"The Pope Is Not a Führer" - Cardinal Müller
“It is my duty to criticise this cult of personality,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the Catholic Church.”
The Cardinal rejected references to a “Church of Francis,” calling such language heretical. “There is no doctrine of Francis,” he said. “There is only the doctrine of the Church, which may be expressed by the Pope.”
He added that the same was true of Pope Benedict XVI: “The ‘Church of Benedict’ doesn’t exist.”
The Cardinal warned that some Catholics today vindicate historic Protestant criticisms by treating the Pope as a quasi-divine figure. “It has always been understood that the Pope is a bishop among other bishops,” he said, “the successor of Saint Peter and a principle of unity of the Church — not a unity made by man, but one given by faith, by Jesus Christ, and by revealed truth.”
Recalling Benedict XVI’s own warnings, Cardinal Müller said a “pope cult” emerged in the 19th century, driven in part by mass media. “We have to avoid it. The Pope is not a Führer,” he said.
He criticised behaviour that treats the Pope as a celebrity rather than a spiritual father. “When he is entering St Peter’s Basilica, everyone is taking a photo. They should be making the sign of the cross as they are blessed. That is a problem.”
Picture: Gerhard Ludwig Müller © Mazur, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsPsdtuccyqe