Cardinal Directs Harmless Questions At Hard-Nosed Heresy

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, 91, confronted Bishop Georg Bätzing, the president of the German Bishops' Conference, with very cautious questions after Bätzing had called for an ordination of women.

Brandmüller pretended to be naïve before Kath.net (30 December) asking whether Bätzing had really made such statements:

"Did you actually say, in contradiction to the Church's unbroken tradition and notwithstanding Saint John Paul II's definitive and infallible declaration that the ordination of women to the diaconate and priesthood was possible, and even desirable?"

If he did, then the Cardinal reminds that Bätzing took an oath of allegiance to the Church’s doctrine and discipline before he was consecrated a bishop: "How do you want to explain this contradiction between then and now?"

Brandmüller justifies himself by saying that he would have preferred to address Bätzing in private. But since Bätzing contradicted the Church's teaching in public he therefore needed a public answer.

Picture: Walter Brandmüller, #newsExzjtvbcpc