German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, 77, is among the papabili according to the Italian press. Ultra-conservative, he distinguished himself in part by his virulent criticisms of Pope Francis.
German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, 77, is among the favorites to succeed Pope Francis, according to Italian media. This ultra-conservative religious had published in 2023 a work in which he castigated the management of Pope Francis and his style of governance. He denounced the influence of a “coterie” surrounding the pontiff and expressed his concerns concerning what he considered as a “doctrinal confusion”. Already in 2020, he had opposed the Pope, especially after the controversy triggered by his support for civil unions for homosexual couples. “The pope is not above the Word of God,” he said in an interview with Corriere della will be.
Gerhard Ludwig Muller, born at the end of 1947, embodied the tradition of German theology, trained in Mainz, Munich and Friborg-en-Brisgau, recalls The pilgrim. After exercising for 24 years as a priest and professor of theology, he was appointed in 2002 bishop of Ratisbonne by John Paul II. Very linked to the one who will become Benedict XVI, he is a prolific theologian, intervening both in the field of fundamental theology and on ecumenical issues.
It is therefore quite logical that his career leads him to Rome. In 2007, he joined several Roman congregations, before being appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in 2012, while being raised to the dignity of Archbishop. Following the election of Pope Francis, he was created Cardinal in 2014.
On July 1, 2017, Pope Francis made the decision to withdraw Cardinal Müller from his prefect’s duties, a decision that the latter has difficulty accepted. He keeps in him a stubborn bitterness towards the Argentinian pontiff, a resentment which seems not to have dissipated. The precise reasons for the replacement of Müller by Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, a Jesuit close to François, remain obscure. However, it is likely that the question of fundamentalist positions influenced this decision.
In 2014, Müller had welcomed the superior of the Saint-Pie-X fraternity in Rome to discuss a rapprochement, which, obviously, was not well seen by Pope Francis. In 2021, the latter revised a decision by Benoît XVI which facilitated the practice of traditionalists in the dioceses. Faced with a rise in divisions and in order to continue the project of Vatican Council II, François ended the approach adopted by his predecessor.