CDF prefect favours decentralisation

In his latest book, entitled “The Pope – Mission and Mandate” (Der Papst – Sendung und Auftrag), CDF Prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller supports a “cautious” decentralisation, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

While the papal office is indispensable, Müller writes, he warns against placing too great a focus on the figure of the Pope. There is a “great danger” that the Pope will always be highlighted and take centre stage. “The Church is not only found in Rome but everywhere where people gather round the altar,” he writes, blaming the media for always concentrating on the Pope.

“In line with the new evangelisation, the bishops, synods and bishops’ conferences must exercise greater responsibility including a certain doctrinal competency,” Müller writes. At the same time, he recalls that with his demand for a “healthy decentralisation”, Pope Francis had “in no way” intended to signal a revolution in the Vatican. “Separatist tendencies and arrogant conduct” harm the Church, he adds, again stressing that bishops’ conferences can never make “separate binding dogmatic statements, let alone relativise constitutive sacramental structures”.

Müller presented his 600-page book at the German College in Rome on 16 March. It has a 17-page foreword by the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch.