Good News And Bad News: Comment From Spain

From La Cigüeña De La Torre:

The Bishop of Regensburg, Bishop Müller, is, together with the Archbishop of Munich, at the heart of Benedict XVI's attempt to reorient a church that, since Cardinal Lehman's leadership, has been drifting.

One consequence of this recent past, which is still too influential in the German Church, has been the criticism of the Pope by a large number of theologians for the recent lifting of the excommunication of the SSPX Bishops. Three of them are priests of the Regensburg diocese and Bishop Müller has given them an ultimatum: either retract or face the consequences. Among the potential consequences may be their prohibition from teaching in Catholic institutions.

It is about time we saw a Bishop who thinks a crozier is not purely ornamental. Let's see if others imitate him. Either you are a Catholic and you behave like one, or you aren't: end of story. And here's hoping for a reinstatement of the principle that Rome does not pay traitors.

On the other hand, events in the Austrian Church, over which the enigmatic Cardinal Schönborn presides, have been awful. The Pope has had to give up on an episcopal appointment. The person he had named as Auxiliary Bishop of Linz has had to offer his resignation before his rejection became inevitable because of the objections raised by progressives at his appointment. I think this news is appalling and a defeat for the Pope: a defeat in which Catholic Bishops were at the head of the enemy armies.