ROME, Italy — The progressive German Cardinal Reinhard Marx has tendered his resignation to Pope Francis, citing the need to confront his “errors and omissions” in dealing with the clerical sex abuse crisis.
Cardinal Marx, one of the pope’s closest advisors, said in a written statement Friday that “it is obvious to me that I will face my possible errors and omissions in individual cases to be verified concretely during my mandate, cases that will then have to be examined and evaluated according to objective criteria.”
“As a bishop I have an ‘institutional responsibility’ for all the actions of the Church, also for her institutional problems and for her failure in the past,” he added in the text.
Over the years, the 67-year-old Marx has been in the vanguard among progressive Catholics, pushing issues such as blessings for homosexual couples, phasing out fossil fuel use, opposition to crosses in public buildings, and pro-immigration policies.
In 2017, Marx, who was president of the German Bishops’ Conference at the time, asserted that the three greatest challenges facing Europe are “climate change,” changes in the world of work, and immigration. In his analysis, the cardinal made no mention of the deep crisis of faith in the German Catholic Church, which has been hemorrhaging members for more than 20 years.
In early 2020, Marx came under fire for donating €50,000 of Catholic Church funds to United4Rescue, a coalition of NGOs engaged in migrant sea rescues that reportedly receives financing from billionaire leftist George Soros through his pro-migration Open Society Foundations.
German MP Stephen Brandner of the populist Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party said in an open letter to Marx that many Catholics do not look kindly on their donations providing massive funding for an organization that encourages people smuggling.
“I wonder whether my church taxes, which I have been paying in significant amounts for some 30 years, will be used for this purpose,” Brandner said, “even though I am not willing to support traffickers and it is my belief that the use of so-called ‘rescue boats’ means that more and more people embark on the life-threatening route across the sea to Europe, where they hope for a better life.”
Another German MP, Johannes Huber, wrote on Twitter: “Marx misappropriates €50,000 from church tax money. In so doing, he is supporting the business of traffickers.”
Marx had already received heavy criticism for “lavish expenditures,” including some $11 million to renovate the archbishop’s residence as well as another $13 million for a guesthouse in Rome
In September 2019, the editors of the U.S.-based National Catholic Register asserted that the Catholic Church in Germany appeared to be taking steps toward a schism with Rome under the banner of “synodality.”
Under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising, “the Church in Germany is poised to pursue a radical ‘binding synodal path’ that seeks to dislodge settled Church teaching in the name of ‘synodality,’” they declared.
The German “Synodal Assembly” entered into a partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics, the editors noted, “a lay group that has demanded the ordination of women, an end to clerical celibacy, the blessing of same-sex unions by the Church and rethinking of all Catholic teachings on sexuality,” the editors stated.
Last month, the former president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, echoed these same concerns, noting that the Catholic Church in Germany faces “a risk of schism” because of its German Synodal Assembly, which seeks “not only the blessing of same-sex couples, but also the priesthood of women, the abolition of the obligation of ecclesiastical celibacy, the intercommunion between Catholics and Protestants.”
While offering his resignation from his duties in the archdiocese of Munich-Freising, Marx did not offer to resign from Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinal Advisors or from his post as head of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy. He also did not relinquish his “red hat” or participation in the papal conclave.
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