UK Cardinal at odds with Pope over direction (FT)

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By John Lloyd

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster and the most senior British Catholic churchman, on Sunday preached a sermon in his cathedral of Westminster which strongly if implicitly opposes the direction in which the newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI has indicated he wishes to take the Church.

It is a clear sign of the unhappiness of the minority of liberals in the hierarchy with the pronouncements of a Pope who has said he would welcome the Church shrinking in size, so long as it could become purer in doing so.

In the service, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as one of its regular Sunday morning worship series, both the Cardinal and the Cathedral’s administrator, Monsignor Mark Langham, endorsed the spirit and substance of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and of the most liberal of its four main documents, “Gaudium et Spes” (Joy and Hope).

Pope Benedict has opposed what he sees as the too-liberal consequences of Council, and especially of those of Gaudium et Spes the only document proposed from the floor of the council, and not introduced by the hierarchy.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said on Sunday that Gaudium et Spes "was the document that caused a revolution. It firmly inserted the Church into the modern world.

“Gaudium et Spes cast an eye over the great questions of humanity, and declared that these, too, were the great questions of the Church. The followers of Christ could no longer retreat or withdraw.”

Monsignor Langham said that with the Second Vatican Council and “Gaudium et Spes”, the Church “no longer saw itself as a fortress, with its members besieged behind ramparts of doctrine and authority, as it surveyed the hostile territory beyond the battlements”.

Pope Benedict has laid even greater emphasis than John Paul II on both doctrine and authority of the Church.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor ended his sermon by saying:" In Gaudium et Spes the world is no longer divided between allies and enemies, believers and non believers. With love, Gaudium et Spes considers the great questions that human beings put to themselves".

Pope Benedict has drawn sharp lines between Catholics and all other believers, including other Christian religions. . . .
Full article
 
Mr Austin Ivory, the cardinal’s spokesman, said there was no overt split over the Second Vatican Council. He said, however, that there were differences over the consequences of it, and a general view among German theologians, of whom Pope Benedict, the former Cardinal Ratzinger, was one, that evil and sin were more active and powerful in the world than their more “optimistic” colleagues believed.
 
Hello

Well that is news to me, since I am not aware of it.

God Bless
Saint Andrew.
 
There is so much garbage in the article it is sad.

First the Pope is not “welcom(ing) the Church shrinking in size”. It is the reality he must deal with. It would be great if all Catholics were seeking holiness, but we are fallen humans and many are guided not by the principles of the Church but by “principles”, or lack there of, of the secular world.

Second, Benedict is not opposed to the Vatican Council!! Then Cardinal Ratzinger was one of the reformers apart of the Council. Heretics have used the “spirit of council” to allow pretty much anything since council.

Third, the Pope does not seek to “retreat to the Castle”. He wants the Church to play an active role in the future of humanity, guiding it to make the right ethical and moral decisions.

Forth, Pope John Paul II placed an great deal of emphasis on doctrine and authority of the Church. He was firm and like a rock on all the pressing moral issues of the day.

stumbler, thanks for the article link. I have been wondering about Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor and his views.
 
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Hildebrand:
There is so much garbage in the article it is sad. . . .

stumbler, thanks for the article link. I have been wondering about Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor and his views.
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Unfortunately we have to read between the lines here. Much of the dissenting commentary seems to be the writer’s and not the cardinal’s. So the “odds” here appear to be more between the writer and the pope.
 
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stumbler:
Unfortunately we have to read between the lines here. Much of the dissenting commentary seems to be the writer’s and not the cardinal’s. So the “odds” here appear to be more between the writer and the pope.
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Good clarification. Thanks.

To be opposed, so early, to the direction of the pope, then to somehow indicate Pope Benedict is seeking to divide Christians - a purer Church and a Church of the rest. When it is the “liberals” (heretics, schismatic, etc) who are in fact dividing and who have divided the Church throughout the centuries.

The Church has always welcomed sinners. However, to label the Church leaders, who do not welcome those seeking to destroy the Kingdom of God, as divisive! The Church will always welcome them back in full communion and engage them if they persist, but we should never allow them to behave as wolves among sheep. The shepherd must always protect his flock.
 
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Franze:
Is this true?
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The archbishop’s office has issued a statement denying the “sermon he preached on Sunday was an attempt to send a message to the new Pope Benedict XVI about the future of the Catholic church”, according to this recent news story (the quote is from the below article, not a direct quote from the archbishop’s office):

***Excerpt *from the story: Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has denied that a sermon he preached on Sunday was an attempt to send a message to the new Pope Benedict XVI about the future of the Catholic church.

The statement from the Archbishop of Westminster’s press office comes after a story in today’s Financial Times (FT) which suggests that the Archbishop’s sermon, which was broadcast on Radio 4, “strongly, if implicitly, opposed the direction the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI has indicated the Church should take”.

“His sermon was a clear sign of the discomfort a minority of liberals feel with the pronouncements of a Pope who said he would welcome the Church shrinking in size, so long as it could become purer in doing so” the article said.

The Cardinal’s sermon yesterday came as part of a service broadcast on Radio 4’s Sunday Worship programme to mark the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

The service was a mixture of meditations by the Cardinal and Mgr Mark Langham, and music sung by Westminster Cathedral’s choir.

The idea for the service came from the BBC after it learned of the anniversary and a conference at Worth Abbey in July.

In its article, the FT suggested that the choice of “Gaudium et Spes” was intended to put a distance between the Cardinal and Rome, because of Pope Benedict’s supposed opposition to the Second Vatican Council.

But a statement from the Cardinal’s press office has pointed out that Cardinal Ratzinger was a ‘peritus theological expert’ at the Council and was heavily involved in the drafting of “Gaudium et Spes”.

Since becoming Pope, Benedict XVI has cited the Second Vatican Council 15 times in his first 50 days, according to John Allen, the Vatican watcher.

“Sunday’s Worship was simply what it appears to be: a celebration of the anniversary of a major conciliar document” the statement says.

The FT however pointed out that in the service, the cardinal and Monsignor Mark Langham, the cathedral’s administrator, endorsed the spirit and substance of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and of “Gaudium et Spes” (Joy and Hope), the most liberal of its four main documents.

The council and the “Gaudium et Spes”, which was the only document proposed from the floor of the council and not introduced by the Church hierarchy, also met with opposition from Pope Benedict, who viewed their consequences as too liberal.

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said yesterday that “Gaudium et Spes” caused a revolution in the Church. “It firmly inserted the Church into the modern world. ‘Gaudium et Spes’ cast an eye over the great questions of humanity, and declared that these, too, were the great questions of the Church,” he said.

Mgr Langham said that with the Second Vatican Council and “Gaudium et Spes”, the Church “no longer saw itself as a fortress, with its members besieged behind ramparts of doctrine and authority”.

ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_05066west.shtml
 
Doesn’t surprise me. The quotes from the cardinal’s sermon all seem pretty tame. It is the writer’s interpretation that creates the controversy. As Hildebrand pointed out, there is much garbage here.
 
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stumbler:
Doesn’t surprise me. The quotes from the cardinal’s sermon all seem pretty tame. It is the writer’s interpretation that creates the controversy. As Hildebrand pointed out, there is much garbage here.
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Well, of course the writer hasto try to create controversy. Otherwise all he’s left with is a Cardinal celebrating a Mass and preaching a sermon – that’s not news! If the good Cardinal had come out and said “I support Pope Benedict 100%” the headline would have been “UK Hierarchy Afraid to Criticise Pope” or some such ****.
 
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