Cardinal Gerhard Müller has criticised the way in which Pope Francis dismissed him as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), calling it “unacceptable”.
In an interview with the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse, the cardinal said that on the last working day of his five-year term as prefect Pope Francis informed him “within a minute” of the decision not to extend his mandate.
“He did not give a reason,” the 69-year-old cardinal said. “Just as he gave no reason for dismissing three highly competent members of the CDF a few months earlier.”
He added: “I cannot accept this way of doing things. As a bishop, one cannot treat people in this way.
“I have said this before – the Church’s social teaching must also be applied to the way employees are treated here in the Vatican.”
The cardinal said that he spoke to the late Cardinal Joachim Meisner about his dismissal by telephone just hours before his death. “It moved and hurt him personally. He thought it would harm the Church,” Cardinal Müller said.
In their conversation, Cardinal Meisner reportedly expressed concern over the current situation in the Church, especially “the quarrelling, disputes and discussions which were standing in the way of Church unity and the truth”.
Cardinal Müller refused to take sides over the dubia, suggesting instead that he mediate a meeting between Francis and the three remaining cardinals. But he added that attempts by Cardinal Walter Kasper, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and others to “achieve a balancing act between dogma and pastoral practice are simply not convincing”.
Bicycle bishop’ asked to lead Europe’s largest diocese
Pope Francis has named Bishop Mario Delpini as the new head of the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy’s largest diocese.He replaces Cardinal Angelo Scola, who is retiring at the age of 75 after leading the Church in Milan since 2011.
Bishop Delpini, an auxiliary bishop in Milan who had been serving as the vicar general of the archdiocese, is known as a hard-working, humble but strong pastor who travels around the city on a bicycle and lives in a small flat in a residence for priests.
He is the author of a book of etiquette for priests aimed at helping “free them from the dead weight of a kind of clericalism, from the ‘reverend complex’, and from a bit of clumsy managerial hyper-efficiency”, according to the book’s description. Written in Italian in 1998, it is entitled: Reverend, Where’s Your Manners! Tiny Pastoral (book of) Etiquette. Loving and Laid-Back Notes for Priests Journeying Towards the Third Millennium. He has also written a collection of allegories for children.
The bishop was a seminary rector in Milan before Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop of the city in 2007.
First nurse to be beatified
A Polish nurse who inspired St John Paul II is to be declared a Blessed.Hanna Chrzanowska (1902-1973), a Benedictine oblate and champion of the chronically sick and poor, is thought to be the first registered nurse to be beatified. In his memoirs St John Paul II said he learnt most about the needs of the sick from her. She is best known for setting up a parish nursing initiative in Kraków.
