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Thursday, December 28, 2017

BOMBSHELL: THE LATE POPE BENEDICT XVI SPEAKS TO CARDINAL MULLER ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY!



This is but a redaction of a four page letter. Hopefully we will be able to read the entire letter for what is implied in it by the late pope.

The Late Pope Benedict XVI: Cardinal Müller will continue to serve the faithEven though Gerhard Ludwig Müller is no longer Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith: "A cardinal is never simply retired" - his friend and patron Benedict XVI writes to His Eminence.Theology | Vatican City - 27.12.2017Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller will continue to "publicly serve the faith". The emeritus Pope Benedict XVI writes to him, in a greeting to a commemorative on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the former prefect of the Congregation of the Faith convinced. Although Müller, after the end of his five-year term as prefect, "no longer held a specific office, but a priest and certainly a bishop and cardinal is never simply retired."
In his welcoming address, the emeritus pope honors the work of Muller in Rome, first as a member of the International Theological Commission, where he was "especially struck by the wealth of your knowledge and the fidelity to the faith of the Church." After the retirement of Cardinal William Levada as Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, Müller was "the most suitable bishop" for succeeding the American. As a prefect, the former Bishop of Regensburg endeavored to work "not only as a scholar, but as a sage, as a father in the church": "You defended the clear traditions of the faith, but in the spirit of Pope Francis sought an understanding, how they can be lived today. "
Wealth of knowledge, faithfulness to faith
In the four-page letter Benedikt recalls how Müller gave him an edition of his "Catholic Dogmatics for the Study and Practice of Theology" in 1995. In Muller's dogmatics, the emeritus Pope sees the project of a compact compilation of the faith of the church in a volume as realized. Benedict himself had not been able to realize a plan of his own accord because of his manifold duties as a council theologian, archbishop of Munich and Freising, and finally Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. He particularly pays tribute to Müller's account of the faith of the church "as unity and wholeness," so that "the ultimate simplicity of faith becomes visible through all complicated theological reflections."
This is the mark of a good theologian, says Benedict: "In my opinion, a great theologian will not be treated by being able to handle clever and difficult details, but by being able to represent the ultimate unity and simplicity of faith."
The greeting is preceded by the commemorative publication "The Triune God: Christian Faith in the Secular Age", which commemorates the 70th birthday of Gerhard Ludwig Müller on 31 December. It is published by the director of the Regensburg Benedict XVI Foundation, Christian Schaller, and the Vallendarer dogmatist George Augustine. The authors include Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the recently awarded the Ratzinger Prize Bonn dogmatist Karl -Heinz Menke and the former Rector of the Philosophical-Theological College Benedict XVI. Holy Cross, Karl Wallner. Benedict XVI. himself regrets in his greeting that he himself was "no longer able" to write a "proper scientific contribution". (Fxn)

3 comments:

Woody said...

Presumably you mean here "emeritus Pope" not late (as in deceased, God forbid!) Pope.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

A bit of irony given the uniqueness of having two popes. We don't call "late pope's" emeritus. So Pope Benedict is still called pope like Pope Pius XII although there is a living reigning pope in Francis.

ByzRus said...

Why I appreciate Benedict:

"In my opinion, a great theologian will not be treated by being able to handle clever and difficult details, but by being able to represent the ultimate unity and simplicity of faith."

I'm not a theologian and Benedict always makes it understandable.