Pope pushes out German hardliner, chooses new doctrine chief
VATICAN CITY » Pope Francis on Saturday pushed out the Vatican’s conservative doctrine chief, tapping a deputy instead to lead the powerful congregation that handles sex abuse cases and guarantees Catholic orthodoxy around the world.
Francis and German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller had clashed, most recently over the pope’s cautious opening to letting civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion. Mueller had insisted they cannot, given church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.
In a short statement, the Vatican said Francis had thanked Mueller for his service. Mueller’s fiveyear term ends this weekend and he turns 70 in December. The normal retirement age for bishops is 75.
Francis could have kept him on, but declined to do so. The Jesuit pope instead tapped the No. 2 in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Jesuit Monsignor Luis Ladaria Ferrer, to succeed Mueller.
Francis’ refusal to renew Mueller’s mandate marked his latest move to remake the Holy See’s hierarchy more in his mercy-overmorals likeness, following earlier moves to replace hard-line conservatives in the Vatican high court and office responsible for the world’s clergy.
It was also the second major shake-up this week, after Francis granted another Vatican hardliner, Cardinal George Pell, a leave of absence to return to his native Australia to face trial on sexual assault charges.
Mueller and Pell were two most powerful cardinals in the Vatican, after the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Their absences, coupled with Francis’ earlier demotion of Cardinal Raymond Burke as the Vatican’s chief justice, will likely create a power vacuum for the conservative wing in the Holy See hierarchy.
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI had tapped Mueller, his fellow German countryman, to lead the congregation in 2012. Benedict had taken a hard line against clerical sex abuse during his time as prefect of the congregation himself, and later as pope, defrocking hundreds of priests accused of raping and molesting children.
It was also Benedict who insisted that bishops around the world send all cases of credibly accused priests to the congregation for processing, since bishops had for decades moved pedophiles around from parish to parish rather than sanction or report them to police.
During Mueller’s tenure, the sex abuse caseload piled up as more and more victims came forward from Latin America, Europe and beyond. Last year, Francis confirmed there was a 2,000-case backlog, and he set about naming new officials in the congregation’s discipline section to process the overload.