The great deal of talk surrounding the pending Rome-SSPX rapprochement has presented us with two cardinals publicly giving conflicting reports on the magisterial character of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document on non-Catholic religions.
Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, says that the document, and the post-conciliar papal statements concerning Catholic-Jewish relations, “are binding on a Catholic.”
His Eminence added, “That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly is and remains an unfathomable divine mystery.” Unfathomable indeed.
On the other hand, German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, had this to say:
“Strangely enough, the two most controversial documents” for the SSPX — those on religious freedom [Dignitatis humanae] and on relations with non-Christians [Nostra aetate] — “do not have a binding doctrinal content, so one can dialogue about them,” the cardinal said.
This same statement from Cardinal Brandmüller was reported by CWN with the headline, “Cardinal: ‘binding doctrinal content’ not major part of breach between Holy See, SSPX.”
Come Holy Ghost!
