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Cardinal Müller reflects on faith, family

Michael Flach | Catholic Herald Editor

Cardinal Gerhard Müller is interviewed by Catholic Herald Editor Michael F. Flach May 14 in Arlington. Courtesy photo

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As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Cardinal Gerhard Müller works closely with Pope Francis and the College of
Cardinals to promote and preserve the heritage of revelation handed down by
Jesus Christ.

The cardinal said his own faith was nourished by his parents and
the parish priests in his native Finthen, a borough of Mainz in West Germany. 

He was taught to pray when he was very young, first in the
evening, before meals and before going to sleep. “We had much contact with our
parish priests (at home),” he said, and in school, where he was educated by the
priests and sisters. 

“It was natural to partake in the ecclesiastical life,” the
cardinal said during a recent visit to the Arlington Diocese, during which he
celebrated Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More and gave the commencement
address at Christendom College in Front Royal. 

“As you become older it is important that what you have received
from your parents and the church, you must take it over in your active and
objective life,” he said.

“This is a normal change from childhood and then to adulthood, at
an age when you become more active, and that all good should come from your
personal conviction and your personal engagement for the church and the bishops
of the church.”

Cardinal Müller, who was ordained to the priesthood Feb. 11,
1978, said that his priestly vocation was nourished and encouraged by a variety
of strong influences, not just one person.

“We had good parish priests and chaplains who helped at the
parish,” he said. “There was a monastery at the parish and we had much contact
with the sisters.”

At school he said he had good teacher priests who taught him
Latin, as well as the teachings of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and other
Church Fathers. “I read the whole Bible three times at various ages,” the
cardinal said. “We left the school with a Jerusalem Bible and the commentaries.”

He also was well-versed in the ability to give an intellectual
answer to the criticism of religion by people such as Karl Marx and Sigmund
Freud during the 19th century.

“It was not a restrictive world, but we were able to give an
intellectual answer to these challenges,” he said. “The world today needs hope,
which is to stay close to Jesus Christ and His body, which is the church, in communion
with the believers.” 

In his recent book The Hope of the Family,
Cardinal Müller wrote that marriage and the family are in crisis. He said this
crisis has different causes, including sociological, political and
technological changes in the development of society. “The reason for this
crisis can also be an ideological understanding of human existence, of the
sexuality of man or woman. We are convinced that God has created everybody, but
with the difference between man and woman.”

The cardinal said we have received this teaching through previous
generations and we have the responsibility to pass this along to future generations.

“The answer to this crisis can only be the good family, which
exists as father and mother and their own children, and we cannot give another
image of the family, which is contrary to the nature of mankind.” 

Although at times the prevailing secular culture can appear to be
at odds with the church, “We don’t have problems with secularity, if people are
of accepting of their responsibility for politics, the economy and education,
if they work with the human reason, which is given by God to resolve the
concrete problems,” the cardinal said. 

“But we can never forget that we are created in the end for the
supernatural life with God in the full communion in love.”

In reflecting on the impact that Pope Francis has made in the
church and the world, Cardinal Müller said, “There are different dimensions,
but I can underline one point — that he opened the eyes for the poor people of
the world to the solidarity between the so-called rich countries and poor
countries.”

He said that “Laudato Si’, On Care
for Our Common Home,” the second encyclical written
by Pope Francis and published in June 2015, has had a great impact on his
pontificate and also the pastoral engagement with those outside the church. 

“We don’t restrict our activities to those inside the church,”
the cardinal said. “For those who are a certain distance from the church we
must show them clearly that we all need the grace of forgiveness and
reconciliation. We are a brotherhood.

“We must go to the ends of the church together with an invitation
to all to open their hearts and minds and not to follow their prejudices
against the church and against God, but to understand at the beginning and the
end that the Triune God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, is the only hope for
everybody, not the politicians or the money or the power or the prestige.

“All of these created things will disappear,” he said. “In the
end, what remains is only God.” 

 

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