Free Republic

German bishop exalts 'freedom'MUNICH (ChurchMilitant.com) - German Cdl. Reinhard Marx is criticizing Church faithful who "push a relationship of pure obedience to God," elevating "freedom" instead as a virtue worth emulating. In his new book titled Freedom (Freiheit), the archbishop of Munich and Freising regrets that Catholics "do not really integrate the idea of freedom into their faith." "I want to be a free person," writes Marx in his new book. "The biblical God is a God of liberation," Marx says. "He created man in freedom and wanted him to respond to it in freedom. This requires freedom of religion...

Cdl Marx: Spreading ‘fear of hell’ undermines Gospel The German cardinal also said that 'sometimes one has to say: stop the religion!' January 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Reinhard Marx – the archbishop of Munich-Freising and the head of the German Bishops' Conference – just made a statement, in which he argued against spreading fear, saying: “wherever someone spreads fear – of hell or whatever else – the Gospel cannot have an effect.” He added with regard to the topic of religion and its relation to peace that “sometimes one has to say: stop the religion!” Marx spoke these...

[Catholic Caucus] Cdl Marx: Homosexual couples can receive ‘blessing’ from Church Marx said that homosexual couples can receive 'a blessing in the sense of a pastoral accompaniment.' January 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German Bishops' Conference, stated in a recent interview that homosexuals belong to the Church’s “sacramental community” and has defended “blessing” homosexual couples. On December 23, 2019, Cardinal Marx gave an interview to the German magazine Der Stern in which he said: “I insist: we welcome homosexuals, they belong to the Church, also to the sacramental community.” Marx said that homosexual...

Munich, Germany, Dec 24, 2019 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Reinhard Marx has expressed the view that homosexual couples can receive a Church blessing “in the sense of a pastoral accompaniment” in the Catholic Church, but not in a manner that resembles marriage. In an interview with the German magazine Stern, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising was asked, “What do you do when a homosexual couple asks you for an episcopal blessing?” Marx responded: “I can bless them both in the sense of pastoral accompaniment, we can pray together. But theirs cannot be a marriage-like relationship.” While there is...

German bishops will light ‘Synodal Candle’ to launch controversial process   Bonn, Germany, Nov 25, 2019 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- The German bishops' conference announced Monday that a ceremonial "Synodal Candle" will be lit on the first Sunday of Advent to officially launch the nation’s "synodal process," which is scheduled to run over two years and pass resolutions about Church life in Germany.The launch ceremony will be hosted by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who will light a candle together with lay leader Karin Kortmann in Munich's famous Frauenkirche, or "Cathedral of Our Dear Lady."

A top Catholic cardinal admitted on Saturday that Church files on priests who sexually abused children were destroyed or never even drawn up, a move which allowed paedophiles to prey on others. "Files that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible were destroyed, or not even created," German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in a speech to a landmark Vatican summit on tackling paedophilia in the clergy. "Instead of the perpetrators, the victims were regulated and silence imposed on them. The stipulated procedures and processes for the prosecution of offences were deliberately not complied with, but instead cancelled...

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, has called on Christians to seek contact to Muslims and non-believers in view of what he described as an era of “verbal, political and military rearmament.” In comments to be delivered at a religious procession in Munich on the Christian holy day of Good Friday, Marx said Christian believers should say “no” when hate and violence were preached and condemn attacks on churches, synagogues or mosques. He urged those of the Christian faith to go the path of non-violence and love when encountering people of other religions or those who...

The German Catholic Church called for a reduction in the influx of refugees arriving in Germany, saying the country cannot take in "all the world's needy," according to an interview published on Saturday. Germany has been struggling to cope with 1.1 million asylum seekers that arrived in 2015 and Berlin has not yet given an official estimate for how many it expects this year. "As a church, we say that we need a reduction in the number of refugees," Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, told the Passauer Neue Presse daily. ...

Dealing with divorced and remarried: Cardinal Marx lays into the Vatican Cardinal Marx : " We are going to see that the issue is completely discussed" Should the Catholic Church allow divorced and remarried to be re-admitted to communion? No, says Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. The Munich Cardinal Marx does not want to accept this. Freising - The Bavarian bishops want a broad debate on the way that divorced and remarried people are treated by the Catholic Church. They distance themselves thereby from the Prefect of the Vatican...