Another German cardinal raps push for Communion for divorced/remarried Catholics

April 15, 2015

Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, the retired president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, has said that pressure for change in the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage is an “expression of a deeply rooted loss of faith.”

In an interview with LifeSite News, the German cardinal took a strong stand against allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist:

It is evident that the pastoral practice of the Church cannot stand in opposition to the binding doctrine nor simply ignore it. In the same manner, an architect could perhaps build a most beautiful bridge. However, if he does not pay attention to the laws of structural engineering, he risks the collapse of his construction. In the same manner, every pastoral practice has to follow the Word of God if it does not want to fail. A change of the teaching, of the dogma, is unthinkable. Who nevertheless consciously does it, or insistently demands it, is a heretic—even if he wears the Roman purple.

Cardinal Brandmüller becomes the 3rd German cardinal—following Cardinals Josef Cordes and Ludwig Müller—to take issue with the president of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who has said that the German hierarchy supports allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

 

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Further information:

• Advocates for changing Catholic teaching on marriage are ‘heretics’ – even if they are bishops (LifeSite News)
• Former Vatican official raps Cardinal Marx, says German hierarchy unfit to guide universal Church (CWN, 3/24)
• Debate among German cardinals heats up; Cardinal Müller raps statement by Cardinal Marx (CWN, 3/26)