"We are not just a subsidiary of Rome."

Those words, which Cardinal Reinhard Marx pronounced at a press briefing last February in his capacity as president of the German bishops' conference, continue to provoke numerous reactions on social media and in newspapers.

A number of theologians, philosophers, bishops, cardinals, and journalists have criticized the cardinal who, as archbishop of Munich, is successor to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI). Among those with harshest words for Marx were fellow Cardinals Raymond Burke ("ridiculous"), Paul Cordes ("anti-Roman") and Gerhard Ludwig Muller ("absolutely anti-Catholic").