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ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Two of the pope's closest advisors don't think that secular government should always seek to include Catholic morality into the law of the land.

In an interview with German media published Friday, Cdl. Reinhard Marx, a member of the pope's Council of Cardinals, discussed Germany's passing of so-called same-sex marriage on June 30. The cardinal downplayed the role of Germany's political parties in representing the Church's moral teaching. "[T]hat would not be possible or even desirable in a secular state," he said.

When the interviewer pointed out the Catholic Church's lack of moral influence in these areas Cdl. Marx responded, "[W]e don't simply want to mold our opinions into laws and thereby measure the Church's influence. ... We live in an open society in which there are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and non-believers. In a secular society, the state must make laws that are valid for everyone."

The Church's moral teachings as revealed by God, however, are in accord with right reason and are what's called the natural law. Her morality is suited to man's unchanging nature and thereby "valid" for all mankind.

This reduction in the Church's influence over Catholic morality — that should be protected by secular laws and which is promoted by Cdl. Marx — sounded much like the rhetoric of Fr. Antonio Spadaro's. In a recent article attacking Church Militant, Spadaro claimed, "Francis wants to break the organic link between culture, politics, institution and Church." Spadaro has often presumed to speak for the pope when advocating for such issues as extending Holy Communion to active adulterers.

In the same article, Spadaro took a swipe at "value voters," those Catholics and Evangelicals who shared a common concern during last year's presidential election over moral issues such as "abortion, same-sex marriage, religious education in schools and other matters generally considered moral or tied to values." Spadaro took a dim view of this alliance, calling it a "strange ecumenism."

Francis wants to break the organic link between culture, politics, institution and Church.

Neither Catholic morals nor Catholic dogma are preserved by Spadaro. The Italian publication, La Civilta Cattolica, of which he's the editor, that recently featured this hit piece on moral voters in America, previously ran an article in February favoring women priests, which raised eyebrows of Catholic media here, here and here.

Spadaro showed here that he's neither orthodox nor does he speak for the Holy Father as Pope Francis upheld this papal teaching as recently as November 2016. On a return flight from Sweden November 1, the Pope was asked by a reporter on the plane, "Is it realistic to think of women priests in the Catholic Church in the next few decades?"

Referring to the apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, in which Pope St. John Paul II closed the door on women priests, Pope Francis responded, "As for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, the last clear word was given by St. John Paul II and this holds."

The orthodoxy of Cdl. Marx, president of the German bishops conference, was again called into question when the German bishops gave the green light last December for active adulterers to receive Holy Communion. In so doing, they said, "We priests are not here to replace a person's conscience. Francis wants us to be spiritual companions and not lords over people's faith."

In Friday's interview it was pointed out to Cdl. Marx, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, that his fellow prelate, Bp. Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, "lamented that Catholics in Germany were becoming 'homeless' with little or no political representation." The cardinal responded, "Surely Christian influence doesn’t show itself only in laws. ... It is not merely a case of our influence ... We don't only lobby for the Church!" He seemingly refuses to be a moral guide for both Catholics and secular folks alike.

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