VATICAN CITY, Dec 31 – The Vatican marked the first anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s death on Sunday, with one of his closest aides saying he would never approve a recent proclamation allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples.
Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, who was the head of the Church’s doctrine under Benedict, and Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who was Benedict’s private secretary, both from Germany, were the two headliners at the event marking the anniversary and organized by the conservative Catholic television network US-based EWTN.
“It’s never going to happen (under Benedict) because it’s so vague,” Mueller said on the sidelines when asked by Reuters about the landmark declaration issued on December 18.
Although the December declaration said that such blessings cannot resemble the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman and cannot be part of a ritual or liturgy, some advocates of more LGBT inclusion see it as a precursor to same-sex marriage in the Church. .
“There is no homosexual marriage. It does not exist, it cannot exist, despite the ideology we have (today),” said Mueller, who was removed by Francis as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal department after Benedict resigned in 2013.
Pope Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City on December 31, 2022. ZUMA Press
Francis briefly noted the anniversary in his Sunday blessing to the crowd in St. Peter, said Benedict had “served the Church with love and wisdom” and that “We feel so much love, so much gratitude, so much admiration for him”.
Francis then asked the crowd to give a standing ovation for Benedict, who is the first pope in 700 years to step down from ruling for life.
Mueller said that while his personal relationship with Francis was “very good”, he did not hesitate to disagree with him in public on doctrinal issues because “we are not in the Soviet Union where only one leader speaks.”
Mueller said “the best thing we can do for the pope is to stay close to the truth and the Catholic faith and not be here as a cult.”
Earlier in the Basilica of St. Peter, Gaenswein, Benedict’s secretary, held a memorial Mass for Benedict. Gaenswein’s voice broke twice with emotion as he read his homily.
“It will not happen (under Benedict) because it is very ambiguous,” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller told Reuters. AP
Benedict’s surprise resignation divided the Church, with many saying he should not have stepped down.
His 10 years in the Vatican as “pope emeritus” widened the conservative-progressive divide, with some staunch traditionalists not recognizing Francis as a leader.
“I think a lot of polemics will be forgotten,” Gaenswein said outside the televised event. “What remains is substance, and (as for) the substance of the papacy, history will judge”.
Gaenswein, whom Francis sent back to Germany after Benedict died, said that when Benedict decided to resign, the former pope was convinced he had at most a year to live.
“I pray he will become a saint. I hope he will become a saint. And I am sure he will become a saint,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
