Vatican Theologian Calls Virus Chastisement for Idolatry

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ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - One of the Church's most highly respected theologians, Msgr. Nicola Bux, is directly connecting the sins of the Church and the sins of the world with the Wuhan virus pandemic.

In a statement published on YouTube and an Italian publication, the expert in Eastern Christian theology, sacramental theology and liturgy — and former consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — invoked the ancient words of Genesis, saying the current sins of humanity "cry out to Heaven for vengeance."

He began with a warning to Church leaders about idolatry. In what many see as a thinly veiled reference to the Pachamama worship that took place during last October's Amazon Synod, Bux called idolatry the "gravest sin," and said, "We gave in to idolatry ... by kneeling before heaps of earth and worshiping idolatrous statues even in St. Peter's Basilica."

In an interview with a French television station Dec. 10, Cdl. Raymond Burke echoed Bux's sentiments:

Something very grave happened during the special assembly of the bishops' synod for the Amazon region. An idol was introduced into St. Peter's Basilica — the figure of a demonic force ... Therefore reparation is necessary and also prayers, so that the diabolical forces that entered with this idol are vanquished by the grace of God, by Christ who wants St. Peter's Basilica to be purified of the sacrilegious act that took place during the Synod.

In a speech worthy of an Old Testament prophet, Bux is especially offended by beliefs that are turning churches:

into shelters and inns when we had much better facilities to accommodate the poor and migrants. We have forgotten what a church is for and why it is dedicated with solemn rite. We have committed abuses, profanations in the sacred liturgy and unbearable deformations, insults and irreverence, we have gone so far as to say that the grace of God can coexist with a situation of habitual sin, authorizing sacrilegious Communions given to unrepentant sinners.

Outrage over the Amazon Synod's Pachamama idolatry motivated Alexander Tschugguel, a young, Austrian Catholic, to collect the statues from their display in a church near the Vatican and throw them into the Tiber.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal nuncio-turned-whistleblower, said of Tschugguel, "I think that this young man is a hero ... He is a person who wished to defend the First Commandment."

Understanding the current secular climate dominating the globe, Bux tells his YouTube viewers, "Today, the word 'chastisement' arouses scandal even among churchmen, because they have forgotten that, at the beginning of world history, after love, there is sin, anger and judgment." In previous times of testing, Catholics would be motivated to form pious processions, take vows or fast.

Bux also laments the loss of personal devotions. "Most Catholics have not been trained in adoration, recollection on their knees, personal prayer done in secret, where the Father alone sees us."

In a little more than a week, Bux's YouTube statement has received nearly 14,000 views as well as dozens of comments.

"We have legalized one by one all the sins that transgress the commandments. We have transformed them from intrinsic evil into good while pouring insults on those who told us the truth and warned us of the abyss in which we were falling," said one commenter, Mario Grossi. "We turned evil over for good, and now COVID is putting everything back in its place."

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