Cardinal Müller: I Don’t Want to Be Diplomatic

In a striking new interview Cardinal Gerhard Müller rejects ecclesial diplomacy, praises Pope Leo XIV’s Christ-centred focus, and warns against compromise with modern ideologies.

The former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has once again posed a bold challenge to the prevailing ecclesial temper. His interview with Diane Montagna is not an act of hedging: Müller declares, simply, “As a dogmatic theologian I don’t want to be diplomatic.” What follows is a sustained critique of the Church’s recent trajectory and an affirmation of what he sees as Pope Leo XIV’s promise, and limits, as focal points of renewal.

It is worth remembering that the outset of Pope Francis’ pontificate Müller’s public voice was more restrained. As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he frequently defended Francis, seeking to attempt to re-frame papal teaching in continuity with tradition and offering clarifications when controversies arose around Amoris Laetitia or the Synods on the Family. This effort became ever more torturous and many wondered why he did not speak out with more clarity. Yet once his mandate was not renewed in 2017 and he was free of curial office, his tone shifted. Over time his interventions became sharper, increasingly marked by impatience with what he perceived as doctrinal ambiguity and pastoral relativism. What was once the guarded loyalty of a Vatican prefect has gradually become the frank candour of a cardinal unafraid to contest the direction of the Church, culminating in the unflinching register of this latest interview.

From the outset Müller paints Pope Leo XIV’s early months in the papacy as marked by a shift: less rhetorical indulgence of what he divides into primary and secondary issues, a re-centring of proclamation around Christ, and a reclaiming of doctrinal clarity. He asserts that migration, political or cultural upheaval, while real and often tragic, are not the first task of the Church. The Church’s mission, he insists, is evangelisation, not as a slogan but as truth. He warns that when the Church dilutes doctrine in favour of pastoral adaptability, it risks losing its identity.