Cardinal Müller, former CDF prefect, blasts Synod report on doctrinal issues

May 09, 2026

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, blasted the newly published Synod report on doctrinal issues, which included two testimonies written by men in same-sex civil marriages.

The report on doctrinal issues was the sixth of 15 final reports of the study groups established by Pope Francis in 2024 to examine issues raised during the October 2023 session of the synod on synodality. The report’s title is “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues” (executive summary, full text, testimonies 1, 2, 3).

The Synod report was the product of Study Group 9, which has seven members, including Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru; Archbishop Filippo Iannone, O. Carm., prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops; and Msgr. Piero Coda, secretary general of the International Theological Commission.

The National Catholic Register reported:

Cardinal Gerhard Müller criticized the report’s authors, saying in a statement they “do not openly deny revealed truths, but set them aside and, alongside them, build their own house of a comfortable and world-conforming Christianity.” The former Vatican doctrinal chief condemned how “the pro-LGBT lobby” within the Church had “openly welcomed” such “heretical relativization of natural and sacramental marriage.” ...

Cardinal Müller said the “LGBT ideology” advocates “nothing other than a materialistic view of humanity without God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Perfecter of humankind.”

He added: “Anyone who, as a teacher of the faith and shepherd of the faithful appointed by Christ, is truly interested in the inner peace of soul and the eternal salvation of the faithful entrusted to him, does not make people in difficult situations the playthings of a godless ideology or the instruments of his own desire for prominence in the woke milieu, but rather points them personally to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

The Per Mariam Substack published the full text of Cardinal Müller’s statement.

Courage International, an apostolate that ministers to persons with same-sex attractions in a manner consistent with the teaching of the Church, also condemned the “calumny and detraction“ in the Synod report.

 

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Further information:

• Critics Say Synod Report Undermines Church Teaching, Misrepresents Courage (National Catholic Register, 5/8/26)
• Synod report on doctrinal issues includes testimonies of men in same-sex marriages (CWN, 5/6/26)
• Synod of Bishops releases names of members of study groups, working groups (CWN, 7/10/24)
• Courage apostolate condemns ‘calumny and detraction’ in Synod report (CWN, 5/9/26)