Crucifix judgment as a symptom

adminonNovember 29, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

No crucifix hung in large meeting room on San Servolo Island in Venice. But the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights banning crosses in Italian school classrooms nonetheless provided the ubiquitous backdrop for this year's dialogue with religions by the European Parliament's Christian Democrat EPP Group.

For many of the speakers from Christian denominations and numerous politicians on Thursday and Friday, the verdict was a symptom: Christianity is being pushed more and more out of visible social life. A finding that the EPP politicians present, including leading CDU/CSU MEPs, want to oppose. The speakers showed ecumenical unanimity in their analysis that the EU is too little aware of its values and its origins in the Judeo-Christian heritage. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Cyril I. stressed, for example, in his message read in Venice, that the construction of Europe is not possible without reference to the Christian testimony. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I also. emphasized in his greeting address, which was read out, that dealing with religion is the quality test for freedom within a society. And Polish Catholic Bishop Emeritus Tadeusz Pieronek saw in decisions on abortion and same-sex unions, for example, an attempt to use pluralism as a weapon in the fight against religion and Christian values.

"Christian hostility is a realistic danger" The analysis was also shared by experts and politicians. Mario Mauro, an Italian member of the European People's Party (EPP), expressed fears that at some point the flags of European countries could be banned. "The Union Jack, the British flag, is composed of three crosses at once," Mauro recalled. But the cross has long since become a symbol for universal values, he criticized the Strasbourg crucifix verdict. Mauro called it an attack on common sense that the European Parliament is more concerned with alleged human rights abuses by the Catholic Church than with abuses in China or Cuba. For the "Christianophobia" network, Viennese historian Martin Kugler confirmed that Christianophobia has become a realistic danger. Politicians must become aware of this. Speakers from Cyprus and Turkey made clear that Christian minorities in European countries have long been exposed to dramatic discrimination. They pointed out that in the northern part of Cyprus, which has been under Turkish occupation since 1974, Orthodox houses of worship have been converted into stables and hotels or have simply fallen into ruin. Representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople lamented that the future of their minority is in grave danger. Turkey prescribes that only Turkish citizens can be elected patriarchs. Priest training in the country, however, continues to be impossible. In addition, because of ongoing attacks, the number of Orthodox Christians in Turkey has dropped from about 100 to about 100.000 in the 1950s to less than 3,000 at last count.000, according to Theophanis Economidis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Hope thanks to new EU treaty After all, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of the church several times in the case of the Orthodox minority – for example, when the Strasbourg judges ordered the return of an orphanage. The verdict should have been implemented by April. But nothing has happened yet, Economidis complained. MEPs draw hope from the new EU treaty, which was signed on 1. December comes into force. Slovenian politician Alojz Peterle called the provision in the report that the EU institutions should engage in regular dialogue with churches and religious communities a recognition of Europe's spiritual dimension. The provision must be filled with life – an annual working dinner with religious dignitaries is not enough for this. In any case, there are concrete proposals: The political scientist Friedrich Bokern suggested that a subcommittee for intercultural and religious dialogue be set up in the European Parliament.

A U.S. Anglican bishop has spoken out in favor of seceding from the world Anglican Communion, according to media reports. "I would accept a schism," Bishop Steven Charleston of Cambridge, Massachusetts, told the Washington Post newspaper, "I would accept being told that I am out of step with churches like the one in Nigeria if it meant that, conversely, I was in step with justice and morality."

Charleston was responding to the ultimatum of an Anglican crisis summit in Tanzania at the beginning of the week. In a unanimous resolution, the representatives of almost all national churches had called on the liberal US Episcopal Church to prove within seven months that it would permanently turn away from its previous course. Failure to do so would threaten "consequences" for the U.S. church's "full participation" in the Anglican world communion. Above all conservative African churches turn against the US Anglicans, who are too liberal from their point of view.The 2003 episcopal ordination of an avowed homosexual, as well as blessing rites for same-sex couples in the U.S. and Canada, have brought the conservative and liberal church wings of the world's 78 million Anglicans to the brink of schism. U.S. Anglican bishops go into retreat in March. Observers expect a reaction from there to the resolution of the world communion. "Time to reflect and pause" Other leading U.S. liberals, according to the Washington Post, said they would first wait for the statement from the U.S. Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. She had signed the Tanzanian resolution and still on Tuesday evening called on both sides to use Lent as a time for reflection and pause. "Maybe she can convince us and show us how a compromise could work," Diocese of Washington spokesman Jim Naughton told the newspaper.Susan Russell, president of an Anglican gay rights activist group, said, "Either we remain true to our liberal catch-all that church is for all, or we remain true to our desire to be a member of the Anglican world communion."So far, however, the U.S. church has avoided such a decision.

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.

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