The Kasper-Ratzinger Debate & The State of the Church

Pope Francis turns 85 tomorrow. For the occasion, this from Philip Blosser at the New Oxford Review archive (April 2002). He began,

"My priest and I occasionally share articles with each other in an ongoing amicable discussion about the state of the Church. He recently gave me a copy of an article written by Walter Cardinal Kasper entitled 'On the Church' from the Jesuit magazine America (April 23-30, 2001), which was directed against Cardinal Ratzinger by name. My priest suggested that the comparatively young Kasper might make a good pope someday ('Kasper, the friendly pope?'), perhaps right after Cardinal Martini of Milan, who, he said, might make a good immediate successor to Pope John Paul II." ...

Cdl. Burke: “I did not state that Pope Francis has harmed the Church."

Liberals want Cardinal Burke to the "fall guy."  If they can kill his reputation, they can kill his theological and canonical positions.  Obviously that is really what all this is about.

Quoting Cardinal Burke:

“I did not state that Pope Francis has harmed the Church. Rather, as the now published verbatim interview reveals, I was perfectly clear that it was a lack of clarity about where the Holy Father stands on issues related to marriage and Holy Communion that had caused the harm. It is precisely for this reason that I subsequently said that only a statement from the Holy Father himself could now remove this lack of clarity.”

“Sadly, confusion, such as that generated by this particular interview, has been used to portray those opposed to Cardinal Kasper’s thesis as motivated by a personal animus against the Holy Father. This is just not the case, though it no doubt helps the cause of those with certain ideological axes to grind to make this appear so." 

details at Father Z 

Cdl Dolan CNS video on African Church, Beautiful!

Jaw dropping how stunning and beautiful this is.


It appears to have been published prior to the vicious +Kasper comment.

Cdl Burke on +Kasper speaking for pope: “The Pope doesn’t have laryngitis.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke strongly defended his criticism of the “Kasper proposal,” and said it was “outrageous” for Cardinal Walter Kasper to suggest that such criticism was actually aimed at Pope Francis, during a teleconference with reporters on September 30.

“I find it amazing that the cardinal [Kasper] claims that he speaks for the Pope,” Cardinal Burke said. “The Pope doesn’t have laryngitis.”

Cardinal Burke joined several other participants in a teleconference on preparations for the Synod of Bishops. The teleconference was arranged by Ignatius Press, which will release four books on October 1 presenting arguments against the Kasper proposal and in defense of Church teaching on marriage.

continue at Catholic Culture 

Haha!  Touche!

Cardinal Burke on Cardinal Kasper's errors on the nature of sacramental marriage

In case you missed it over the weekend, Cardinal Burke is not a big fan of redefining marriage in the Church.  Doesn't this seem a lot like the whirlwind surrounding Humanae Vitae?  This is in response to Cardinal Kasper, who essentially is saying the Church's teaching has been wrong all this time.