Against violence and discrimination

adminonNovember 24, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Cardinal Peter Turkson © KNA

Violence against women © dpa

From the Vatican's point of view, women's rights and opportunities for development must play a central role in the further development of the UN Millennium Goals. Systematic violence and discrimination are still widespread worldwide.

This lamented the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson, in the Vatican. In many countries, this begins in the womb, when female fetuses are aborted because of their sex. Dangers from domestic violence to murder, slave labor and sexual exploitation of women must also carry weight in advancing the Millennium Development Goals, Turkson said. He explicitly opposed the gender theory.

Women's conference meets in Rome

The occasion for the appeal is a women's conference in Rome from Friday to Sunday on the further development of the UN Millennium Development Goals, the so-called Post-2015 Agenda. The international community will discuss this in New York in September. The conference in Rome is hosted by Turksons Council as well as the "World Federation of Catholic Women's Organizations" and the "World Women's Alliance for Life and Family".

Although, according to him, there has been significant progress in the area of political and economic participation and the education of women, the project is to run for several years. But much remains to be done. Especially the education of women and girls is indispensable for their life in dignity. In the fight against poverty and hunger, women also play an essential role.

Criticism of the "gender theory

Turkson further criticized a threat to female nature by "the so-called gender theory," in which man and woman are seen as quasi identical. In this context, the president of the "World Women's Alliance for Life and Family", Olimpia Tarzia, called on the United Nations to strengthen the traditional family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, as the foundation of society and to support women in their right to motherhood.

A stark difference between church teaching and the lives of Catholics is evident in the compilation of returns prepared in the Archdiocese of Cologne for the extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome.

The faithful had been invited to participate through the Diocesan Council and the city and district deans. The archdiocese of Cologne has made the 23-page summary available on the Internet. "The feedbacks are to be understood as the perception of the interviewees. They are not a vote on specific substantive ies, nor are they the opinion of the archbishop," stresses the document, which has since been forwarded to the German Bishops' Conference, from where it will go to the Vatican.

In nine sections, the document presents the answers to the Vatican's questions in preparation for the synod. "On the whole, the teaching of the Church is seen as alien to the world and to relationships," reads a catch-all on the question of the Church's teaching in relation to the family. The teachings of the church are little known and are often reduced to the topics "indissolubility of marriage" and the statements on sexuality. In this area, "the life worlds of church and society are drifting strikingly apart". Thus, respondents see a social practice of separation and divorce and an increasing openness to all possible forms of partnership (homosexual unions, patchwork families).

Living together "ad experimentum", that is, a partnership without a marriage ceremony, is a common practice in the archdiocese. "Almost all couples who ask for a church wedding are already living together, many of them for years". There is also an increase in the number of simultaneous celebrations of marriage and baptism of a child.

Merciful approach to the remarried divorced and those living separately

People who have married for the second time by the state are also an important factor: "Many remarried divorcees feel discriminated against by the official church, feel marginalized and often show themselves burdened by this."This is what the participants in the survey are aware of: 'A pastoral care is called for that invites a merciful approach to the remarried divorced and separated'".

The respondents predominantly expect accompaniment from the Church: "It is clear from many answers that appreciative acceptance and the offer of accompaniment in difficult life situations, derived from the core of the Christian message, contribute significantly to the credibility of the Church and often stand as a longing behind concrete requests". For example, newly developed formats of marriage preparation such as climbing courses or a "culinary marriage preparation" are perceived as attractive new offers. About 360 couples took advantage of these and other offers of marriage preparation in the past year.

Speechlessness with regard to one's own faith

Parents are increasingly "speechless with regard to their own faith and the transmission of it to the next generation". Nevertheless, according to the Bonn sample, 77 percent of those surveyed celebrate Christian festivals and 40 percent pray with their children. Otherwise, religious education is delegated to the experts in parishes, kindergartens, schools and youth associations.

In very different ways the results of the document have come about. In Dusseldorf, for example, there was a "Convention of Responsible People" with 70 participants, and on various Internet sites one could participate online, for example with the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) and the Family Federation Cologne. In Bonn alone, 2217 people took part in the survey in this way. In the evaluation, the threads ran together in the Cologne General Vicariate, all responses from the Archdiocese of Cologne were evaluated and brought together in the Marriage and Family Pastoral Department.

"We were surprised that the multitude of the pope's moral programs for families in parishes and daycare centers is hardly known among the faithful," explained head of department Markus Bosbach. On the basis of the feedback, the Pastoral Care Department intends to review its programs. With regard to the difference between the teaching and life of the faithful in the Archdiocese of Cologne, Bosbach emphasized: "In the Archdiocese of Cologne, we have now determined and published these data. Now we are very curious how the Synod will judge these results and act".

The abuse case of a now 87-year-old priest causes a stir. He has served as pastor in three dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Cologne, despite convictions. Opposite our site, Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki said about this current case:

"The assignment of pastor A. in pastoral care in 1989 was a serious mistake. From today's perspective, one thing is clear: The warning voices have not been listened to, which call for close control of parish A. have demanded. It was concealed when the responsible pastoral services in the then Lovenich deanery were not sufficiently informed. And it was not punished when the course of suspension was abandoned for completely inexplicable reasons," the Archbishop of Cologne told our site on Thursday.

"These are some of the sad and painful examples of the failures in dealing with pastor A. As the bishop responsible, I have had the facts investigated and initiated criminal proceedings under canon law. The sentence has been passed, confirmation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome is still pending," Woelki continued.

"But I am not only concerned with the consequences for the perpetrator. Without the expert opinion of Prof. Dr. Gercke to anticipate, it must be clear to everyone that the repeated use of a convicted felon was absolutely irresponsible. The entire handling of pastor A is a decades-long string of serious mistakes. And for this persons must have been responsible at that time, who must be found out and named. I have heard Mr. Prof. Dr. Gercke, just within the bounds of due restraint, asked to clarify the question of responsibility, especially in this case," explains the Archbishop of Cologne.

As early as November 2019, Cardinal Woelki had already spoken out in an interview with our site commented on the case. The Archdiocese of Cologne has also provided FAQs on this case on its website.

Bishop Overbeck also comments

On Wednesday, Essen Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck had acknowledged mistakes in dealing with the priest twice convicted of abuse. "I have brought guilt upon myself," he told the current "Zeit" supplement "Christ World".

When he learned of the case shortly after taking office in Essen at the beginning of 2010, he did not ask to see his personnel file. "Otherwise I might have seen the dimension of the case," says Ruhr bishop. However, he ruled out a resignation because of this mistake.

The case of the now 87-year-old priest A. Had caused fierce criticism at the end of 2019. Despite the two convictions, he worked as a pastor in three dioceses, from 2002 as a retired chaplain in the diocese of Essen. The dioceses involved, Cologne, Munster and Essen, have commissioned investigations into the case.

The priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne had been active in Cologne since 1960 and then in Essen-Kettwig, which belongs to the Archdiocese, before he was sentenced to prison in 1972 for "continued fornication with children and addicts". He was then assigned to the diocese of Munster from 1973 until he received a suspended sentence in 1988 for sexual acts with minors.

In 1989, A. returned to Cologne as a chaplain in an old people's home. As a retired chaplain, he was then in Bochum-Wattenscheid in the diocese of Essen from 2002 to 2015. It was not until 2019 that Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne banned him from priestly service. Meanwhile, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican has conducted an ecclesiastical criminal trial against the clergyman, who now lives in a nursing home. The sentence has been passed, but the confirmation by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome is still pending, explained Cardinal Woelki.

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