The German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, until 2017 as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, supreme guardian of the Catholic teaching, criticized the development of the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Francis. Speaking to Der Spiegel, Müller said that the Argentinian pontiff was sadly surrounded by "people who do not understand much about theology and the church's social doctrine but do not want to abandon the centuries-old courting mentality."

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For the "courtiers" in the Vatican, according to Müller, "any incidental remark by Francis, even in an interview, is considered sacrosanct, as if God himself had spoken." What the Pope says as a private person does not apply to infallibility in matters of faith the least to do. " The Pope moves with his interviews through "mined terrain", so "in secular questions" restraint would be desirable. (Read the whole conversation at SPIEGEL + here.)

Referring to the Vatican's February 21st meeting on the subject of sexual abuse by clerics, Mueller countered Cardinal Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, by pointing to an alleged link between homosexuality and abuse: "well over 80 percent Victims of sexual abuse of adolescents up to the age of 18 were young men of adolescent or post-pubertal age ".

These statistics from the Congregation of the Faith, criticizes Müller, would be ignored at the upcoming summit. "Who can not control himself, is not suitable for the priesthood." Beautiful words do not help there, by the way, I am of the opinion that no human willingly as a homosexual is born, "said Müller.

The Curia Cardinal emphasizes that, unlike some critics, he does not think that Pope Francis is a heretic, but that he is "orthodox in the Catholic sense". The problem of the Pope is rather that he makes "dependent on Zuträgern and their often base motives", including at the forefront of Germans who sit in the "theological descent to the top of the train and play the locomotive of the universal Church " wanted to. It could not be "that the universal Church is governed by the rules of the Jesuit Order to which the Pope belongs.

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