“Commitment to the best of his ability”

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Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck is the new Catholic military bishop for the German armed forces. The appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. was announced on Thursday in Rome, Berlin and Essen. In a first reaction Overbeck speaks of an important task, for which he will do his best.

"The pastoral care of soldiers is an important task, especially in today's world," said the new military bishop on his appointment. He thanks the Holy Father for the great trust. "I will do my utmost for the welfare of Catholic servicemen and women and their families," Overbeck stressed on Thursday.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, expressed his delight at the appointment. "The choice is a good one, and I am grateful to Bishop Overbeck for taking on this additional high responsibility."The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) expressed a similar opinion. The soldiers are under extraordinary strain, both because of their missions abroad and because of the upcoming structural reforms of the Bundeswehr, in which they are "more than ever" dependent on pastoral care, explained ZdK President Alois Gluck.

The second Ruhr bishop in charge
The 46-year-old Bishop of Essen is the successor of Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa, who held this office until 2010. The episcopal church of the military bishop is the St.St. John's Basilica in the immediate vicinity of the Papal Nunciature in Berlin. Bishop Overbeck's appointment marks the second time that the office of military bishop has been entrusted to a "Ruhr bishop": from 1961 to 1978, the first bishop of Essen, Dr. Franz Hengsbach, Catholic Military Bishop for the German Armed Forces.

In the few months as bishop of the Ruhr, Overbeck has positioned himself – not least in the media – as a man of clear principles. He defends Catholic teaching that homosexual practice is a sin. He is also firmly opposed to demands to abolish celibacy or to introduce the priesthood for women. At the same time, Overbeck is a strong advocate for the socially disadvantaged. He wants to be the audible voice of Catholic social teaching.

The Bishops' Conference made it clear last year that Overbeck was expected to have a special role within the church: against the backdrop of the abuse scandal, it set up a working group consisting of three bishops to coordinate the debate on the state and future of the church. With him: Franz-Josef Overbeck. Especially as a young bishop he sees himself in duty. He points out that he belongs to a generation in which people are no longer naturally church-bound. He sees his task as repositioning the church in an increasingly "profane world" and "helping people to find God".

Ignatius of Loyola joined
Spiritually Overbeck feels connected to the Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola. And he also names St. Benedict. In the Benedictine Abbey of Gerleve, he seeks spiritual retreat once a month. The bishop will have to fight for such respite in the future. At the same time, Overbeck, who was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago and survived the disease, knows that clergy also need time off. He likes to seek it with classical music or reading.

Overbeck takes office as military bishop at a difficult time for the Bundeswehr. Again and again, soldiers are killed in foreign missions or return to their families completely traumatized. In addition, the German Armed Forces are to be reduced from the current 250.000 on
180.000 soldiers to be reduced in size. This structural reform also means that the military chaplaincy must reposition itself. Only one of Overbeck's many new tasks.

Germany's youngest bishop
The newly appointed military bishop was inaugurated on 19. June 1964 born in Marl. After graduating from high school in 1983, he studied Catholic theology and philosophy, first at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Munster and from 1984 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The then Curia Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger consecrated him on 10. October 1989 in the church of St. Ignazio to the priesthood in Rome. Overbeck then continued his studies in Rome and, starting in 1990, gained experience as a chaplain in the parish of St. Sixtus in Haltern first experience in pastoral care.

In 1994, he was released for further studies, at the same time taking on the task of director of the German Students' Home in Munster and becoming cathedral vicar at the St. St. Paul's Cathedral. In February 2000, he was awarded a doctorate in Catholic dogmatics with a thesis on "The God-centered human being. A systematic investigation into the determination of man and the "self-realization" of God in the anthropology and theology of the Trinity of Wolfhart Pannenberg" doctoral thesis. In the same year Overbeck took over the direction of the Institute for Diaconate and Pastoral Services (IDP) in the diocese of Munster and became the episcopal commissioner for the permanent diaconate in the diocese. The IDP is the center for all pastoral assistants and permanent deacons. In 2002, he took on the additional task of ecclesiastical assistant for the Community of Christian Life.

Pope Benedict XVI. appointed Overbeck on 18. July 2007 as titular bishop of Matara in Numidia (North Africa) and auxiliary bishop in Munster. Overbeck received his episcopal ordination on 1. September 2007 by Bishop Reinhard Lettmann in the St. St. Paul's Cathedral in Munster and at the same time became resident cathedral chaplain at the High Cathedral Church in Munster. His motto is the first words of the hymn of the Mother of God Mary: "Magnificat anima mea" (My soul praises the greatness of the Lord).

Germany's youngest bishop served as a regional bishop in the approximately 365.000 Catholics active in Munster-Warendorf region. On 29. March 2008, the Munster cathedral chapter elected Dr. Franz-Josef Overbeck as diocesan administrator for the period of the sede vacante, after Pope Benedict XVI. the age-related resignation of Bishop Lettmann effective 28. March 2008 had accepted. With the amption of office by Bishop Felix Genn on 29. March 2009 the office expired.

In 2008, Franz-Josef Overbeck was accepted into the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The solemn investiture took place in Cologne Cathedral by the Grand Master of the Order, the Curia Cardinal John Patrick Foley.

Member of the Faith Commission
Pope Benedict XVI. appointed Auxiliary Bishop Overbeck of Munster on 28. October 2009 to the Bishop of Essen. The introduction took place on 4. Advent Sunday, 20. December 2009, in the Essen Cathedral.

In the German Bishops' Conference, Overbeck is a member of the Faith Commission and the Commission for Societal and Social Ies, as well as chairman of the sub-commission for contacts with Latin America (especially ADVENIAT) in the Commission for the World Church. Since 2010, Bishop Overbeck has been Ecclesiastical Assistant to the Pontifical Foundation Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice (CAPP) and a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Capturing voices and moods from the plenary assembly of bishops was harder this time than usual. The meeting took place virtually for the first time. Other things came to the fore.

There are two images from the real world that remain in the memory from the first virtual plenary assembly of Catholic bishops in Germany. A woman took her place on the podium at Tuesday's kick-off press conference: the bishops had previously elected theologian Beate Gilles to head the Bonn-based Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference. All her predecessors were men and clergy. Gilles, who has been head of the department for children, youth and family in the diocese of Limburg since 2010, is the first woman and lay theologian to hold this important post.

Instead of a "secretary," as of 1. July a "general secretary" to help decide the future of the church and its involvement in society. This also includes the management of the Association of German Dioceses (VDD) with an annual budget of around 120 million euros.

New construction sites in the processing of abuse

The second picture: a carnival float from Dusseldorf in front of Cologne Cathedral. The picture shows a bishop whose miter is modeled on the tip of a penis; on the bishop's robe is the inscription "The core problem of the Catholic Church". The Giordano Bruno Foundation, which is critical of the church, protested with the float until the end of the plenary session on Thursday against what it sees as the slow pace of coming to terms with abuse in the church.

The ie has dominated the headlines for weeks, mainly because of the debates about the actions of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki in the archdiocese of Cologne. He is criticized for not allowing an expert report on dealing with abuse cases to be published as initially planned because of "methodological flaws". The chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Batzing, stressed that he had repeatedly lobbied Woelki for the publication of this report. But the cardinal has stuck to his decision. Now the publication of the second expert report, which Woelki had promised, is pending. "We will now have to wait until 18. March and if possible no prejudices meet."

Meanwhile, new construction sites are opening up. Thus, the Deutschlandfunk reported on a victim of sexualized violence and abuse of power by a priest, who accuses Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Bishop Stephan Ackermann of insufficient reappraisal and protection of offenders. Both, as bishops of Trier, had been slow to follow up on the accusations and had done so too late.

"Clerical abuse" on the agenda

At the meeting itself, the Bishop of Dresden-Meissen, Heinrich Timmerevers, together with Munster's Bishop Felix Genn, reported on the suffering of people who had been manipulated or put under prere by pastors, for example during confession or in the context of religious life accompaniment. As emphatically as this problem of "clerical abuse" is being addressed, there remains an aftertaste. In an interview with katholisch.de admitted Timmerevers made mistakes in dealing with abuse in his own diocese.

It is obvious that under such conditions, the church has ever greater difficulties in making itself heard with other ies. The future of Christianity in Germany was the topic of Wednesday's study day. In addition to their own challenges, both the Catholic and Protestant churches have been experiencing a decline in membership for years. In political debates such as euthanasia, both are losing clout as ecumenical consensus crumbles.

Nuncio urges unity

But also within the church centrifugal forces are to be felt. The bishops are having a hard time finding a common course in the synodal path launched by them and the Central Committee of German Catholics. The initiative is intended to explore scope for change. In the Vatican, there is still great concern about a German Sonderweg.

Pope's ambassador Nikola Eterovic called on the bishops to unity in his greeting to the plenary assembly. Conflicts threatened to destroy sense of church unity. Batzing spoke of an "admonition and encouragement". Among reform-minded forces like Maria 2.0 Meanwhile, impatience is growing. Two images of church face each other. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile them.

"It's a girl," her grandfather wrote on a piece of paper for his wife after Alice Schwarzer's birth and placed it on the kitchen table. There was no reason to celebrate. The mother was unmarried, the father unknown. This girl, who was born in the wartime winter of 1942 and whom no one could really use, became a champion for women's rights as an adult. Today Alice Schwarzer turns 65.

It was the years of independent women that Alice Schwarzer grew up in, and it was the gentle grandfather who predominantly took care of the child. "I come from a family where it never imposed itself that women are the born good mothers and men are the monsters," she says. At the age of 21, Alice Schwarzer made the decision to become a journalist. After a year of language studies in Paris, she began her training at the "Dusseldorfer Nachrichten" in the local editorial office in Neuss in 1966. After a brief foray into a large-format glossy, she eventually landed a job as a reporter for the satirical magazine "Pardon".In 1969, Alice Schwarzer returned to Paris as a correspondent for various newspapers, where she came into contact with French feminists. In 1971, she helped prepare the sensational campaign against the abortion ban: 343 women confessed to their abortions in the "Nouvel Observateur". For the "Stern" magazine, which took over the "We have had an abortion" campaign for Germany, Schwarzer rounded up 374 women, among them Romy Schneider, Senta Berger, Sabine Sinjen and Carola Stern. Reactions ranged from gratitude for breaking taboos to savage insults. Section 218 and Schwarzer's "breakthrough" Back in Germany, Schwarzer caused another scandal when her contribution on § 218 for the ARD magazine Panorama was not broadcast at the instigation of the directors of the TV station. The year 1975 finally made Alice Schwarzer Germany's most prominent women's rights activist. In September, "The Little Difference" was published with 14 detailed portraits of women and became a bestseller. The fact that the "Bild" newspaper declared her to be a "wicked witch" with a "piercing gaze through large glasses" is one of the more harmless slurs.The financial success of the book brought Alice Schwarzer the money to fulfill her dream of a professionally made magazine for women. On 26. January 1977 saw the publication of the first ie of "Emma," still Europe's only political women's magazine.For Alice Schwarzer, busy years followed, during which she continued to push new projects. This was also the case in June 1978, when she, Inge Meysel and others sued Stern for its "sexist" cover pictures. Drive gave her something that irritated her since her puberty: "Women were treated differently than men. I was not used to that in my family – and I did not want to accept that in the world."The fight against pornography In 1979, she began to draw attention to misogyny in Iran, which had become fundamentalist. In 1987, it initiated a campaign against pornography, denouncing sexist torture scenes in Helmut Newton's photographs in 1994. She tirelessly campaigns to ensure that she and her ies remain in the public eye. As a journalist with her clear argumentation – as most recently in the book "The Answer," in which she formulates current social and feminist viewpoints. But even as the recognized institution that it has become.She uses her new salon ability to appear on television with Beckmann, Gottschalk and Co. chatting about women's rights, criticism of Islamism and other topics close to her heart, or even playing a little rock'n'roll. This is one of the reasons why opinions differ about Alice Schwarzer.It causes problems for men who can't stand a woman speaking out loudly, and for women who seek refuge in the security of tradition. Beyond that, however, it snubs those who want the seriousness of their views evidenced by the seriousness of the person throughout. Despite all her adversaries and contradictions, she proved conclusively "that a woman can also be uncomfortable, and then not always loved for it, but not immediately beheaded either".By Ulrike Krickau (epd)

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