered by the teachings and law of the church," Muller told the ddp news agency in Regensburg.He shares with the Central Council of Jews "and all people of good will" the indignation "about the insane theses" of Williamson. "But the interpretation that the Pope has rehabilitated a Holocaust denier is fundamentally wrong," Muller emphasized.With regard to the Central Council's demand for a complete renunciation of the Pius Fraternity, Muller said that the pope and the bishops would now deal with the Pius Fraternity "in a way that corresponds to their pastoral task and their office". "No one can ask anything else from us."It is clear that Williamson has shown himself unworthy of exercising the episcopate, the Regensburg bishop continued, stressing, "Only if he retracts his scandalous statements can he return to the Catholic Church with a changed inner and outer attitude, but he must leave the clerical state."Muller does not see a future for the Pius Fraternity in the Church: "I, too, am of the opinion that if the Pius Fraternity returns to the Church, it must dissolve itself and its priests and followers must reintegrate themselves into the life of the dioceses and parishes."
Low consecration already last Sunday As reported by the "Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger", the next date of priestly ordinations, which are forbidden to the four bishops of the Pius Brotherhood, is scheduled for the end of June. Last Sunday, the superior of the brotherhood, the Swiss bishop Bernherd Fellay, had given so-called lower ordinations to prospective clergymen in the seminary of the Pius Brotherhood in Zaitzkofen near Regensburg. Fellay, like the other three rehabilitated bishops of the fraternity, remains suspended, he said.Peter Kramer, a canon lawyer from Trier, interpreted the consecration as a sign that the apostate bishops were not willing to submit to the discipline of the Catholic Church. The Munster church law expert Klaus Ludicke doubted that the traditionalists were at all concerned with reintegration into the church. Rather, with the withdrawal of the excommunication, they would have achieved the removal of an obstacle that had previously hindered the influx of ultraconservative Catholics to them.Klaus Ludicke, an ecclesiastical lawyer from Munster, doubted that the traditionalists were really concerned with reintegration into the Catholic Church. With the withdrawal of the excommunication, they would rather have achieved the removal of an obstacle that had so far made it difficult for them to attract ultraconservative Catholics. In the meantime, the German District Superior of the Priestly Fraternity Pius X., Franz Schmidberger, the expression "child abuser" for the prophet Mohammed "with great regret" back. In a statement published in Stuttgart on Thursday evening, Schmidberger emphasizes that this choice of words is likely to "hurt Muslims in their religious feelings". In a SWR interview broadcast the same evening, the district superior says that Mohammed had sexual intercourse with an eight- or nine-year-old girl. That would be called "according to today's terminology actually a child abuser". But he wouldn't commit to it, he said, because he has "not studied Islam specifically".
