In an interview with the National Catholic Register, the German cardinal spoke about the Church’s mission in times of pandemic.
Newsroom (04/12/2021 11:30 AM, Gaudium Press) Ecclesiastics are now making a mea culpa, or at least a culpa alterius, for the Church’s manner in accepting too submissive and sometimes even promoting unwarranted restrictions on worship due to the pandemic, which spiritually harmed the faithful and the Church itself.
Earlier, Gaudium Press reported the criticism of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s secretary, Msgr. Ganswein, who said, referring to Germany, that the soul was worth more than the body, and that it seemed that this was not very clear when harsh restrictions were imposed on religious services.
Now the National Catholic Register has recorded the words of Cardinal Gerhard Müller on the same subject. The Cardinal, in an interview to NCR, expresses that the current response of some bishops and priests in closing churches or denying the sacraments on the occasion of the pandemic is a “grave sin” that goes against their “God-given Authority.”
Referring to the few dioceses in Germany where only those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered from the virus can attend masses, the cardinal stated that these decisions were “shocking evidence of how much secularization and de-Christianization of thought have already hit the shepherds of Christ’s flock.”
The Church and governments must “work for social cohesion,” and avoid divisive rhetoric that labels some as “conspiracy theorists” or “sinners against charity,” the cardinal expressed. Priests and bishops “must not offer themselves as courtiers to the rulers of this world and become their propagandists.
Some basic principles
The cardinal, who is an expert theologian and was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, listed some principles that should guide action in these pandemic times:
1) The common good must be the determining factor that, in certain circumstances, can restrict, if not abolish, the freedom of the individual.
2) Vaccine production must be ethically sound,
3) Medical, psychological, social consequences and side effects must be measurable and proportionate to the expected benefits.
Unfortunately, many governments have lost the trust of the public through chaotic measures that have contradictory logic.
He also expressed that in many cases, regulations have been compromised and contaminated by the financial and political interests of ideological lobbies and pharmaceutical giants. Instead of uniting society in the fight against the pandemic, the powers that be in politics, the mainstream media, and Big Tech have ruthlessly exploited the situation to promote the “Grand Reset” agenda, i.e. totalitarian thinking. Even in families, people disagree with each other.”
Seek unity, not division
“But in a crisis, Church and state leaders must work toward cohesion and avoid discriminating against dissenters, calling them ‘conspiracy theorists,’ ‘sinners against charity.’ Otherwise, they are guilty of the divisive conduct of which they publicly accuse others,” he clarified.
Regarding decisions such as the one in Berlin requiring vaccine passports to attend masses, Card. Muller stated that it is “contrary to Divine Law if access to the Church’s means of grace, that is, to the sacraments of Christ, is prevented or even prohibited by state authorities. For bishops to close their churches or deny the sacraments to people seeking help is a grave sin against their God-given authority.”
“Bishops, however, as successors of the apostles, are not rulers according to the ways of the world, but ministers of the Word and ministers of Christ’s grace. Something different is the observance of reasonable rules to prevent the transmission of disease. But this cannot be used to justify refusing the sacraments on principle. For the grace of eternal life must take precedence over temporal goods.”
The Eucharist is the eternal medicine
On how the Church should respond to the needs in times of crisis, such as this pandemic, the German cardinal said that “places of worship and people’s hearts must be wide open so that they can seek refuge in God, from whom all help comes. All vaccines have a limited temporal effect. No medicine or technical invention can save us from temporal and eternal death. The Bread that Jesus gives is the cure for eternal death and, with no expiration date, the food for eternal life. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. (John 6:51). And that is why, at the beginning of the second century, the martyred bishop Ignatius of Antioch, in his Letter to the Church of Ephesus (20:2), was able to call the Eucharist the ‘medicine of immortality’.”
“The task of the bishops is to administer the Eucharist to the faithful, not to keep them from it. Personal devotion at home and virtual co-celebration on screens cannot replace real, physical presence in the assembly of the faithful because we are bodily and social beings. Therefore, God’s grace and truth are communicated to us through the Incarnation of his Son and shared with us in the community of the Church. It is his body. In the Eucharist, Christ is hidden, but really present with his divinity and his humanity, in flesh and blood,” the cardinal concluded.
With information for the National Catholic Register
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier