The Cardinal's approach is typically German. Germans tend to be philosophical Idealists, which makes it all but impossible to apply a moral principle to a concrete situation. And so many years ago German thought turned toward Existentialism and all but abandoned any attempt to apply the principle. They insist they don't contradict the moral principle by not applying it. In fact, they have made it irrelevant and unattainable pie in the sky, and the false gradualism proposed by Cardinal Marx is the consequence.

Despite the well known German love and respect for education and scholarship, Germany has never produced a great theologian who was expert in the thought of St Thomas. There have been men like Pieper and Grabmann, but the former was not really a theologian, and the latter never attained the status of a Garrigou LaGrange or Santiago Ramirez.