Cardinal Müller warns Church risks split if ‘orthodox’ pope not chosen
The Catholic Herald• April 24, 2025
The Catholic Church risks a schism if it does not choose an “orthodox” leader, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller has warned ahead of next month’s conclave.
Müller, 77, has long been a leading light among traditional Catholics who often opposed the reformist approach of Pope Francis, and he is one of a handful of “conservative thinkers” in the Catholic Church based in Rome, alongside US Cardinal Raymond Burke, reports The Times.
Müller says he disagrees with the use of the labels “liberal” and “conservative” for the Catholic Church, pointing out the divide in the Church is deeper. The new pope, he said, “must be orthodox – neither a liberal nor a conservative”.
He said that “the question is not between conservatives and liberals but between orthodoxy and heresy”, adding: “I am praying that the Holy Spirit will illuminate the cardinals, because a heretic pope who changes every day depending on what the mass media is saying would be catastrophic.”
The next pope, Müller argues, should not “look for the applause of the secular world that sees the Church as a humanitarian organisation doing social work”.
Müller described Francis as a “good man” though they disagreed on much. Müller listed his differences with Francis, starting with the late pope’s 2023 decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples. Pope Francis said at the time that “we cannot be judges who only deny, push back, exclude”, but the move sparked enormous controversy, with bishops in Africa and Asia refusing to permit the blessings.
The list of Müller’s grievances with Francis’s papacy also extends to the late pontiff’s focus on migrants and the environment, The Times reports.
Müller notes that “Pope Francis is well viewed by the mass media and there is a risk [the cardinals] are saying, ‘We should continue’”. Instead, he said, “they have the responsibility [at the conclave] to elect a man who is able to unify the Church in the revealed truth”.
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He added: “I hope cardinals are not so influenced by what they are reading in the headlines.”
Nearly 80 per cent of the 135 cardinals eligible to vote were picked by Francis, pointing to a potential so-called liberal majority within the conclave, The Times reports. But the views of many will not be known until they mingle with fellow cardinals at the pre-conclave meetings known as general congregations, and which could well influence subsequent votes.
Asked if he would promote his brand of doctrinal Catholicism at those meetings, which begin in earnest after Francis’s funeral this Saturday, Müller said: “I have to do it; I owe it to my conscience.”
The alternative, he cautioned, was a Church that risks splitting in two if an “orthodox” pope is not elected.
“No Catholic is obliged to obey doctrine that is wrong,” he said, adding: “Catholicism is not about blindly obeying the Pope without respecting holy scriptures, tradition and the doctrine of the Church.”
Appointed by Francis’s traditionalist predecessor Benedict XVI as the Vatican’s doctrinal chief, Müller kept his job after the Argentinian pontiff’s election in 2013 but soon challenged his leader’s liberal agenda.
In 2017 he was dropped by Francis after criticising the Pope’s decision to allow communion for divorcees who remarry outside the church. His views are likely representative of other “conservative” cardinals determined to elect a more orthodox successor to Francis.
A former bishop of Regensburg in Germany, Müller has also been the head of dogmatic theology at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University.
In a 2023 book that The Times says “will be a convenient manual for conservatives at the conclave”, Müller criticised Francis’s deal with China to jointly appoint bishops, likening it to Vatican appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s and warning: “You cannot strike deals with the devil.”
Gerhard Müller also cautioned cardinals arriving for the conclave vote to avoid the backroom manoeuvres depicted in the Oscar-winning film Conclave.
“It’s not a power game played by stupid people looking to manipulate, like in this film, which has nothing to do with reality,” the German cardinal said.
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Photo: German Cardinal Gerhard Müller attends the funeral procession of Cardinal Joachim Meisner in Cologne. (Credit Elke Wetzig.)