Gerhard Mueller
Conservatives insist Vatican isn’t changing teaching on gays or divorced Catholics
By Josephine McKenna — October 14, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) In what looked like strenuous damage control, the Vatican’s chief spokesman told a packed media conference Tuesday that this was a “working document, not a final document.”
Declining number of U.S. nuns, even among traditional orders, charted in new study
By David Gibson — October 13, 2014
(RNS) The more liberal, socially active communities of sisters are drawing about the same number of new entrants as the more conservative, tradition-minded communities: very few.
Pope Francis tries again on traditionalist reconciliation after Benedict XVI failed
By Josephine McKenna — September 23, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI made reconciliation with traditionalist Catholics a top priority, but was roundly criticized when one of the rehabilitated bishops turned out to be a vocal Holocaust denier.
Vatican’s doctrinal chief renews criticism of US nuns, says he’s no misogynist
By David Gibson — September 2, 2014
(RNS) " ... We don’t want to gobble up a woman a day!” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller told L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper, in the edition published on Monday (Sept. 1).
U.S. nuns haunted by dead Jesuit: the ghost of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
By David Gibson — May 22, 2014
(RNS) A French Jesuit's ideas of "conscious evolution" may be at the heart of the showdown between American nuns and Vatican hard-liners.
Cardinal seeks a truce in fight between U.S. nuns and Vatican’s doctrinal office
By Josephine McKenna — May 20, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) While the Vatican's investigation into American nuns falls under the doctrinal office, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz's congregation on religious orders is seen as more sympathetic to the sisters and has tried to serve as a peace broker in the standoff.
Vatican threatens Jesuit theologian in India with censure
By David Gibson — May 12, 2014
(RNS) The process of engaging cultures is especially advanced in Asia, where Jesuits have established a beachhead. But it also means that theologians often use nontraditional formulations to try to communicate the faith to Hindu or Buddhist audiences.
Nuns say they will continue dialogue despite Vatican criticisms
By David Gibson — May 9, 2014
(RNS) Representatives of most of the 50,000 sisters in the U.S. flatly rejected the charges by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller but said their conversation “was constructive in its frankness and lack of ambiguity.”
FULL TEXT: Nuns respond to Vatican rebuke: “Not an easy discussion”
By David Gibson — May 8, 2014
The LCWR's frank but hopeful statement about meetings with the Vatican's doctrinal chief: "This work is fraught with tension and misunderstanding."
UPDATE: Is Cardinal Mueller taking talking points on the nuns from NCR?
By David Gibson — May 7, 2014
A passage from the Vatican doctrinal czar's blast at the U.S. sisters seems lifted directly from a National Catholic Register story that made the same points the cardinal did this week.
Cardinal Kasper, the ‘pope’s theologian,’ downplays Vatican blast at U.S. nuns
By David Gibson — May 6, 2014
NEW YORK (RNS) Just as Pope Francis has downplayed rules and hot-button issues in an effort to widen the church's appeal, Cardinal Walter Kasper has pushed the importance of pastoral flexibility and realism in walking with Catholics throughout their imperfect lives.
Vatican’s doctrine chief blasts U.S. nuns for disobedience
By David Gibson — May 5, 2014
(RNS) Cardinal Gerhard Mueller acknowledged that his talk was “blunt,” and his remarks were the toughest since the takeover was announced in 2012. “What I must say is too important to dress up in flowery language.”
Liberation theology finds new welcome in Pope Francis’ Vatican
By Alessandro Speciale — September 9, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The revival of liberation theology under Pope Francis is remarkable about-face for a movement that swelled in popularity but was later stamped out by the conservative pontificates of John Paul II and his longtime doctrinal czar, Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis orders overhaul of US nuns to continue
By Alessandro Speciale — April 15, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The decision to continue a Vatican overhaul of U.S. nuns, while not entirely unexpected, could nonetheless bring an end to Pope Francis' honeymoon with the many American Catholics who had viewed the crackdown on nuns as heavy-handed and unnecessary.
Pope Francis: Church must act decisively on sex abuse
By Cathy Lynn Grossman — April 5, 2013
(RNS) Pope Francis called on the various national bishops' conferences around the world to step up to disciplining priests and serving abuse victims, a possible indication that he will move from a strongly centralized church government to one that places increased authority locally.
