After Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals last week, a large number of whom were Italian (seven in total, six of whom head Vatican departments), the Holy Father could be on the verge of appointing a fellow German to head the all-important Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
German newspapers have been discussing for some time the possibility that the Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, is being lined up to succeed Cardinal William J. Levada as prefect of the CDF. The speculation is likely to increase after Bishop Müller met the Pope in private audience today immediately following this morning’s weekly general audience.
Long Beach, Ca.-born Cardinal Levada, 75, is said to want to step down sooner rather than later, and so a decision on his successor is expected in the near future, possibly within the next three months, although the Holy Father may insist that he remains in the post a little while longer.
Aged 64 and originally from Mainz in central Germany, Bishop Müller is already a member of the CDF and highly regarded in Rome. A professor of dogmatic theology, he specializes in defending faith and morals, is a prolific author, and has had a dogmatic textbook translated into several languages (a Chinese edition is underway). He has a reputation as a defender of Catholic orthodoxy, and is also an expert on ecumenism as well as an accomplished scholar of liberation theology.
A personal friend of the Pope, the bishop won accolades for his organisation of the Holy Father’s visit to Regensburg in 2006. He is also compiling the collected works of Joseph Ratzinger through the “Pope Benedict XVI Institute”, an organisation he founded in Regensburg in 2008.
The Holy Father, prefect of the CDF from 1981 to 2005, was a professor of theology at the University of Regensburg from 1969 to 1977.
But Bishop Müller is not the only prelate tipped to head the oldest and arguably most important Vatican Congregation. Archbishop Luis Ladaria, Secretary of the CDF, and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, are also said to be in the running.
The German bishop has also been the subject of faulty speculation in the past: not long ago, the German press suggested he was in line to be president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop of Berlin. He was passed over for both positions.
One fact could be a clincher, however: the internet portal Katholisches is reporting that Bishop Müller is taking a refresher course in Italian “perhaps not just for a love of the language of Dante”. When hard facts are almost impossible to come by, sometimes it seems tenuous clues such as this are all we really have to go on.
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According to the vaticanist Marco Tossati (La Stampa, Vatican Insider) the Holy Father will most probably appoint Cardinal Angelo Amato as head of the CDS.
@Jean-Louis - yes, Cardinal Amato is indeed another possible candidate. Hopefully all will soon be revealed.
I wonder what the qualifications are for a man in this position today. It is a huge role to play in the church. It must be filled by a man that is sold out to Jesus, as was St. Peter, right?
Hm… I hope nothing comes of the Cardinal Schönborn rumour. I really do not trust him or his theology.
Surely Schonborn is not really an option.
This German bishop sounds like a good fit for the very important work of CDF. I agree with those who say they hope that Cardinal Schonborn is not going to be the appointee. While he may have, and may still be, a friend of the current Pope, it seems obvious that they are not on the same page theologically and that he is a man of ambition.
I do not understand such appointments. As personally good as these candidates are, the results of thsir ministries in Germany and Austia have not borne fruit. They have allowed the faith to deteriorate to the status of an historical element in the civilizations they serve. As personally holy and orthodox they may be but they are pastorally very ineffective.
@Irenaeus - I could not agree with you more. I don’t trust Cardinal Schonborn at all.
The Church is Shepherd , feeding the exisiitng flock and Fisher, training us to bring in more. The massive decline in Church attendance in Europe in the past 50 years is making the Shepherd role more difficult, especially as old structures and stubborn ways are resisted by so many. One can hope that the economic bust of the hubris from the recent decades will bring more to knees and church pew.
Hopefully the liturgical hubris of the successors of Bugnini can be resisted and rolled back too, HermitTalker. ^_^
Another attack on Aarchbishop Bugnini. Is that the Vatican official who invited “seven Protestant clergy” to translate the Latin Missal into Latin to be translated into heretical local languages? How did his “freemasonic” ministry get passed Paul V1 and escaped detection from so many cardinals and bishops and scholars and others? IF it was so corrupted by “seven protestant clergy (and his being a freemason) why is it that the present translation, on which HH BXV1 signed off - negun under Bl JP11- was translated exactly according to that LATIN text,and absolutely no correction of doctrine or dogma was offered? Meantime, I am still researching how the Jesuits orchestrated the assassination of President Lincoln and my final decree as to whom were the actual assassins of President JFK. Read it at my Blog Nonsense. omg or at the grocery store WEIRD NEWS FROM THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE. I am looking for a publisher for CATHOLICISM BY DUMMIES -How a few heretics hijacked the Holy Spirit and got all the popes and bishops to destroy the Holy Roman catholic and Apostolic Church.
I feel why all speculate some one for CDF post.In catholic church all positions are filled by HOLY spirit
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