Bishop Mutsaerts: “Do Not Obey the Pope!”

A Cowardly Document

What first strikes the auxiliary bishop is the cowardice that emerges from the Roman document which “refuses to name homosexual practices as intrinsically evil.” He firmly charges: “It is now clear that Fiducia Supplicans is not about an expansion of the meaning of blessings, but of a deliberate modification of what is sin.” It is a serious accusation.

A Deliberate Change in Vocabulary

Bishop Mutsaerts analyzes FS as a loss of the meaning of blessings: “They no longer have a clear meaning. This happens more often under this pontificate.” And he rightly adds: “When concepts become vacuous, they are easily manipulated.”

This is the case regarding the child in his mother's womb: reduced to “a clump of cells, and you can do whatever you want with him. Then abortion is not murder, but surgery.” He concludes: “Give ‘blessing’ new meaning and you can do anything with it.”

The “Pastoral”: Key to All Deviations

The prelate continues by explaining that “the magic word [to bring about the change of meaning] that is easily pulled out is ‘pastoral.’ A formal blessing is not allowed, the Declaration says, but a spontaneous blessing is. That is ‘pastoral.’”

From there, he broadens the perspectives: “How often the word ‘pastoral’ used to set aside the Magisterium, to set doctrine and life against each other, and then to condone life that is at odds with doctrine. Pastoral care is no longer soul care; it has become soulless.”

The conclusion is particularly strong and clear: “Nominalism is back. Subjectivism and relativism reign supreme today at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. ‘Dicastery of Deconstruction’ would be a more appropriate name.”

The Netherlands Example

Bishop Mutsaerts takes the example of his country, recalling the development that began with the famous Dutch Pastoral Council in the 1960s. “All doctrinal concepts were eroded.…By now, the Netherlands is the most secularized country in the world.… In the Netherlands the subject of  ‘pastoral theology’ was invented … used to relativize real [theological] science.”

“That is exactly what Pope Francis is doing, that is exactly what Cardinal Fernández is doing, that is exactly what Fiducia Supplicans is doing. Morality is pitted against dogmatics. That is exactly what Amoris Laetitia has been doing,” he concludes.

He notes that this emptied the churches. “On the contrary,” he adds, “it is the traditional seminaries and congregations that are flourishing. Meanwhile, the Church in the Netherlands is nearly in a coma (the average age of churchgoers is over 70).”

Clarification Needed

The bishop then writes these astonishing words: “Perhaps the current developments in the Vatican are a blessing,” considering “those with whom the Pope surrounds himself”: James Martin [Jesuit for LGBT Marriage], Cardinals Robert McElroy, and Jean-Claude Hollerich, who would like to change the teaching of the Church on homosexuality. And then there is Cardinal Manuel Fernández and his more-than-dubious books.

The end of the interview is quite striking: “’Is the Pope Catholic?’ was until recently a rhetorical question. Nowadays it is a question. What to do? This pontificate will naturally come to an end. Is he the valid pope? Yes. Should you obey him? No.” But he adds: “Stay in the Church! Don’t leave the Church! It is the Church of Christ. That Church is holy. The personnel are not.”