Says clerics 'rightly disobey' prelates ordering open Communion
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Cardinal Gerhard Müller is speaking out against bishops who order their priests to admit Protestants to Holy Communion.
Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, stressed that clerics are duty-bound to refuse such orders,
saying they "rightly disobey" bishops who mandate such action.
The cardinal's statements come in the wake of an erroneous
pronouncement by German Bp. Felix Genn, head of the diocese of
Münster. On Nov. 20, Genn published a pastoral guide featuring new
directives, introduced by the German bishops earlier this year, that
open the door to Communion for Protestant spouses of Catholics. In the
Münster guide, Bp. Genn endorsed the new directives, claiming, "As
pastoral caretakers, we do not have the right to allow or deny access to
the Eucharist. It is irreconcilable, strictly, to deny Holy Communion."
In a statement
provided to LifeSiteNews, Cdl. Müller warned that any prelate
propagating heresy subverts his own authority: "Bishops would undermine
their authority, were they to demand obedience to violations against the
natural moral law and false teachings in doctrinal and moral
questions," said Müller. In such cases, he added, "each Catholic, and
especially each pastor, is duty-bound — as St. Paul toward St. Peter
— to openly 'withstand him to the face, because he was to be blamed.'"
Cardinal Müller reiterated that no priest is bound to obey an order to admit Protestants, or any other non-Catholic, to Holy Communion. Instead, Müller said, his duty is to avoid violating "the sacramentality of the Church."
"Obviously, the former Archbishop of Washington, McCarrick, demanded
from seminarians and priests immoral acts by abusing his power in order
to reward or punish people," observed Müller. "It would be just as bad
if a bishop, by appealing to 'religious obedience,' which the priests
and faithful of his diocese owe him, were to demand from them a
proclamation and pastoral care that deviates from the 'truth of the
Gospels.'"
Holy Communion may only be worthily
received by a baptized Christian who stands in full communion with the
Catholic Church in her Creed (= doctrine), her Sacraments, and the Pope
and bishops.
"Some bishops are liberal," the cardinal noted, "that is to say,
lenient and indifferent in the doctrine, yes, nearly relativistic, while
they at the same time act in a hyper-authoritarian manner toward
orthodox Catholics and can only implement threats and punishments."
Cardinal Müller attributed this doctrinal drift to "the
secularization of the Church" — a process, he said, that blinds victims
to the encroachment of heresy and undercuts their ability to defend the
Faith. He went on to reaffirm that "Holy Communion may only be worthily
received by a baptized Christian who stands in full communion with the
Catholic Church in her Creed (= doctrine), her Sacraments, and the Pope
and bishops."
"The German bishops," Müller continued, "with their handout
concerning Communion for Protestant spouses — which has been worked up
in a theologically defective manner — clearly overstepped their
magisterial competence, as the Congregation for the Faith with the
approval of Pope Francis has stated."
"It cannot be left up to the conscience of the Catholic faithful or
non-Catholic Christian whether he wishes to receive Holy Communion in
the Catholic sense," he added, "or whether, rather, he gives Holy
Communion a Lutheran meaning or a humanistic (that is to say that which
fosters a sense of community) meaning."
A priest, the cardinal stressed, "is not bound by Divine Law to
administer Holy Communion to a non-Catholic, and in any case, he
certainly cannot be bound by any episcopal order — purely according to
Church law — to commit an act which violates and obfuscates the
sacramentality of the Church."
"A bishop who imposes penalties against priests who rightly disobey
him in this case," he added, "thereby abuses his apostolic authority in a
grave manner and has to answer for it before a higher ecclesial court
of the Pope."
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