Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, 1 of the oldest cardinals in the world, turned Friday, January 5, 95. He is simply a prominent historian of the Catholic Church who actively participates in church debate. In fresh years, he has not hesitated to criticise Pope Benedict XVI harshly for his decision to abdicate, and especially for the way of life chosen after his resignation, and at the same time to criticize Pope Francis for his decisions denying the constant teaching of the Church.
Walter Brandmüller was born to a Catholic-Engelite household on 5 January 1929: his father was faithful to the Church while his parent belonged to the Protestant community. The cardinal was raised in the father's faith; he undertook theological studies and received priestly ordination in Bavarian Bamberg in 1953. As a priest, he took seriously the past of the Church, starting his technological work. In 1971 he obtained a professorship in this field. Brandmüller focused primarily on the Councils of the Late mediate Ages; the interest in this subject was related to the period of the Second Vatican Council, in which he came to live and act. The future cardinal dealt critically with the explanation of conciliarism, or proposal to admit the superiority of the council over the pope.
For most of his life, Brandmüller did not engage in current church disputes, focusing on technological work. Only in 1998, erstwhile he was 69, he was appointed as president of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences. St. John Paul II could have made this decision in agreement with the cardinals. Joseph Ratzinger, just 2 years older than Brandmüller. Both Ratzinger and Wojtyla valued Brandmüller's achievements and his conservative attitude on ecclesiological, moral and doctrinal issues. John Paul II besides asked Brandmüller to aid prepare the celebrated and controversial millenniums to apologize to the Pope for the sins that people of the Church have committed throughout history.
Brandmüller served as the chief historian of the Holy See until 2009. He retired then, but his ecclesiastical commitment did not stop. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI elevated the historian to the rank of Cardinal.
Walter Brandmüller a fewer years later showed that despite his large sympathy for Joseph Ratzinger he was not his blind supporter. He was very critical of Benedict's decision to resign. As an expert on medieval past of the Church, he understood perfectly what this could mean in practice, suggesting that there were 2 popes. Brandmüller peculiarly critically referred to the way Benedict XVI chose to live after his resignation. According to Brandmüller, Ratzinger should in no way stay by his papal name or wear white robes, choosing alternatively the way which Pietro da Morrone followed after his resignation from Papacy – rejecting both the name of Pope Celestine and the papal dress. Joseph Ratzinger erstwhile read a critical interview with Brandmüller in the German press and was so upset that he wrote a letter to Cardinal Brandmüller asking him to halt public criticism of his behaviour. Paweł Chmielewski writes about this exchange of letters, as well as about Brandmüller's detailed criticism of Benedict XVI in his fresh book "The Pontificate of Crisis".
Cardinal Brandmüller besides referred very negatively to the key decisions of the pontificate of Francis. In 2016, together with Cardinals Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra and Joachim Meisner, he sent the celebrated dubia to Pope Francis, asking him about the explanation of the apostolic adhortation Amoris laetitia. The Pope never answered these questions, nevertheless clearly he made it clear that he considered Brandmüller and the another signatories to the dubies to be impertinent.
After years of cardinality. Brandmüller signed another dubia, sent by cardinals to the pope in the summertime of 2023, concerning among another things priestly ordination for women, celibacy, the improvement of doctrine in the Church and blessings for homosexual unions. The Pope has already responded to this dubia, most likely utilizing the hand of the cardinals. Victor Manuel Fernández. The Papal answers, however, made the cardinals stunned, so they sent further dubia, asking for more detailed and concrete explanations. They no longer received, although in a crucial case concerning the blessing of homosexual relationships Fernández published a circumstantial consequence in the form of a doctrinal declaration Fiducia supplicans.
Brandmüller besides criticized Pope Francis for his treatment of the College of Cardinals. Francis almost completely resigned from the organization of regular consistors on which cardinals could discuss matters of the Church. erstwhile he called the purples into a consistory in 2022, he did so only to explain to them the principles of the improvement of the Roman Curia under the Apostolic Constitution of Praedicate evangelice of June that year. Brandmüller pointed out that Francis practically did not let anyone to talk and express his own opinion; the speech he had prepared himself could not be delivered.
In 2021, Cardinal Brandmüller was elevated to the protocolatory of the higher cardinal rank (the Cardinal-Priest). This happened at a time erstwhile many people associated with the predecessor of Francis, Benedict XVI, were inactive active in the Roman Curia.
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