“An important sign”

adminonNovember 16, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

The Central Committee of German Catholics congratulates the Ecumenical Working Group Homosexuals and Church on the award of the Herbert Haag Prize. The award to the HuK is an important sign.

This was explained by the family policy spokeswoman of the ZdK, Birgit Mock, on Friday in Bonn. "On the Synodal Way, but also with a view to the situation in a number of European countries, the question of recognition of sexual diversity moves us. This is a human rights ie." The church, too, is challenged to "come out of the Gospel to a re-evaluation of homosexual couple relationships lived in love and sexuality".

The Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and the Church (HuK) was founded in 1977 and is an association of people who deal critically and constructively with sexual diversity and the church. It has been present for years at both Protestant church congresses and Catholic congresses.

Award ceremony in Lucerne

The 2020 Herbert Haag Prize for Freedom in the Church will be awarded belatedly in Lucerne on Sunday. With 10 each.000 Swiss francs (9.250 euros) are awarded to the Ecumenical Working Group Homosexuals and Church, the Evangelical Lutheran pastor Hedwig Porsch (51) from Coburg, the Lutheran theologian Ondrej Prostrednik (57) from Bratislava and the Swiss author and spiritual guide Pierre Stutz (67).

The Foundation for Freedom in the Church was founded in 1985 by Swiss theologian Herbert Haag (1915-2001). It says it is in the service of an open-minded and ecumenically minded Catholic faith.

Previous winners include the Jesuit Klaus Mertes, the theologians Eugen Drewermann and Leonardo Boff, the French bishop Jacques Gaillot, and the chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm.

Internet Governance Forum: Access, Privacy and User Rights in Coronaziten

Suitable for the current Corona pandemic has the 15. Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the United Nations the title "Internet as a means of human resistance and solidarity" given. Since Monday, the first advance debates in Phase I run. The official program of the 9. to 17. November in Phase II ongoing event is under the motto "Internet governance in times of uncertainty". Guided by the Sudolnian city of Katowice – therefore virtual IGF (VIGF) – expect the organizers about 4000 to 5000 participants to the more than 250 individual events.

COVID-19 has staged the this-year program of the MegaConference, not only due to the little surprising decision to completely relocate the event into the net. More than two dozen discussion rounds are explained by the importance of network communication under the conditions of the pandemic. The inequality occurs in times of stay home by missing or poor infrastructure? What disadvantages result for schoolers from households without access or hardware? What about the situation in the host country Poland?

Urgent: Privacy in the times of pandemic

In addition to the enormous impact light that the pandemic has thrown on the problem that there is still nearly 50 percent of world-free-of-network access, such as Vinton Cerf, the "Father of the internet", Terrified on Tuesday, numerous events also look at the question of whether the data protection can be used in times of health crisis.

The European Fundamental Rights Agency (EU AGENCY for Fundamental Rights, FRA) takes the topic of health data and KI from the occasion of the pandemic and the adult Corona apps under the magnifying glass. Who wants, can also visit the Chinese event at the same topic. The FRA suggests the connection of health data and Ki the arch to the second coarse theme of many workshops: How should companies and governments regulate artificial intelligence (Ki)?

The importance of standardization in the fully automated world has also recognized the host, UN General Secretar Antonio Gutres. In his in summer finished "Timetable for digital cooperation" Is the topic Ki far above. Apart from political initiatives for more access to the networks, the corresponding know-how and the appointment of a "Tech envoy" United Nations 2021, is the appeal of an international expert commerce on KI as a concrete maaking in the timetable.

Role of the UN and IGF

With his digital timetable and the Art Tech Envoy, Gutres underpinned his intention to make the United Nations to a platform for international digital policy. How difficult this is, shows the hard controversial topic cybersecurity, to the Gutres carefully from a further exploration of the member states in the direction "Common formulations" writing.

Especially in the field of cybersecurity this has "Multi-stakeholder chaos" good proposals made and thus an example supplied for this, how a multi-stakeholder IGF can unfold effect. The IGF Active Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) has developed a number of standards in broad consultations, including the protection of the nuclear infrastructures of the network. The latter has taken up the European Parliament last year and included in the EU Cybersecurity Directive.

In addition, the core area protection is now supported by 75 states of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) to Cybersecurity of the UN, said the Dutch government official Nathalie Jaarsma, Ambassador AT-Large for security policy and Cyber, with one of the first IGF preliminary events.

A little grassroots in the un?

Even more toothing between the so far as a Plauderstube Verwuslieb Forum hopes Wolfgang Smallwachter, Volkerrechtler, member of the GCSC and German Internet Governance Expert, from the upcoming reform of the IGF. In his timetable, Gutres given Grunes light for the expansion of the IGF to IGF +. Also this development is the topic of the upcoming IGF, which is on 25. November still a two-hour session for the completely open discussion with the potentially several thousand participants.

A few good ideas for the IGF + sees small width also come from Germany. The more active involvement of parliamentarians, which was launched in the IGF 2019 in Berlin, a lot of meaning, he says, because ever-passed laws were adopted nationally, which relate to the development and use of the Internet as a whole. The meeting will be repeated this year. In addition, in a paper, Berlin has just handed over together with the United Arab Emirates to Gutres, further proposals, such as national IGFs with the coarse IGF and the IGF with the UN committees and other normic bodies cooperate, so smallwaktern.

Real policy

In all the confidence of the IGF optimists, it does not apply to the rough gap between UN, IGF and diplomacy on one and the real policy on the other hand not to forget. A sequence of it thumpes at the VIGF 2020 a panel for the interlocking of the Internet Society. The organization warns with the Global Encryption Coalition against worldwide ongoing legislative initiatives, which want to force access to interlocked communication for law enforcement. The contradiction between the lodging and non-eliminated front turks gain politicians and other IGF participants later declared in the course of the event week.

Appointment to Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences has caused a stir: Social scientist Jutta Allmendinger joins other celebrities in campaign for more women in leadership positions.

CBA: Professor Allmendinger, were you surprised when you learned of your appointment?

Allmendinger: I was really surprised, I had not expected that. The Pontifical Academy recently contacted me by e-mail, I declared my readiness, and last week I received the official letter of appointment, which I am very happy about.
CBA: You are considered a representative of a very modern image of women and families. Together with several other celebrities, you recently launched a campaign for more women in leadership positions. The Catholic Church is having a rather difficult time. Do you also want to cooperate so that something changes there??
Allmendinger: Since I was appointed, I ame that my expertise and my position are also welcome. It's certainly an advantage that I have an unbiased attitude toward the Catholic Church and am basically an optimistic person. It would certainly be exaggerated to believe that I alone can change something in the church with my advice and expertise.

But I am happy to enter into the discourse and show that women have a different place in society than the one the church often assigns them. As a social scientist who has headed major research institutions since 2003, I am experienced in dealing with different disciplines and points of view. I'm happy to contribute this experience and my joy in dialogue.

CBA: Are you yourself church-affiliated?
Allmendinger: I come from a Protestant family and continue to belong to the Protestant Church. I have good contacts with the Catholic Church. I know Cardinal Reinhard Marx well and benefit a lot from his suggestions and ideas. At the same time, however, I have many contacts with other religions.
CBA: What is the significance of your Protestant upbringing?
Allmendinger: My parents' home was very sheltered, so my confirmation class at the age of 13 was the first place where I met young people from other social classes and milieus. I have learned an incredible amount from them and benefited greatly from the meetings. These and other encounters were important motivations for me to study social sciences.
CBA: Can you explain this in more detail?

Allmendinger: I deal a lot with the question of what can bring people from different circles together. The rooms of the church are very important for me there. We're noticing that right now in these pandemic times when we're going to physical distance and church services are often only possible digitally.

In the same way, I would like to follow up on the debate on trust initiated by economist Kenneth Arrow, who died in 2017 and was also a member of the Pontifical Academy. He described trust as the lubricant for society.

CBA: Among many believers, that's exactly what has been lost – that is, trust in the institution of the church in light of the abuse crisis, for example. How can the church win this back??
Allmendinger: I am firmly convinced that we need the churches. Lost trust can only be regained by the church with honesty, seriousness, openness and above all self-criticism. You can't say that often enough to those who are in decision-making positions. You must appear with a strong backbone, both internally and externally. And that's why it's good when this is admonished from the outside, after all, the Vatican has enough to do with reform processes right now itself.
CBA: Currently, even the members of the Pontifical Academy only meet digitally. Look forward to seeing the Vatican premises sometime soon then?
Allmendinger: I know Rome and the Vatican City State, and of course the culture and history of the place carry with them a special significance once again. But honestly, it doesn't matter whether the meetings take place in Rome or somewhere else in the world. What's important to me are the ideas and the people I meet with. I am happy when we all sit at one big table and I can contribute something to the upcoming debate.
CBA: Look forward to a possible meeting with Pope Francis?
Allmendinger: Of course. I like the openness that I sense in Pope Francis. And his modesty, which he showed as soon as he took office, for example by dispensing with ostentatious stagings.

In terms of content, I also see a desire for change toward more modernity in social ies. So Pope Francis takes a clearly more liberal position toward homosexual people than his predecessors did. Even a blessing of homosexual partnerships seems to be no longer excluded. Still only first steps. For the catholic church it would be very important in my eyes that they are followed by actual changes.

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