Ultra vires, Latin for 'beyond the powers'. In other words, His Eminence has said that Francis's 'Apostolic Constitution' is a puff piece. He cannot derogate the Papal power to a Synod, bestowing magisterial status on its decisions. It's simply an attempt at foisting heresy on the Church without him taking personal responsibility.
From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
A most important observation by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller has been reported but not, I think, adequately contextualised.
"A synod of the bishops is not an ecumenical Council. It has no authority. Even if the pope is speaking about authority, it is not magisterial authority. THE POPE CANNOT CHANGE THE BASIC CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH. He cannot give a new definition of the primacy of the bishop of Rome or what bishops are to do."
The immediate context here is that PF had issued a purported "Apostolic Constitution" claiming to confer, in some circumstances, the cover of papal magisterial authority upon the pronouncements of his own poor doctored and loaded Synods.
The remote context is that Mueller is clearly here alluding to Denzinger 3114 (et vide3117). Bismarck had launched a violent attack upon the teaching of Vatican 1; the German bishops responded by formally stating that the pope non potest mutare constitutionem Ecclesiae a fundatore datam ... Constitutio Ecclesiae in omnibus essentialibus fundatur in ordinatione divina ideoque immunis est ab omni arbitraria dispositione humana.
Subsequently, Pio Nono confirmed, in extraordinarily categorical language, what the German bishops had taught. It is thus the teaching not simply of the German bishops, but of Blessed Pius IX himself.
Frankly, the "Apostolic Constitution" had worried me. The firm explanation of Cardinal Mueller that PF (or any other pope) simply cannot do this sort of thing lifts a weight from my conscience.
The CBCEW has recently seriously dented its own reputation and authority by issuing an embarrassingly sycophantic ultrapalist communique. It would be very reassuring if this body could just teach the Catholic Faith with the same simplicity and clarity as Gerhard Cardinal Mueller does.
In my mind, Mueller would be a very good choice to sort out the mess which will have been left by this sad and sorry pontificate.
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