Archbishop Müller on Liberals, Stupidity

From the Religion News Service, this transcribed interview of new CDF head Archbishop Müller with the Mittelbayerische Zeitung. (Cathcon, however, doesn’t provide links to the original. I would love to check the translation in a language I actually know.) They quiz him on the sticking points with conservatives: liberation theology, the SSPX, and the perception that he is a liberal. His response to the latter probe is hilarious, especially the Cathcon commentary:

You have been declared, in respect of such words, to be among the liberals. Did that surprise you?

Oh well.  Saint Thomas Aquinas says, “Deus maxime liberalis est – God is the Greatest Liberal”. (Cathcon- normally translated as “God therefore is in the highest degree liberal” to ensure that there is no conflation of the ideas of liberality with the practice of liberalism in any sense).  In the original sense is liberalis is liberally and generously. ” In this sense, I love being a liberal.

(Cathcon- one waits for years for the Head of the CDF to quote St Thomas and he is now used in such a poor way)

I wish they’d let the man finish his thought before they interrupt him with commentary.

Chuckle on this one, too:

The SSPX have just designated you again as a heretic, that is, as one who has fallen from the faith.

I must not give an answer to every stupidity. (Cathcon- image what the response had been if the SSPX had issued a press release calling the Archbishop dumb.  Mutual respect is needed for dialogue, as the Vatican is only too quick to point out in other ecumenical dialogues).

Cathcon’s headline is “Head of CDF calls SSPX stupid …”

I should point out that what Archbishop Müller has done is to identify the designation as a heretic as a “stupidity.” Reading comprehension is not the strong suit of some Catholics.