Der Kaspersche Eisberg

In "Inside the Vatican" wurde kürzlich der Brief des us-amerikanischen Theologen Fr.Brian Harrison, O.S. veröffentlicht, den er dem Herausgeber des Magazins, Dr. Robert Moynihan, zu dessen Bericht "Brief aus Rom" über das Konsistorium schrieb. Hier geht´s zum "Brief aus Rom" Original:    klicken

Unter dem Titel
"Genau jetzt erschüttert Satan mit diesem Scheidungsthema die Kirche in ihren Grundfesten"
stellt M. Donelly unter dem Pseudonym "Deacon Augustine" dem Brief diese Einleitung voran:

"Ich denke, daß die Bischöfe, die für dieses Sakrileg (die Zulassung der wiederverheirateten Geschiedenen zur Kommunion) sprechen, einfach nicht die Konsequenzen ihres Vorschlags durchdacht haben. Der Theologe Fr.Brian Harrison hat im Februar einen exzellenten Brief an das "Inside the Vatican" Magazin geschrieben, der ganz klar die Schwere der aktuellen Situation herausstellt. (....)

Hier ein Ausschnitt aus dem Brief, der mit der Anrede: "Dear Dr. Moynihan" beginnt:

"In ihrem letzten "Brief aus Rom" kommentieren Sie die Neuernennungen zum Kardinalskollegium und berichten ziemlich nonchalant daß " Erzbichof G.Müller sagte, daß man die Position der Kirche in der Frage der Zulassung der wiederverheirateten Geschiedenen zum Sakrament der Eucharistie nicht ändern könne und das auch nicht tun werde. Aber andere deutsche Kirchenführer, einschließlich Kardinal Kasper, gingen mit der Aussage an die Öffentlichkeit, man könne und werde die Lehre ändern.
Ihr kurzer Tatsachenbericht von dieser Kontroverse erinnert mich an die Spitze eines Eisbergs. Man erwähnt ihn, enthüllt aber nicht seine Riesenhaftigkeit, die lauernde Gefahr, dass er das Schifflein Petri zu treffen, zu durchbohren und zu zerbrechen droht.
Die schockierende Größe der doktrinalen und pastoralen Krise, die unter diesem mit höflichen Worten geführten Disput zwischen gelehrten deutschen Prälaten lauert, kann kaum überschätzt werden.
Was hier auf dem Spiel steht, ist die Treue zur Lehre Jesu Christi, und berührt direkt das Leben von 100 Millionen Katholiken: die Unauflöslichkeit der Ehe..."

Es  lohnt sich den ganze Text zu lesen, der auf der nächsten Seite folgt. Insbesondere das, was er über die deutschen Bischöfe schreibt.

“Satan is right now shaking the Church to her very foundations over this divorce issue…”

BY M DONNELLY, ON MARCH 22ND, 2014

POSTED BY DEACON AUGUSTINE

I think the bishops who are advocating this sacrilege [admitting divorced and remarried to communion] have just not thought through the consequences of what they propose. The theologian Fr. Brian Harrison wrote an excellent letter to “Inside the Vatican” magazine in February which sets out clearly the gravity of the current situation. I have copied the letter below, but I think it is worthy to be treated as a separate article in its own right:

Dear Dr. Moynihan,

In your latest Letter from Rome, commenting on the new appointments to the College of Cardinals, you report rather nonchalantly that “[Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig] Müller is also known for having said that the Church’s position on admitting to divorced and remarried Catholics to the sacrament of Communion is not something that can or will be changed. But other German Church leaders, including Cardinal Walter Kasper, have recently gone on record saying the teaching may and will be changed.”

Your brief, matter-of-fact report on this controversy reminds me of the tip of an iceberg. It alludes to, but does not reveal the immensity of, a massive, looming threat that bids fair to pierce, penetrate and rend in twain Peter’s barque – already tossing perilously amid stormy and icy seas. The shocking magnitude of the doctrinal and pastoral crisis lurking beneath this politely-worded dispute between scholarly German prelates can scarcely be overstated. For what is at stake here is fidelity to a teaching of Jesus Christ that directly and profoundly affects the lives of hundreds of millions of Catholics: the indissolubility of marriage.

The German bishops have devised a pastoral plan to admit divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion, whether or not a Church tribunal has granted a decree of nullity of their first marriage. Cardinal-elect Müller, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has not only published a strong article in L’Osservatore Romano reaffirming the perennial Catholic doctrine confirmed by John Paul II in Familiaris Consortio; he has also written officially to the German Bishops’ Conference telling them to rectify their heterodox pastoral plan. But the bishops, led by their conference president and by Cardinal Kasper, are openly defying the head of the CDF, and predicting that the existing doctrine and discipline will soon be changed!

Think of the appalling ramifications of this. If German Catholics don’t need decrees of nullity, neither will any Catholics anywhere. Won’t the world’s Catholic marriage tribunals then become basically irrelevant? (Will they eventually just close down?) And won’t this reversal of bimillennial Catholic doctrine mean that the Protestants and Orthodox, who have allowed divorce and remarriage for century after century, have been more docile to the Holy Spirit on this issue than the true Church of Christ? Indeed, how credible, now, will be her claim to be the true Church? On what other controverted issues, perhaps, has the Catholic Church been wrong, and the separated brethren right?

And what of Jesus’ teaching that those who remarry after divorce commit adultery? Admitting them to Communion without a commitment to continence will lead logically to one of three faith-breaking conclusions: (a) our Lord was mistaken in calling this relationship adulterous – in which case he can scarcely have been the Son of God; (b) adultery is not intrinsically and gravely sinful – in which case the Church’s universal and ordinary magisterium has always been wrong; or (c) Communion can be given to some who are living in objectively grave sin – in which case not only has the magisterium also erred monumentally by always teaching the opposite, but the way will also be opened to Communion for fornicators, practicing homosexuals, pederasts, and who knows who else? (And, please, spare us the sophistry that Jesus’ teaching was correct “in his own historical and cultural context”, but that since about Martin Luther’s time that has all changed.)

Let us make no mistake: Satan is right now shaking the Church to her very foundations over this divorce issue. If anything, the confusion is becoming even graver than that over contraception between 1965 and 1968, when Paul VI’s seeming vacillation allowed Catholics round the world to anticipate a reversal of perennial Church teaching. If the present Successor of Peter now keeps silent about divorce and remarriage, thereby tacitly telling the Church and the world that the teaching of Jesus Christ will be up for open debate at a forthcoming Synod of Bishops, one fears a terrible price will soon have to be paid.

Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S.

St. Louis, Missouri

Danke Fr. Brian. Danke M. Donelly
(Farbhervorhebung durch uns)