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\n\t\u201cThe task of this congregation is not only to defend the Catholic faith but to promote it, to give the positive aspects and possibilities of the whole richness of the Catholic faith,\u201d Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller told CNA in a July 20 interview.
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\n\t\u201cWe must speak about God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and also about Holy Scripture, the great Tradition of the Church, our Creed and our belief. In this way our hearts will be more open and our thinking more profound,\u201d he said.
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\n\tThe 64-year-old former Bishop of Regensburg, Germany was appointed to his new Vatican post by Pope Benedict on July 2.
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\n\t\u201cThe Holy Father did not ask me. He nominated me without discussion,\u201d he laughed. The Pope said, \u201c\u2018you have to do it,\u2019 and you cannot give a negative answer to the wishes of the Holy Father!\u201d
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\n\tThe two German theologians have had a long association. Archbishop Muller hesitates to use the word \u201cfriendship,\u201d since in German it usually refers to someone of the same age bracket, whereas Pope Benedict \u201cis one generation older than me.\u201d
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\n\tHowever, Archbishop Muller does still consider their relationship \u201ca friendship \u2026 but he has the role of father and I have the role of son.\u201d
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\n\tArchbishop Muller still recalls the intellectual impact of Father Joseph Ratzinger\u2019s \u201cIntroduction to Christianity,\u201d published in 1968 at the height of the campus rebellions across the western world. \u201cHe re-vindicated our faith and convinced us of the reasonableness of Catholic belief; he re-established our confidence in the Church,\u201d the archbishop remarked.
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\n\tHe is now in charge of editing the writings or \u201cOmnia Opera\u201d of Pope Benedict XVI, a grand project that will stretch to 16 volumes.
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\n\tHe described Pope Benedict as \u201ca great intellectual and an important thinker for today,\u201d particularly when it comes to \u201cexplaining the depth and richness of our Christian faith\u201d to contemporary society.
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\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s too early to speak about the legacy of this papacy, but in a certain sense we can compare our present Holy Father with the great intellectual pontiffs of history, such as Pope Leo the Great in 5th century and Benedict XIV in the 18th century.\u201d
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\n\tArchbishop Gerhard Muller was born in 1947 in the Mainz region of Germany into a family of four \u2013 one brother and two sisters. He is still very much a family man, and boasts of being an uncle to 22 nephews and nieces, with \u201cnumber 23 coming soon.\u201d
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\n\tHe studied philosophy and theology in the German cities of Mainz, Munich, and Freiburg, producing not one but two doctorates. The first focused on the work of the 20th-century Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while the second explored the veneration of saints, \u201ca very Catholic subject,\u201d he noted.
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\n\tAfter his studies, he was named a professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Munich \u201cfor 16 happy years,\u201d he recalled with a laugh. A decade ago, Pope John Paul II appointed him the Bishop of Regensburg.
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\n\tHis trajectory in life has been almost identical to his mentor Pope Benedict \u2013 an academic career followed by an episcopal appointment, followed by a transfer to the Roman Curia. In fact, he now occupies the same Vatican job that Pope Benedict fulfilled from 1981 to 2005.
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\n\tArchbishop Muller\u2019s latest appointment, however, has been met with a degree of criticism from some who allege he holds unorthodox views on a range of issues \u2013 from the perpetual virginity of Our Lady, to the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, to the relationship of non-Catholic Christians to the Church.
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\n\t\u201cThese are not criticisms, they are provocations. And not very intelligent provocations at that,\u201d he said. \u201cEither they have not read what I have written or they have not understood it.\u201d
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\n\t\u201cOur Catholic faith is very clear,\u201d he explained,\u201cthat at the consecration during Mass a change occurs so that the whole substance of the bread and wine is changed into the whole substance body and blood of Jesus Christ, and that this change is rightly called transubstantiation. And we have refused to accept all the other interpretations, consubstantiation, transignification, transfinalisation and so on.\u201d
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\n\tThe Church is also equally clear on the \u201cvirginity of Mary, mother of Jesus, mother of God, before, during and after the birth of Christ,\u201d Archbishop Muller stated.
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\n\tAs for inter-Christian relations, the archbishop noted that in his 4-5th century debates with the Donatists, St. Augustine underscored that the Church recognizes\u201ceverybody who is validly baptized is incorporated into Christ,\u201d even if they are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.
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\n\tBut on a more pressing note, Archbishop Muller has to deal with the issue of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States. In April 2012 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called for a reform of America\u2019s largest female religious group, after a four-year audit or \u201cdoctrinal assessment\u201d concluded there was a \u201ccrisis\u201d of belief throughout its ranks.<\/p>\n
\tEarlier this month group\u2019s president, Sister Pat Farrell, suggested that the key question in their discussions with the Vatican is, \u201cCan one be Catholic and have a questioning mind?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tArchbishop Muller\u2019s answer is a clear: \u201cBecause faith and reason belong together, it is obviously not incompatible to be Catholic and to have a questioning mind \u2013 but we cannot have negotiations about revealed truth,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are in communion with the Church only in so far as we accept the whole and the complete revelation of Jesus Christ, all the doctrine of the Church.\u201d
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\n\tHe is extremely reluctant, though, to go to war with the American religious sisters. Instead, Archbishop Muller wants to \u201ccome together and not to struggle against each other or be suspicious of each other.\u201d
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\n\t\u201cWe are sisters and brothers of Christ and we want to work together, not like a political party or a human organization, but we are the family of God, the body of Christ,\u201d he said.
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\n\tAnother matter that has raised questions is his long standing friendship with the Peruvian theologian Father Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez, one of the principle founders of \u201cLiberation Theology,\u201d Archbishop Muller was similarly robust.<\/p>\n
\tHe explained that there are various schools of \u201cLiberation Theology,\u201d stressing that \u201cwe have to make differences between them\u201d as some are \u201cin the line of a Marxist and communist analysis of reality\u201d which the Catholic Church would condemn.
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\n\t\u201cI think that Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez, I know him personally, he is not of this line. He is a very good Catholic,\u201d said Archbishop Muller, who spent 15 summers teaching and working in South America.<\/p>\n
\tHe sees the matter as one of not dividing or separating \u201cthe love (of) God and the love towards our neighbor.\u201d
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\n\tAs a native of Mainz, Archbishop Muller said he takes great inspiration from the region\u2019s 19th-century bishop, Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, a pioneer of modern Catholic social thinking. His work subsequently influenced the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII and, in particular, his 1891 social encyclical \u201cRerum Novarum.\u201d
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\n\tIt is this vision of Catholic social teaching, the archbishop believes, that \u201chelped to rebuild a democratic Germany after the war\u201d and which has been repeatedly reflected in more recent Church documents such as the Second Vatican Council\u2019s \u201cGaudium et Spes\u201d and Pope Paul VI\u2019s 1967 encyclical \u201cPopulorum Progressio.\u201d<\/p>\n