ROME — The Vatican’s former doctrinal czar, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, has sharply criticized Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich for his unwillingness to call out President Joe Biden on his support for abortion.
In an interview last week with kath.net, an online German-language Catholic news outlet, Müller — the former prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office (CDF ) — offered his opinion on the recent dust-up between Cupich and the president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez.
Archbishop Gomez had voiced criticism of Biden’s overt promotion of abortion, noting that during his campaign he had “pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.”
In a series of tweets, Cupich registered his disapproval of the Archbishop’s “ill-considered” statement, and instead issued his own upbeat statement, which omitted the abortion issue altogether.
A number of other bishops rushed to Gomez’ defense, thanking him for his clear words, especially regarding the Church’s teaching on the sacredness of life.
Regarding the bishops’ internecine debate, Cardinal Müller said that Cardinal Cupich was clearly in the wrong and had sacrificed his role as teacher of the faith on the altar of “political preferences.”
“A Catholic bishop is distinguished from power politicians and ideologues by his obedience to the revealed Word of God,” Müller stated. “He would be a false apostle if he relativized the natural moral law for the sake of his political preference or because he favored one party or the other.”
“Anyone who relativizes the clear acknowledgment of the sacredness of every human life with tactical games, sophistries and window dressing because of political preferences, publicly opposes the Catholic faith,” the cardinal declared in the searing interview.
“Vatican II and all the popes down to Francis have described the deliberate killing of a child before or after birth as a most grievous violation of God’s commandments,” Müller added.
Hatred of former President Donald Trump is insufficient reason to overlook the serious aggression against human rights being unleashed by the Biden administration, he said.
“There are good Catholics even in the highest Vatican positions who, in their blind anti-Trump sentiments, put up with everything or play down what is now being unleashed in the U.S.A. against Christians and all people of good will,” the cardinal said.
“I cannot support a pro-abortion politician just because he builds public housing, as though I had to put up with what is absolutely evil on account of something relatively good,” he said.
Cardinal Müller also noted that Pope Francis has been a vocal opponent of the abortion lobby, condemning the practice in no uncertain terms.
“The Holy Father has never failed to oppose in the clearest possible terms abortion as premeditated murder, and for this reason he has been slandered vilely by those who otherwise like to quote him and cannot emphasize loudly enough the contrast with the previous Pope Benedict XVI,” Müller said.
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