Cardinal Marx: Priests Who Support Women’s Ordination Can Now Become Bishops

The aim of His Eminence and modernist heretics like him is the total destruction of the Church of Christ as it was instituted by Her Founder.

From AdVaticanum

By Niwa Limbu

Cardinal Reinhard Marx has said that support for women’s ordination no longer disqualifies candidates for the episcopacy and has challenged arguments traditionally used to defend the male-only priesthood

Cardinal Reinhard Marx has said that supporting the possibility of women’s ordination no longer automatically excludes someone from consideration as a bishop, as His Eminence also called for a “clear signal” from Rome on the German Synodal Way.

Speaking at a discussion in Munich on 4 November, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising defended the need for further reform in the Catholic Church, backing the objectives of Germany’s Synodal Path and questioning arguments traditionally used to justify the exclusion of women from priestly ordination.

The discussion, held at the Catholic Academy and moderated by Tobias Haberl, brought the cardinal together with German progressive writer Nora Bossong to mark the presentation of her new book, World by Other Means: For More Faith in Exhausted Times. Liturgy and the position of women in the Church emerged as two principal subjects of the evening.

According to Herder Communion, Bossong spoke personally about the impossibility of becoming a priest, saying that while she could not imagine becoming a nun, the priesthood would have been more appealing to her. The Church’s prohibition on women’s ordination saddened her more than it angered her. “I take it to heart; I ask myself: Am I fundamentally flawed?” she said.

Cardinal Marx responded by acknowledging how significantly his own thinking had changed. His Eminence recalled that 20 years ago he had held different views and that, as a child, he could not have imagined women becoming police officers or professional footballers.

The cardinal said that the discussion of women’s ordination had become considerably more open in Germany, contrasting the present situation with the episcopal appointments of a decade ago. “Ten years ago, no one who could imagine the ordination of women would have been considered as a candidate for bishop. That’s over now,” the cardinal said.

The cardinal also expressed surprise that arguments against women’s ordination continued to be advanced in exclusively male circles. He recalled discussing the matter with Pope Francis, who had invoked the distinction between the Petrine and Marian charisms to explain the different vocations of men and women in the Church.

Marx said he had challenged that reasoning, arguing that Marian spirituality was not exclusive to women. “To that I said: I’m not at all convinced; the Marian charism applies to me as well. In the seminary, we learned that we should be Marian priests,” His Eminence said.

The cardinal further questioned whether the claim that the sexes had distinct sacramental roles had been definitively established by the Church’s teaching. He said he could not see that it had been infallibly taught that “sexuality is the matter of the sacrament”.

Marx went on to question whether the Church was adequately recognising the different charisms bestowed by God, particularly when considering who could preside over the Eucharist.

“Are we truly looking at all the charisms that God bestows upon us? Are we considering all those who could preside over the Eucharist and make it beautiful? Is one half simply unwanted? I can no longer accept that view,” he said.