Enough is enough. Even Cardinals now see it.

Well, this is good news.

Cardinal Mueller has released a strong-worded manifesto, that is so pointedly, so evidently, so insistently anti-Francis that the fact Mueller does not mention the name will not prevent it from making headlines all over the planet.

It is a systematic demolition of some of Francis’ heretical (I am talking here in the common sense intended by decent people; not in the sense referred to in the ruminations of weak Canonists) statements on the One True Faith, communion for adulterers, hell and repentance, male priesthood, and other stuff I now forget.

The words are strong, often taken directly from the Scriptures or from the Catechism.

Some random snippets follow, but the tone is the same throughout the document:

“Many wonder today what purpose the Church still has in its existence, when even bishops prefer to be politicians rather than to proclaim the Gospel as teachers of the Faith.”

“To keep silent about these and the other truths of the Faith and to teach people accordingly is the greatest deception against which the Catechism vigorously warns. It represents the last trial of the Church and leads man to a religious delusion, “the price of their apostasy” (CCC 675); it is the fraud of Antichrist. “He will deceive those who are lost by all means of injustice; for they have closed themselves to the love of the truth by which they should be saved” (2 Thess 2:10).”

“For he that shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: The Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when He shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38).

This is a big, fat, “enough is enough!”

The Cardinal does not go to war openly against Francis, but he ridicules him in front of the Catholic world. The Cardinal clearly seems to either defy Francis to take measures against him, or to show that Francis has become so embarrassing that he will now be openly corrected and contradicted without any regard for his position of authority.

When a Cardinal accuses the Pope, in an official manifesto, of making the work of the Antichrist, I think many faithful listen.

Whilst Cardinal Mueller was never an example of orthodoxy, this manifesto is better than any meowing that has ever come from Cardinal Burke and his sorry band of Bragging Kitten. It is strong, insisted, bold-faced, and quite the wake-up call. It does not ask Francis to state the truth. It does it for him, whether he likes it or not.

I very much doubt that the Cardinal is alone on this. But I will give him credit for this: that he had the gut to come out with words of truth alone, putting himself on the firing line.

What will Francis now do? Punish a Cardinal for a document consisting almost entirely of quotations from the Catechism and the Scriptures? I’d love to see it. I think I’d have to buy a new popcorn-maker.

My take is that Mueller is sending to Francis a simple, but clear message: “Shut up, old nincompoop. Enough is enough. You have been testing our patience for long enough.”

Again: Mueller is a an experienced politician and diplomatic. He knows what he is doing.

There might be more behind this than meets the eye.

M