Archbishop Müller succeeds William Levada, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. Müller is the former archbishop of Regensburg, Germany, and a personal friend of Pope Benedict's.
Muller has often worked ecumenically. He has "served on several ecumenical committees, including being named the chief Catholic negotiator in theological talks with Lutherans," says Nicole Winfield at HuffPost.
Known in Germany as a "staunch defender of Catholic orthodoxy," according to John Allen, he is also a personal friend of liberationalist theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez, thus demonstrating yet again that it is certainly possible to be orthodox and liberationist.
Some would say that a true expression of the former will inevitably lead to the latter. In fact, Muller himself said that very thing when he received an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in 2008:
“The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, independently of how you look at it, is orthodox because it is orthopractic,” he said. “It teaches us the correct way of acting in a Christian fashion since it comes from true faith.”
Muller's association with Gutierrez prompted the fundamentalist wing to oppose his selection and engage in a back-door campaign against him. He was, of course, accused of heresy.
His appointment was also criticized by ultra-conservative break-away group, Catholic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), rather cheeky considering that Muller will have the SSPX matter in his portfolio when he assumes his new position.
Photo: Whispers
Overall Benedict has been something of a disappointment to the church wingnuts despite his undoubted conservatism.
Posted by: Hypatia | July 19, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Credit where credit is due: He did way more on the child sex abuse scandal than did the "beatified" JP 2.
Posted by: John Petty | July 19, 2012 at 08:51 PM