The universal nature of the Church (“Here comes everybody,” as James Joyce said) brings about some unusual friendships and allegiances. Here is one: two weeks ago in Mannheim, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the precise theologian who formerly served as the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, was the guest of Her Serene Highness Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, an aristocrat once known as the “punk princess”.
The cardinal was speaking at the Reiss-Engelhorn museum, at the invitation of the princess, to help publicise the museum’s exhibition on “The Popes and the Unity of the Latin World”. The title has an unintentional irony, at a time when Catholics are increasingly divided over the present pontificate.
What the prelate and the princess have in common is their Catholicism, which would generally be described as “conservative”, and their connection to Benedict XVI – both of which put them in an uncomfortable position under a very different kind of pope. Both have to face the question: what do you do when your ideas are suddenly out of favour?
Cardinal Müller was appointed by Benedict in 2012 as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He expected to serve until retirement age, like all his modern predecessors. Instead he was removed earlier this year by Pope Francis. The cardinal told Passauer Neue Presse that he was given no reason, which he regards as “unacceptable”.
Until then Cardinal Müller had been a consistent defender of Pope Francis – though perhaps the wrong kind of defender: he opposed the introduction of women deacons, and said that Church teaching against Communion for the remarried was a matter of unchangeable divine law.
But since his sacking he has been more outspoken. For the first time, he named his opponents in the Communion debate – “Cardinals Schönborn, Kasper and others” – and said that their attempts to justify a new approach on Communion “are simply not convincing”.
At the event in Mannheim, Cardinal Müller noted that the 16th-century St Robert Bellarmine had rebuked the Pope – a rather suggestive comment. The cardinal also hinted that he hoped he might one day return to the Curia.
But for the moment he is far from the centre – something he has in common with Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. Her story has been told often enough, but it is worth repeating. A countess by birth, she married the billionaire Prince of Thurn und Taxis, and the two lived in style: she partied with pop stars (including the other Prince) and once spent a million dollars on her birthday celebrations.
Then her husband died, leaving $576m of debt. The princess reinvented herself and began to drag the family out of its financial trouble. She also converted to Catholicism.
A daily Mass-goer, she is nevertheless still recognisably the same figure: only now, the parties are for the poor and sick – 120 are fed every day at the castle – and her extravagance is in the service of others: she has opened up the beauties of the ancestral home to visitors. “She’s genuinely pious,” a friend of the princess says. “She’s used all the talents she had as the ‘punk princess’ in the 80s, and put them at the service of Catholicism.”
The princess is not one to retreat into the ghetto, I’m told. “She is friends with absolutely everyone.”
But it is the more traditionally minded Catholics with whom her theological sympathies are closest.
The princess used to dine with Benedict XVI when he was pope – and Archbishop George Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary, was also at the museum launch the other day. But under the present pontificate, she finds herself swimming against the tide. Most of the Catholic German aristocracy are more liberal in their beliefs.
The invitation to Cardinal Müller is an indication of where the princess stands. She is also good friends with Martin Mosebach, the German novelist who signed the “filial correction” of the Pope published earlier this week.
It would, however, be fantasy to suppose that Cardinal Müller, Princess Gloria and Mosebach represent any kind of organised conservative resistance. They are just like-minded people, keeping going in a world which has changed very quickly.
“Gloria’s doing her bit,” her friend says. “She loves the Catholic faith and likes to make it fun.” At a time of anxiety and conflict, that makes a refreshing change.
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