|
 |
Wolves in Wolf's Clothing
by Christopher A. Ferrara
 That’s
gratitude for you. No sooner does Karl Lehmann get his Cardinal’s hat than
he calls for a Third Vatican Council to address “problems” with the
papacy. This is the same Cardinal Lehmann who, as Bishop Lehmann, publicly
defied the Pope’s directive that the German bishops cease issuing
“counselling” certificates to German women which they were using to
obtain abortions.
Now we find
that, according to The Tablet (April 28, 2001), the Vatican Secretary of
State, Angelo Sodano, “had originally supported Lehmann’s position in
the controversy over whether the Catholic Church in Germany should continue to
provide some of the pregnancy counselling centers there, as Lehmann desired.
The question was whether the Church was colluding in abortion by issuing
certificates confirming that pregnant women in distress had been given
counselling, if these were then used to secure a termination. It had been
Sodano’s opinion that such matters could be decided by the local
bishops’ conferences, but eventually he was forced to sign a decree
together with Ratzinger which compelled the German Catholic bishops to pull out
. . .” This is the same Cardinal Sodano who, in his famous address at the
Lateran in 1998, praised the writings of Hans Küng, and called him
“the German theologian,” even though Cardinal Ratzinger (by order of
John Paul II) had stripped Küng of his theological credentials in 1998.
The
Tablet sees in the elevation of Lehmann and his fellow dissenter in the
German episcopate, Bishop Walter Kasper (whose writings cast doubt on the
Bodily Resurrection and the existence of the person of Satan), the end of the
“Ratzinger era.” The newspaper noted that “During the ceremony
in St. Peter’s Square, it was noticeable how cordially Cardinal Sodano,
Secretary of State, embraced Cardinal Lehmann at the kiss of peace, whereas
Cardinal Ratzinger’s congratulation was monosyllabic.”
Interesting,
Cardinal Sodano, who oversees the persecution of Father Nicholas Gruner, warmly
embraces a Cardinal who defended the practice of Church facilities issuing
abortion certificates used to kill children in the womb. And now we have two
new German Cardinals—Lehmann and Kasper—who take it as their mission
to undermine the centrality of the Roman Church for the sake of ecumenism.
Cardinal Kasper has just published an article rejecting Cardinal
Ratzinger’s theological statement The Church as Communion, which he
issued in 1992 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This
document (however ambiguously) upholds the primacy of the universal Church,
centered in Rome, over local “particular churches.” As The Tablet
notes: “Lehmann and Kasper seek to curb Roman centralism in favor of
the teachings of the Second Vatican Council”—that is, “the
‘progressive’ interpretation of Vatican II . . .” Cardinal
Kasper in particular objects to the notion that “the one universal Church
is . . . identified with the Roman Church, and de facto with the Pope and the
Roman Curia.” That is, he objects to the constant teaching of the Church
that, as Saint Pius XII affirmed in Humani Generis, “the Mystical
Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing.”
The
Tablet also noted that “In criticizing Roman centralism, Cardinal
Kasper was speaking not only as a theologian, but as the president-to-be of the
Council for Promoting Christian Unity.” God help us. The man in charge of
“ecumenism” at the Vatican does not believe in the primacy of the
Roman Church.
Our Lord warned
us about wolves in sheep’s clothing who would come in to ravage the flock
after He had ascended to Heaven. But here we are dealing with wolves in
wolf’s clothing, who can be seen a mile away. Why in heaven’s
name was this pair of professional Church-wreckers given red hats?
Previous Articles
|
|
 Printer friendly
|
|