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Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes recently taught a course entitled Theology of the Priesthood, at the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania in Yona.
Originally from Germany, Cordes was appointed as Vice-President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in 1980 by St. Pope John Paul II.
In 1995 he was appointed by St. Pope John Paul II as President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.
In 2007 he was made a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.
Until his retirement at the age of 80 in September 2014, he was a member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Congregation of Clergy, Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and the Congregation of Bishops.
On April 30 at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna, Cordes celebrated a Mass with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Agãna.
In speaking directly to the Communities of the Neocatechumenal Way he affirmed them citing the numerous popes who have confirmed the charism.
“I confirm you in this Way. The Church needs these kinds of deepening the Faith.
“The Church today needs this witness.”
“The people need the message of God’s love, that someone is there who can touch their hearts and come to Faith.”
In 2015 Cordes took issue with the Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx over his statement about pastoral care for divorced and re-married Catholics.
Cordes took issue with Marx claim that the Catholic Church looks to and expects much from the Church in Germany.
He noted that Germany has barely any supernatural Faith left (only 16.2 percent of German Catholics believe in a Triune God, as a personal God with a Face, instead of an abstraction), so therefore, Germany is hardly a model for any other country concerning the Faith.
“We have therefore no reason to put us with our Faith up front of the Churches of other countries,” he said.
Cordes also disputed Marx’s claim that the German Church is not merely a “subordinate of Rome” and that, rather, the German Church has to make her own decisions concerning marriage and those who married outside the Church, namely, “the German Church has to teach the Gospel in her own way.”
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