PopeWatch: Francis II?

Sandro Magister takes a look at the man who is positioning himself to be the successor of the current Pope:

On the list of cardinals that Francis would like to see as his successor there is one new name that has quickly jumped to the top of the rankings. It is that of Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg.

His only drawbacks would be his relatively young age, 64, and his being a Jesuit. But these drawbacks are not necessarily insurmountable. As for his age, just one year separates Hollerich from the other leading candidate dear to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, prefect of “Propaganda Fide,” and six years, not many, from the most accredited of the alternative candidates, Hungarian cardinal Peter Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest. And as for his belonging to the Society of Jesus, so far he has exhibited the best and least partisan aspects, the most fascinating, above all on account of his twenty-seven year mission in Japan, at the extreme borders of the faith, where the search for God and for new forms of Christianity are absolute imperatives, guidelines for the future of the Church in an increasingly secularized world.

Hollerich has always shown himself very sensitive to this epochal challenge and still today he speaks of it with a seriousness and profundity that distance him from the mediocre depth of most of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis. He studied in Frankfurt and Munich, knows and speaks several languages including Japanese, spent a long time teaching at the prestigious “Sophia” university in Tokyo – which has nothing to do with the homonymous Focolare university in Loppiano founded in 2008 by Chiara Lubich, as stated in the flagrant blunder in Hollerich’s official biography on the Vatican website – until in 2011 Benedict XVI called him back to Europe and made him archbishop in his native Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Since then, it is Europe in a crisis of faith that has been the area of chief concern for Hollerich’s mission, especially since his election in 2018 as president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, COMECE, a position of high institutional visibility, in contact with the representatives of the Union and with the task of expressing the Church’s point of view on their actions, most recently the critical judgment formulated by the cardinal on February 8 against the proposal by French president Emmanuel Macron to include the right to abortion in the charter of fundamental rights of the Union.

But Hollerich moved into a much more central position, not only in Europe but in the world, with Francis’s decision to make him cardinal, in 2019, and above all, on July 8 2021, relator general of the pluriennial synod that – in the judgment of the reigning pope but also of his possible successor – is supposed to remodel the Church under the banner of none other than “synodality.”

For Hollerich, this synod must be more “open” than ever. He will have to be able to listen and “fill himself” with the proposals that issue from the whole people of God. Even on the hottest topics.

In comparison with Francis, always indecipherable even when he makes room for new solutions, Hollerich distinguishes himself by his greater clarity. In recent weeks he has granted extensive interviews in which he has seemed to give out, presumably with the pope’s approval, guidelines that the pope does not want to express in his own words, coinciding certainly not by chance with the wave of extreme demands that are meanwhile coming from the almost schismatic “Synodal Path” underway in Germany.

Well then, here is how Hollerich has spoken out on this and that point under discussion, in three of his recent interviews with “La Croix,” “Herder Korrespondenz,” and “Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur.”

MARRIED PRIESTS

“I was once a great supporter of celibacy for all priests, but now I hope there may be ‘viri probati.’ It is a deep desire. And yet it is a difficult journey for the Church, because it could be perceived as a rupture. After the Synod on the Amazon, it could be that one of the reasons the pope did not allow ‘viri probati’ was that they had been requested too strongly and the Synod had been reduced too much to this question. But I think we must go in this direction, otherwise soon we will not have any more priests. In the long term, I can also imagine the route of Orthodoxy, according to which only monks are bound to celibacy.”

WOMEN PRIESTS

“It seems to me that the first problem is not whether women should become priests or not, but first of all whether women have a true stake in the priesthood that belongs to all the baptized and confirmed people of God and whether in this way they could exercise the authority associated with it. Would this also mean a homily at Mass? I would say yes.”

WOMEN DEACONS

“I would have nothing against it. But the reforms must have a stable foundation. If the pope were now to suddenly allow ‘viri probati’ and deaconesses, there would be a great danger of schism. There is not only the situation in Germany, where perhaps only a small part would break away. In Africa or in countries like France, many bishops would probably not cooperate.”

GERMAN SYNOD

“I sometimes get the impression that the German bishops do not understand the pope. The pope is not liberal, he is radical. It is from the radicality of the Gospel that change comes. I share Thomas Halik’s stance. One cannot speak only of structural reforms, spirituality must also begin to grow again. If it is just a matter of reforms as the result of a confrontation, everything can quickly go back to the way it was. In this case everything depends on the greater influence of one group or another. And then there is no getting out of the vicious circle.”

SEXUALITY AND ABUSE

“We must change our way of considering sexuality. Until today we have had a rather repressed view of it. This is clearly not a matter of telling people they can do anything or of abolishing morality, but I believe we have to say that sexuality is a gift from God. We know this, but do we say it? I’m not sure. Some attribute the proliferation of abuse to the sexual revolution. I think exactly the opposite: in my view, the most horrible events took place before the seventies.”

HOMOSEXUALITY

“The Church’s positions on homosexual relationships as sinful are wrong. I believe that the sociological and scientific foundation of this doctrine is no longer correct. It is time for a fundamental revision of Church teaching, and the way in which Pope Francis has spoken of homosexuality could lead to a change in doctrine. Meanwhile, in our archdiocese, in Luxembourg, no one is fired for being homosexual, or divorced and remarried. I can’t toss them out, they would become unemployed, and how can such a thing be Christian? As for homosexual priests, there are many of these, and it would be good if they could talk about this with their bishop without his condemning them.”

INTERCOMMUNION

“In Tokyo I gave communion to each of those who came to Mass. I have never denied communion to anyone. I took it for granted that a Protestant, if he comes for communion, knows what Catholics mean by communion, at least as much as other Catholics who attend Mass do. But I would not concelebrate with an Evangelical pastor. In Tokyo I learned a great deal about Protestantism and came to appreciate it. But one time I was present at one of their Lord’s suppers and was horrified when the rest of the wine was thrown away, as well as the leftover bread. This was a severe shock for me, because as a Catholic I believe in the real presence.”

MASS IN LATIN

“I like the Latin Mass, I find the texts very beautiful, especially the first canon. When I celebrate Mass in the chapel at my home, I sometimes choose a Latin prayer. But in a parish I wouldn’t do that. I know that there the people don’t understand Latin and wouldn’t get anything out of it. In Antwerp I was asked to celebrate a Latin Mass with the current rite. This I will do, but I would not celebrate with the ancient rite. This does not mean that others cannot do so worthily. But I cannot. In our language and in our imagination, the past is behind us and the future ahead. In ancient Egypt, things were exactly the opposite. The past was seen as something that is in front of us, because we know it and see it, while the future was behind, because it is unknown. It seems to me the Catholic Church still has a touch of the Egyptian about it. But it doesn’t work anymore. God opens to the future. Some say that the Mass was much more beautiful before. But to what form are they referring? For the most part one imagines a certain past that becomes ‘stylized’ in a tradition. This is where Egyptian civilization ultimately failed. It no longer had the capacity to transform itself.”

ABORTION

“I know men and women, even on the left, who say they are convinced Christians, who fight against climate change, but in the European parliament they vote to make abortion a fundamental right and limit freedom of conscience for physicians. They tend to confine their religious preferences to the private sphere. But in such a case this is no longer a religion, but a personal conviction. Religion requires a public space where it can express itself. An example: I am absolutely against abortion. And as a Christian, I cannot have a different position. But I also understand that there is a concern for the dignity of women, and that what we upheld in the past in order to oppose the law on abortion can no longer get a hearing today. At this point, what other measure can we take to defend life? When a form of discourse is no longer followed, one must not go on doggedly but look for other ways.”

Go here to read the rest.  In short Catholicism goes the main line Protestant route to rapid extinction.  We are led by fools and much worse.