Cardinal Calling out Heretics

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Germany's Cardinal Walter Brandmüller is calling out unfaithful bishops who push heterodox ideas.

The cardinal states, “A change of the teaching is unthinkable. Who nevertheless consciously does it, or insistently demands it, is a heretic—even if he wears the Roman Purple.”

He’s addressing the notion that the Church could invite people living in adulterous civil marriages to receive Holy Communion. This idea is most prominently advanced by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, who’s been promoting it for the last few decades. It’s known as “the Kasper proposal” and is already on the table for this Fall’s Ordinary Synod in Rome.

Brandmüller sees all this as part of a general loss of faith in the Church, a loss he attributes to relativism and individualism.

However, the cardinal isn’t opposed to all kinds of change. He agrees that the way the Church proclaims Her teachings should change based on people’s situations.

Brandmüller also addresses recent statements made by Cardinal Reinhard Marx. Marx is president of the German bishops’ conference and a notorious advocate of the Kasper proposal. Asked about the German bishops’ plan to issue their own pastoral letter on marriage after the Synod, Marx insisted, “We are not just a subsidiary of Rome.”

Brandmüller, rebuking Marx’s ideas, now warns, “If he thinks that he can take nationally an independent path, he puts the unity of the Church at risk.”

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