After controversial remarks

adminonNovember 17, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

After several verbal attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump met with black religious leaders at the White House on Monday. His remarks sparked much criticism from politics, the church and on social media.

Participants in the roughly two-hour conversation behind closed doors included 20 preachers from black metropolitan churches who are considered conservative.

The meeting took place immediately after several of Trump's remarks against black politicians and clergymen that have been criticized as racist. Over the weekend, Trump had called African-American Congressman Elijah Cummings a "brutal bully" via Twitter. He called his majority black constituency in Baltimore a "rat and rodent infested shithole".

House Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a racist attack. Republican politicians also criticized the president's remarks.

Archbishop defends Baltimore against Trump's slurs

Following U.S. President Donald Trump's insult to the port city of Baltimore, local Archbishop William Lori has come to the defense of his community. He was saddened by the way Trump denigrated the city, Lori declared Monday. The city, historically significant to U.S. Catholics, faces major challenges but also has strengths and opportunities, they said.

In response to the Trump polemic, positive testimonials about Baltimore have been circulating since the weekend via the hashtag #WeAreBaltimore. Baltimore's homicide rate is 10 times higher than the national average. In the past three months alone, 100 murders have been committed, according to the Baltimore Sun. – The city is the oldest Catholic Episcopal city in the United States (since 1784/89) and plays a crucial role in Catholic culture in the country.

Conservative preachers are seen as Trump-friendly

On Monday, Trump disparaged black pastor Al Sharpton as a "con man" who hates "whites and cops" (police officers). U.S. media see subsequent meeting with Trump-friendly black clergy as president's attempt to soften criticism of his remarks. At the same time, they speculate that the targeted provocations have a strategic goal of mobilizing white voters for a second term.

After the Oval Office meeting, Coalition of African American Pastors founder Bill Owens defended Trump against accusations of racism. Trump has done a lot for the African-American community, he said. Owens is considered a longtime Trump supporter. He has been controversial since he equated recognition of same-sex marriage with support for child abuse.

Pope Francis © Stefano dal Pozzolo (CBA)

Pope Francis has warned against considering misconduct of earlier times exclusively according to today's criteria. That also applies to dealing with sexual abuse, Francis said Tuesday evening on his flight back from his Baltics trip.

In earlier times, such offenses were concealed everywhere, even in families "where the uncle raped the niece, the father raped the children – because it was a huge disgrace," the pope said. Unfortunately, this is how it was dealt with in the last century.

Of course, people today are rightly outraged by scandals in the church, especially when it comes to abuse, Francis responded to a related question from journalists traveling with him. And child abuse by churchmen is particularly "monstrous," he said, because the church is supposed to bring children closer to God rather than destroy their lives.

Understanding history

"But there is a principle that helps me understand history," the pope said: a historical fact should be interpreted from the context of its time and not solely through a hermeneutic of today. That applies, for example, to judging crimes against indigenous populations, which have often been full of injustice and extremely cruel. It is similar with the death penalty, which was still applied in the Papal States at the end of the 19th century. century, even in the Papal States.

Moral awareness grows over the years, Francis said. The church has also had to learn. For example, he said, the report on the handling of sexual abuse in dioceses in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania showed that priests had committed assaults especially in the first 70 years of the period studied.

Recently, he said, the numbers have dropped significantly because the church has become more attentive. For example, he said, he had recently received numerous sentences against clergy from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he had urged the authority to move on. This is not negotiable.

Vatican agreement with China

On his flight back from his Baltics trip, Francis also defended the Vatican's agreement with China. The agreement to appoint bishops meant "a dialogue about possible candidates," but "in the end, the pope appoints the bishops; that is clear," Francis said. He also stated that the responsibility for the agreement lies solely with him.

A decisive impulse for him to sign the agreement with Beijing was a joint declaration of solidarity by the Chinese bishops. After the accusations against him in late August by the former nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the bishops from China wrote to him saying they stood by him. The letter was signed by a bishop of both the patriotic church and the underground church. "For me, this was a sign from God," Francis said.

Agreement not optimal

At the same time, he let slip that the agreement with Beijing was not optimal for the church. "When you make a peace agreement or any other agreement, both sides lose something," Francis said. He knows about the resistance, about the Catholics in China, who have suffered a lot. But they have a strong faith and trust in what the successor of Peter decides. He said this had become clear to him in quite a few letters from China.

The Pope did not elaborate on the content of the agreement, which has not yet been made public. He simply recalled that even in earlier times, the pope was not the only one to decide on bishops. For about 350 years, he said, the kings of Spain and Portugal appointed bishops in Latin America. To these, he said, the pope had only given his blessing. It had been similar in Austria-Hungary with Empress Maria Theresia.

Prayer for victims

The provisional agreement that has now been reached is the result of years of work in which many members of the Curia have tirelessly participated. They would have worked through the respective draft texts, which landed on his desk and had been discussed several times, in great detail. Therefore, he said, he, who was ultimately responsible, had great confidence in their work. At the end, Francis asked for prayers for those who could not understand or who had suffered underground for years.

The Vatican and China had reached a "provisional agreement" over the weekend on the appointment of bishops. Pope Francis recognized eight bishops loyal to the government who had been consecrated without papal approval. This is the first time in more than 60 years that all of China's Catholic bishops have been in communion with Rome. Parts of the Chinese church had followed the negotiations with concern. They accused the Vatican of naivety and warned of a "sellout" of the Church in China.

The vacancy caused by the resignation of Bishop Maria Jepsen lasted almost exactly eleven months in the Evangelical Lutheran diocese of Hamburg and Lubeck. This Friday, the 140 members of the North Elbian Synod are called upon to settle the succession of what was once the world's first female Lutheran bishop in the "Michel". There are two candidates.

Unlike in 1992, however, the election of a woman to the office of bishop will not be a sensation this time, but inevitable, because the list of candidates includes only Petra Bahr and Kirsten Fehrs. However, it should also be exciting this time: Will the cultural representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Oberkirchenratin Bahr, or Hamburg's Propstin and Hauptpastorin Fehrs be bishop at Pentecost 2012, when the new Nordkirche is officially launched?

Both embody a similar type down to their appearance – petite, blond short haircut, glasses – and come from the same generation of female theologians. While 44-year-old Bahr has a background in journalism, holds a doctorate and has worked, among other things, in evangelical peace research, 49-year-old Fehrs has stronger roots in the region. In pastorates, also in the countryside, she acquired experience in personnel and congregational development, as well as in adult education.

Missionary opportunities in everyday situations
Since 2006, Kirsten Fehrs, who was born in Wesselburen in Schleswig-Holstein, has been the main pastor at St. Jacob's Church in Schleswig-Holstein. For some years now, the church has been making a name for itself as a pilgrimage church. Accordingly, Fehrs, who is married to a Protestant pastor, sees missionary opportunities in everyday situations. So occasionally people asked at Sankt Jacobi where they could get foot ointment. "And that, although we are visibly not a drugstore." Behind the misunderstanding, Fehrs sees an existential concern of people: "How can I go my way and deal with the pain that accompanies the way?" Being open to that need and getting people talking is what the pastor considers a strength of the church.

Petra Bahr, as the EKD's cultural commissioner, would be better placed in the arts section. "The battle for culture instead of the battle of cultures" is the name of one of her theses. Bahr, who comes from Ludenscheid, regularly appears as an author in the "Zeit" supplement "Christ und Welt" (Christ and the World). And this week, the theologian announced in "Die Zeit" how much the Bible means to her. She simply couldn't leave a dusty copy she had discovered in a Berlin antiquarian bookshop. "The Holy Scriptures on the floor, that almost hurt physically. I picked them up, wiped them clean and bought them. She should have it better with me. I owe her so much."

As a pastor of the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, she is familiar with the diaspora. "It's easy to leave the church, but whoever enters the church always has a history." Such key experiences interest the theologian, who has adopted a now three-year-old boy with her husband.

A maximum of four ballots
Ahead of the eagerly anticipated election, which will feature a maximum of four ballots, however, the candidates did not explain the reason for Jepsen's resignation on 16. July 2010 forgotten: The equally contentious and popular bishop was reacting to allegations of abuse against a pastor, which she is said not to have followed up on consistently enough in 1999. Jepsen rejected the accusations against her, but saw an irreparable loss of trust in her person.

There is still an unbelievable horror about the fact that sexual violence has been inflicted on children and young people in the church's shelter, says Provost Fehrs. Shame is not enough here: The victims must be helped, prevention, but also therapy is needed – also for the church itself. A difficult task for the future bishop, whatever her name will be.

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