Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller sees a "pogrom mood" developing against the Catholic Church. Muller deplores targeted discrediting campaigns against the Catholic Church in North America and Europe.
In an interview published Friday on "Welt online," the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says there is an "artificially generated rage growing here that is occasionally already reminiscent of a pogrom mood today".
These would have led to clergy being publicly snubbed in some areas. In Internet blogs and also on television, there are attacks against the Catholic Church, "whose armor goes back to the struggle of totalitarian ideologies against Christianity," the archbishop said.
Criticism of the dialog process
At the same time, Muller criticized the dialogue process currently underway in Germany between the bishops and the Catholic lay movement. "Dialogue process is good. But you also have to talk about the essentials and not keep bringing up the same problems over and over again," said the prefect, who was bishop of Regensburg until his appointment to Rome. Muller sees a reform backlog in the Catholic Church only insofar as "the essential ies are not being addressed: participation in the sacraments, knowledge of the faith". The word reform should "not be confiscated in order to slow down the actual renewal in Christ".
According to Muller, one of the recurring themes is the demand for a sacramental ordination ministry for women. "It is not possible. Not because women are worth less, but because it is in the nature of the sacrament of Holy Orders that Christ is represented in it as a bridegroom in relation to the bride," the archbishop argued. Muller continues: "Even an acceptance of same-sex partnerships is not possible for the Catholic Church. Such partnerships are in principle in no way to be equated with marriages."
Rejection of Prius brothers
The Vatican archbishop also holds fast to compulsory celibacy for priests: "The celibacy of priests corresponds to the example and word of Jesus and has found a special expression in the spiritual experience of the Latin Church."There is no sign that the responsible persons in the church would shake it. Celibacy is "laid down in the Gospel for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven."
Regarding the dispute with the Pius brothers, Muller said that the Vatican's patience with the apostate traditionalists is not endless: "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has presented the priestly brotherhood with the Dogmatic Preamble. There has been no response to this so far. But we do not wait endlessly."