Pave Frans modtager Erdogan og Emine i privat audiens 5 februar 2018.

En tidligere rådgiver for Troskongregationen, kirkens øverste organ i lærespørsmål, Monsignor Nicola Bux, har givet et interview, hvori han siger pave Frans er en kætter som splitter kirken. Han forkynder ikke Kristi budskab, men sine egne ideologiske standpunkter. Det kan derfor blive nødvendigt at afsætte paven.

Det kan gøres, hvis man kan påvise at Benedikt den 16.s resignationsbrev ikke er gyldigt. Dermed er pave Frans ikke lovlig som pave.

Interviewet blev gjort i midten af oktober, men er først nu blevet kendt og det vækker voldsom opsigt.

Msgr. Nicola Bux, a former consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Benedict XVI, made the remarkable comments in an in-depth interview with Vatican reporter Aldo Maria Valli, the same reporter who interviewed Archbishop Carlo Viganò before he accused the pope of covering up clerical sexual misconduct in a stunning eleven-page letter back in August.

Det er anden gang, at en høj prælat går åbent ud mod paven. Mest rystende var anklagerne mod den tidligere USA ambassadør, ærkebiskop Carlo Vigano, som sagde, at Frans aktivt havde beskyttet kardinalen som var suspenderet fra tjeneste pga. seksuelle overgreb. Men Benedikt 16. havde gjort dette uden offentlighedens kendskab. Da Frans overtog, ophævede han suspensionen. Frans var selvsagt godt klar over årsagen.

Monsignor Bux´s anklager er teologiske: Pave Frans tillader sig at fortolke skriften og bryde med traditionen. For eksempel erklærede han dødsdom for at være i strid med kristendommen. Sådanne spring kan en pave ikke foretage uden videre. Det betyder i så fald at det, kirken har forkyndt i to tusind år, har været ukristeligt.

Pave Frans sørger ikke for at have dækning i kirkeretten og teologisk præcedens. Traditionen er ikke noget man kan bryde efter forgodtbefindende. Så bliver paven en splitter og en kætter og det er det Bux mener han er.

Så kommer der et skisma ind i kirken, som undergraver ikke bare sammenholdet, men også sandheden.

Pave Frans er en skismatiker. Derfor mister han også sin legitimitet som pave.

Bux siger, at paven opfatter kirken som en føderation af kommuniteter. Dette betyder “mangfoldighed” og minder om protestantismen, men variation betyder splid. Sandheden bliver relativ. Dette åbner døren for kætteri indenfor kirken, og processen er allerede i gang.

The theologian said that after the last two synods on the family, teaching on faith and morality has become inconsistent on the question of whether to give Holy Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics.

“Not a few bishops and parish priests, therefore, are in great embarrassment, because of an unstable and confused pastoral situation,” he said.

Kirken må ikke blive en arena, hvor personer kan sprede deres moderne præferencer under dække af at følge med tiden.

Den konservative fløj vil have, at paven skal gå tilbage til at bekende troen som den katolske kirke har forkyndt den. Da handler det ikke om “mig”, men om kirken og overleveringen, helt tilbage til Jesus.

“If this doesn’t happen,” he warned, “the apostasy will deepen and the de facto schism will widen.”

Msgr. Bux said the situation had “become even more urgent as a result of the latest changes introduced by the pope, such as that concerning the definition of ‘anti-evangelism’ of the death penalty.”

“And the problems, I said, are notable, because either we admit that the Church has taught the legitimacy of something anti-evangelical practically for two thousand years or we must admit that it was Pope Bergoglio to err, considering anti-evangelical what, at contrary, it is at least abstractly compliant with Revelation,” Bux said. “This is a very sensitive issue, but sooner or later he’s going have to put this right. And not just for the death penalty.”

Paven har udstedt sin egen apostoliske opfordring, Amoris Laetitia, men den er fuld af modsætninger og selvmodsigelser.

The Pope cannot “impose his own opinion” on the Church, Msgr. Bux stressed, quoting Joseph Ratzinger, because on matters of faith, morals and the sacraments, the Church can “only consent to the will of Christ.” And yet he said “many points” in Amoris Laetitia are “cumbersome and contradictory” as well as contrary to the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas, despite the exhortation asserting otherwise.

Ude i offentligheden

Monsignor Bux gør konflikten åben, når han siger at pave Frans ikke svarer på kritik. Det er en taktik, de progressive bruger. De svarer ikke, tilstår aldrig, men gemmer sig i kirken.

Msgr. Bux also addressed the pope’s tendency to be silent in the face of criticism, and refusal to engage the charges of heresy or apostasy by pointing out St. Pius X’s warning in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis: That never “clearly confessing one’s own heresy” is “typical behaviour of the modernists, because in this way they can hide themselves within the Church.”

Kætter

Pavens opgave er at forsvare og sprede troen. Hvis han gør det modsatte; spreder kætterske tanker, er han en illegitim pave og må fjernes.

The monsignor went on to suggest that if found guilty of heresy, Pope Francis could be removed from office.

“In the Decree of Gratian (pars I, paragraph 40, chapter VI) there is this canon: ‘No mortal will presume to speak of the pope’s guilt, since, appointed to judge everyone, he must not be judged by anyone unless you deviate from faith,'” he said.

Msgr. Bux explained that “the distancing and deviation from the faith is called heresy” and “in the case of manifest heresy, according to St. Robert Bellarmine, the pope can be judged.”

He added that “the pope is called by the Lord to spread the Catholic faith, but to do so he must prove capable of defending it.” 

De konservative savner ydmyghed hos paven. Han foretager nyfortolkninger uden at forankre dem i traditionen.

For at troen skal virke

Paven er Peters efterfølger. For at kirken skal kunne fungere må lederen følge kirkens lære. Hvis ikke ødelægges kirken indefra. Når Monsignor Bux går åbent ud og kalder Frans en kætter og skismatiker, er det et tegn på at konflikten er åben og uforsonlig.

Valli asked the monsignor if he was saying a pope found to be heretical would “cease to be the pope and head of the ecclesial body, and he loses all jurisdiction.”

“Yes, heresy affects the faith and the status of a member of the Church, which are the root and foundation of jurisdiction,” Msgr. Bux replied. “Every faithful, including the Pope, with heresy separates himself from the unity of the Church. It is well known that the Pope is at the same time a member and part of the Church, because the hierarchy is within and not above the Church, as stated in Lumen gentium (No. 18).”

En vej ud af dilemmaet kan være at gå tilbage og se på pave Benedikts fratrædelse. Hvis den var mangelfuld kan man juridisk sige at pave Frans ikke har været en lovlig efterfølger. Så slipper man for en oprivende proces med at tvinge en pave til at træde tilbage.

Politik erstatter troen

Bux siger, at den som spreder falsk lære også hindrer sandheden at slippe ud. Så opstår der et stort tomrum, og hvem fylder det ud?

Paven fylder det med politiske standpunkter: Økologi, migration:

Valli asked Bux whether heresy is not just about spreading false doctrines but also “silencing the truth about doctrine and morals.”

“Of course it is,” he responded. “Where there is no doctrine, there are moral problems — as we are seeing. When the pope and bishops do this, they use their office to destroy [doctrine].”

Quoting St. Augustine, he said, “they seek their own interests, not the interests of Jesus Christ; they proclaim his word, but spread their ideas.”

Quoting Cardinal Giacomo Biffi of Bologna, he added: “The name of Jesus Christ has become an excuse to talk about something else: migration, ecology and so on. Thus we are no longer unanimous in speaking (1 Cor 1: 10) and the Church is divided.”

Profetier

Konservative er også villige til at se udviklingen indenfor kirken i profetiernes lys. Fatima spåede at Satan skulle indtage kirken.

He quoted Saverio Gaeta, Fatima, the whole truth, saying: “It was written: ‘There will also come a time of the most difficult trials for the Church. Cardinals will oppose cardinals and bishops to bishops. Satan will put himself in their midst. Also in Rome there will be great changes.'”

Msgr. Bux argued that with Pope Francis, “great change” in the church is “palpable,” along with a clear intention to “break with the previous pontificates.”

“This discontinuity — a revolution — generates heresies, schisms and controversies of various kinds. However, all of them can be traced back to sin,” he said.  Quoting 3rd century Church Father Origen of Alexandria, he added: “Where there is sin, there we find multiplicity, there schisms, there heresies, there the controversies. Where virtue reigns, there is unity, there is communion, thanks to which all believers were one heart and one soul.”

Dette er ord med en dyb genklang i kirken. Mange føler, at den moderne uro, hvor det gælder om at have de rigtige standpunkt, har sneget sig ind i kirken.

&Noted Vatican Theologian Calls for Examination of Validity of Pope Benedict’s XVI’s Resignation