Cardinal Marx was once again given the opportunity to comment on the course of social affairs. Democracy is based on Christian values. When it comes to historical knowledge of his church, the priest doesn’t seem to take it too seriously. Or even a blackout?
Inhalt / Content
Cardinal Marx is happy with his assessment
When Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, explains something to the public, it will be interesting to see whether there is anything substantial to be found in the usual string of empty words. If substance can actually be grasped, then the content usually turns out to be an upholding of a cultivated narrative of the Roman Catholic Church. This was also the case in his conversation with the Süddeutsche Zeitung about democracy and its origins, as CNA reported (Source).
The author of several books, including one entitled “Freedom”, explained in the interview that “our democracy” is based on the Christian view of humanity. However, the Christian view of humanity also describes that freedom is not understood as “limitless narcissism”, but rather as living together with mutual responsibility. This is an “essential foundation for the future of our community.” This will determine whether democracy is sustainable.
Disintegration of global order
The global order is in a state of disintegration, said the cardinal, who experiences this development as a “civilizational regression.” At the moment, the focus is once again on “thinking in terms of interests and powers, rather than morality or human rights”. This affects the population. This can be observed in the polarization, aggression, verbal attacks and violence.
Transformation of the church
The church is on the path of change, said Marx. Today it no longer works for an institution to tell people how to think and live. Such an institution is coming under increasing pressure. It no longer works today when an institution says that it knows what God thinks about people. The church has been talking about a “crisis of institutions” for decades.
Despite all the problems, it is true that God has the last word in history. Christians are called to bring this knowledge into society, said the cardinal. People always have hope, even though they experience misery and suffering. Marx describes a common goal and explains that he believes in a loving God who awaits us.
The cardinal’s ignorance of history?
The world or global order celebrated by the cardinal is clearly shaped by Catholic social teaching, rather than by the Gospel. The reference to the Word of God is already missing in his thesis that democracy is based on Christian values. Is the Archbishop of Munich and Freising so forgetful of history?
When and under what circumstances did democracy emerge in Europe? Even those with little interest in history immediately think of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s campaigns. In this context, the monarchies were radically eliminated. A revolution against the royal order that has lasted for centuries, with serfs kept in the open. At the head of this order was the papacy, based in Rome. The quasi-emperor based on the Roman model over the regents of the individual regions. At the center was the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”.
Political papacy was shaved off
But the reigning Pope also lost the scepter and the globe from his hands in the course of the French Revolution – probably still very painfully for Cardinal Marx. General Berthier, commissioned by Napoleon, marched “without an audience appointment” into St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on February 15, 1798, removed Pope Pius VI from his chambers and declared him deposed (Info). There was no longer a pope. A sensation.
The revolution led by the Jacobins had already abolished all religious practice in advance. The clergy, especially those from the Dominican order, were eliminated. There was even a ban on all religion, including the burning of Bibles and other spiritual writings. Instead, the revolutionaries crowned a prostitute at Notre-Dame Paris as the “Goddess of Reason.” Human reason as a replacement for Christianity. It is precisely from this spirit that humanism and democracy were born.
It is therefore an absolute mystery how Cardinal Marx came up with the idea that “our democracy” is based on Christian values. The human rights ceremoniously declared in France in 1789 for the founding of democracy cannot be any further removed from Christian values in relation to politics and the state (Info). Cardinal Marx, who was actually well-read, should not have overlooked this.
Cardinal Marx, of course, follows the path of Catholic social teaching, underlined by the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (2020) by Pope Francis, justified by the encyclical Laudato Si’ (2015), also written by Francis. The change in the church described by Marx corresponds only to the changing skin of a snake. A slightly different pattern, but absolute claim to power, demanded obedience, claim to leadership and the monopoly on questions of faith have remained unchanged since this institution was founded.
The style of unquestionable authority that was once openly displayed is currently still the display of a church that cares about the well-being of humanity. But even this mask of the currently practiced charade will be stripped of its true face as soon as international politics and its leading figures have handed over their power to the “Emperor of Rome”.
A crisis such as the one described by the cardinal does not really exist in the Church of Rome. If so, then this applies to the returned daughters of the once Protestant churches. It immediately seems as if the mother is driving her own daughters to suicide based on the ideologies she has conveyed. In their self-absorption, those in charge of this church do not seem to notice their turbulent journey down the waterfall into nowhere.
Be that as it may, there is a deeply loving collaboration with the Mother Church. Together with the (apparent) demise of the Roman Church as a “people’s church,” everything was going “like clockwork.” Revelation 11, which describes the French Revolution on the local level, will be repeated as an antitype on the global level (Info).
Rome determines the common good
What the Roman Catholic Church understands as freedom, especially religious freedom, was explained by the Church itself and reaffirmed after the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965). The motto is, “Religious freedom in the service of the common good” (Source). As long as these “freedoms” remain within the defined corridor of the “common good,” Rome gives the green light. The church determines what the “common good” or the boundaries between what is permitted and what is not permitted look like. This begins with fundamental matters, as evidenced by the following statement: “Every religion must submit to the process of constant purification and conversion in the light of a reason enlightened by faith“.
The Roman Catholic Church, in its “unsurpassable modesty”, dictates what other religions should and should not do. “The mother of all churches” as she (still) lives.
An interim assessment on the way
Cardinal Marx’s statements are what they are. An interim inventory of how things are going, some misdirection and otherwise just beating around the bush. The agenda continues until the goal is achieved. The disintegration of society, as Marx emphasized, must of course be countered by a new order. A “new order in this world”, just as Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Francis called for, and what was already dutifully expressed by former President George Bush (Senior).
You could accuse Cardinal Marx of anything if you wanted to. But stubbornness and defiance, let alone stupidity, are not there. Otherwise he would not hold the position of overseer (bishop) in the role of a cardinal. Appointed cardinal by Benedict XVI, but also very quickly realized that any adherence to traditional traditions under Pope Francis could very quickly lead to “clerical non-existence”. With Francis, a Jesuit came to the top. A first in this church. The Brotherhood, currently centered around General Superior Arturo Sosa Abascal (Venezuela), all experienced specialists in “structural changes”, do not shy away from selective, harsh measures. Marx may well have internalized this.
On the agenda is the merging of church and state, as was once the case in the Dark Ages. In this light, it is understandable that Marx draws a direct line between (religious) Christianity and (political) democracy. However, this self-evidence is lagging, and hugely so.
This church will also achieve this goal, a “newly ordered world” with the “Adorable One in Rome” at the head. A look into this world with open eyes clearly shows that anyone who even sits on a slightly aloof armchair looks after the “beast with the healed wound” in amazement. Woe to anyone who follows this beast and shows honor – Info.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Revelation 13:3
Bible verses from King James Version
