nunquam reformanda

CNA / Daniel Ibanez

"After all, the Church is not the object of our reform. The Church is founded by Christ, cannot be reformed, is unsurpassable; only we can go the way and must go the way of repentance and renewal. . . .  We must reform and renew ourselves in Jesus Christ and thus give the answer to the challenges of today."

"Die Kirche ist ja nicht Objekt unserer Reform. Die Kirche ist von Christus begründet, kann nicht reformiert werden, ist unüberbietbar; nur wir können den Weg und müssen den Weg der Buße und der Erneuerung gehen. Wir müssen uns reformieren und uns erneuern in Jesus Christus und so die Antwort geben auf die Herausforderungen der heutigen Zeit."

     Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller, as quoted by the Catholic News Agency and CNA Deutch, 2 August 2022.
     Yeah, but surely what Müller is calling "the Church" here is only what Congar would have called its structure (le donné), not its human life (l'agi) (Joseph Famerée, "True or false reform: what are the criteria?  The reflections of Y. Congar," The Jurist 71, no. 1 (2011): 8-9 (7–19)).  So his critique would apply to the Synodal Way only insofar as it has been imagining that it has jurisdiction over what the Church is by divine right, right?