Cardinal Hollerich: ‘Today we have politicians. Politicians have no convictions’

 

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of Synod on Synodality, speaks to the media on June 20, 2023, at the temporary headquarters of the Holy See Press Office in Vatican City. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Deutsch, May 25, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In an interview with the French newspaper La Croix on Thursday, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, discussed the European elections and the dwindling influence of Christianity on politics.

Hollerich is archbishop of Luxembourg, a member of the Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis, and a key figure at the Synod on Synodality, where he serves as relator general.

“This is a political consequence of the decline of Christianity and Catholicism in Europe because it is a fact that Christians in Europe are now a minority and will become even more so in the coming years,” he said, explaining the current political position of Christians in Europe.

This decline had led to a “lack of ideas” and a lack of politicians of the caliber of Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi — two staunch Catholics and founders of the European Union.

“Today we have politicians. Politicians have no convictions: They read polls and adapt what they think to them. This is a huge mistake that I see at both national and European levels,” the cardinal said.

Compelling political argumentation has faded into the background, he added. “Today, those who govern us no longer have a backbone.”

Hollerich went on to say that other “ideals” — such as ecology and climate change — are supported by a large part of the population, which he also shared because “they are a necessity in order to save humanity.”

Climate change must be tackled, the cardinal said, because it otherwise “will kill just as many people as war.”

Regarding the Church’s role in dealing with political and social issues, Hollerich said it should engage the world in a dialog based on the Second Vatican Council.

The archbishop of Luxembourg said that some “ideals, such as globalization, are supported by a small bourgeois, rich, and intellectual minority. As far as the various socialist parties are concerned, in many countries they have begun to promote social reforms rather than social welfare reforms.”

Nevertheless, the cardinal said he continues to see Christians as a resource for the future of the European Union and compared their current situation with that of the minority of Soviets during the Russian Revolution. Despite their quantitative inferiority, they succeeded in implementing their idea.

Concerning the upcoming European elections, the cardinal stated: “We have become accustomed to the European Union. We are no longer aware of the advantages of this political institution and the will behind it.”

Hollerich also warned against a return to fascism. “It’s already here. I don’t want to snub Italy, but the ruling party there is post-fascist,” he said. “That scares me, especially as I come from a family where everyone was in the resistance. As a young boy, I heard stories from the Second World War.”

On the subject of abortion, the cardinal condemned “rich society” for finding no other solution than “killing unborn children.” He warned: “History will judge us.”

This article was originally published in CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.


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9 Comments

  1. About all politicians, who are categorically dismissed as having no “backbone”…If that problem were fixed, then where would we find enough additional donors for spinal transplants needed by others? Say, the Synodality’s relator general, himself, who politics a new “attitude” to replace MORAL THEOLOGY:

    “I think that’s wrong [sexual morality]. But I also believe that we are thinking ahead here in [terms of] teaching. As the Pope has expressed in the past, this can lead to a change in doctrine. Because I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching is no longer correct.” Sociological-scientific!

    AND, further erasing the first principle of non-contradiction:

    “In Japan, I got to know a different way of thinking. The Japanese don’t think in terms of the European [!] logic of opposites. We say: It is black, therefore it is not white. The Japanese say: It is white, but maybe it is also black. You can combine opposites in Japan without changing your point of view.”

    BEHIND the collage of Hollerich’s remarks, we can still detect admirable instincts, but filtered through a foggy intellect. Appealed to by Hollerich, the Second Vatican Council spoke more clearly than he to the current moment:

    “Contemplating the melancholy state of humanity, the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent binding force of universal natural law and its all-embracing principles. Man’s conscience itself gives ever more emphatic voice to these principles” (n. 79).

    Perhaps the floundering Synod 2024 still can set some kind of example for those spineless politicians in the European Union. Those other guys, or gals, or whatever.

  2. Cardinal Hollerich can sound quite amenable to traditional Catholics. His comments on loss of faith, environmental concern, return of fascism are shared. If only he would realize a return to the Apostolic message by Church leaders is actually the means to recover.

  3. “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”

    Crocodile tears here from Cardinal Hollerich. There have always been politicians, including politicians who are also cardinals or bishops.

    • St. jOHN CHRISTOSTUM (SP?) IS QUOTED AS SAYINJG THAT THE STREETS OF HELL ARE PAVED WITH THE SKULLS OF BISHOPS. iF THIS IS SO, PERHAPS THE REASON IS THAT SO MANY OF THEM OPERATE AS IF POLITICS TRUMPS RELIGION, STATE LAW TRUMPS THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AND SOMEHOW AT THEIR JUDGMENT GOD WILL GIVE THEM A PASS BECAUSE HE UNDERSTANDS THE PRESSURE THEY WERE UNDER ALLOWING HIS TEN COMMANDMENTS TO BECOME SUGGESTIONS AND NO LONGER LAWS.

  4. We read” “…the cardinal […] compared their [meaning the Christians] current situation with that of the minority of Soviets during the Russian Revolution. Despite their quantitative inferiority, they succeeded in implementing their idea.”

    My God! Or whatever? Does amnesiac Hollerich succeed in contaminating his message by comparing Christians to the Bolsheviks–the revolutionary and expedient vanguard in the struggle of “scientific” dialectical materialism? Says the grand circus-master of synodality, “they succeeded in implementing their idea.” Something like his own “sociological and scientific foundation,” another mere “idea,” for overturning sexual morality?

    Such a muddled mind, undercutting his own insights, and revelation and ontology, and making yet a further “mess” of the Church…

    No wonder China is held up as a great example “solidarity”! No wonder “backwardist” Catholics are exiled from Rome into ecclesial Siberia! No wonder a plausible analogy between a “polyhedral” Church–now with a string of “special case” dissidents to the capstone Fiducia Supplicans–and Stalin’s strung-out gulag “archipelago”! No wonder the synodal roundtables begin to remind us of a Procrustean Bed–where “walking together” won’t work unless we amputate the feet from the head: the Magisterium!

    How else can the synodal “experts” and vanguard “study groups” resuscitate the disinterred “sensitive issues”: a non-celibate priesthood; a female diaconate (even if tactically not yet ordained); or now explain to the eastern Orthodox Churches that in the West and Fiducia Supplicans, the written and retained word “couple” is pronounced “person”; or separate moral judgments of informed conscience from subjective and circumstantial “decisions” (Veritas Splendor, “wherefore art thou?”); or level ecumenism into intercommunion with ecclesial communities self-amputated from the apostolic succession?

    Will Cardinal Hollerich continue to mimic the secularist/political culture that he tars with a broad brush:
    “When in trouble or in doubt,
    Run in circles, scream and shout!”

    Or, instead, might the well-positioned relator general of Synod 2024 fully grasp the tectonic reset at least begun in “Dignitas Infinita”?

  5. Politicians are human, fragile, and mortal. During their brief tenure in seats of humble service to Planet Earth and its members, we need to wish the politicians strength, courage, and stamina to be useful.

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