“We have to go out to the people”

adminonNovember 30, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Irmgard Schwaetzer held the office of president of the Protestant Church for almost eight years. Now the EKD synod decides on its succession. The pharmacist and FDP politician looks back and makes recommendations for the future.

Interviewer: You are now stepping down as president of the Protestant church. With what feelings do you do?

Dr. Irmgard Schwaetzer (outgoing EKD president): Naturally, there are mixed feelings. But in the foreground there is great gratitude for seven very full, interesting, great years with wonderful encounters with many people, between whom trust has grown, and also with a very intensive content-related work. After all, it's about looking at the future of the church a little bit and also opening ways for us to reach people with God's message in the future.

Interviewer: Ecumenism in Germany will continue to be important in the future, as will the relationship between the Catholic and Protestant churches. We are speaking now just before the Ecumenical Church Congress. Looking back: Did developments during your term of office go as you had hoped??

Schwaetzer: To a large extent, yes. I remember with great gratitude the joint pilgrimage that members of the Council of the EKD and the Bishops' Conference made to the Holy Land in 2016. I remind you of the ecumenical services in 2017, the year of the Reformation celebrations. In all this time, so much trust has grown, and that can still be felt today. And I hope that it will remain so in the future.

Interviewer: The topic of sexual abuse, abuse of power, has shaken both churches and is still far from being dealt with. A huge loss of image and trust for both churches. How do you think the churches can regain trust??

Schwaetzer: That can certainly only happen if two things happen in any case, and one is that we openly, transparently do everything we can to ensure that our churches will provide a sanctuary for people we have to look out for, for whom we have taken responsibility. That is just not the case in quite a few places in the past.

And the second is the reappraisal. That has to happen credibly. In the Protestant Church, the major scientific reappraisal studies began last fall. However, it will take some time before we see the first results. They will focus on the causes of sexual assault, of violence against the vulnerable, on the specifics of the Protestant church and the diaconate, and on the extent of it.

Independent commissions are in preparation, which will of course include the strong participation of those affected. This will also be a difficult process for the Protestant Church, because it will have to relinquish its power of interpretation, and that will certainly not be easy.

Interviewer: Let's look at another problem common to both churches, namely that fewer and fewer people are going to church. The Corona pandemic has reinforced this despite many digital offers. In the long run, leaving the church could really endanger the institution of the church, whether Protestant or Catholic. How do you see it? Do people still need the churches at all to be able to live their faith??

Schwaetzer: Well, the surveys tell us that more and more people are not comfortable with the way the church meets them. On the other hand, we noticed during the pandemic that, above all, pastoral care was a very big ie. That many people with their worries, with their fears, with their questions were then looking for it, also partly waiting to be addressed.

I think that this is something that has been reinforced by the pandemic, although we have already experienced this through the Reformation anniversary. We have to go out to the people. It's not enough to say we invite you all, we have to be there where people have problems.

This is a change of perspective. And we want to carry this change of perspective into the future with new approaches in pastoral care, but also in parish work, where an enormous number of creative solutions were developed and tried out during the pandemic.

Interviewer: That is then certainly one of the major tasks for your successor. What is the next step for you?? Betray the?

Schwaetzer: For now I am happy to have more time to go again, if you are open, also hopefully to museums and to listen to concerts. To perceive the rich cultural life of Berlin. But I think I will have other tasks as well. But that is then a somewhat later concern.

The interview was conducted by Hilde Regeniter.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, there came to be in St. Blasien on violence and abuse. At least 30 victims are to be amed – so far the facts one year after the abuse scandal at the renowned Jesuit college came to light. Time for a closing point then?

Everyday school life continues. The Abitur exams are coming up soon. And before College Director Johannes Siebner reports on how the acts of abuse by Catholic priests that have gradually come to light since January 2010 have affected the College of St. Joseph. Blasien, he quickly inquires about the newly installed soccer field: "Is it really the case that the artificial turf can be played on again quickly even after rain??"

Despite all normality, a visit to the renowned Black Forest boarding school St. Blasien quickly realized that the reappraisal and confrontation with abuse and cover-up have by no means come to an end. In the meantime it is clear, as the external investigator Ursula Raue has recorded, that from the 1950s to the 1980s there was violence and abuse at the Jesuit College. At least 30 victims are to be amed. Only a few days ago, the public prosecutor's office discontinued its investigations, as all acts are statute-barred under criminal law. Time for a closing point then?

"There are now words for what was previously unspeakable"
College principal Siebner, but also parent representatives and teachers vehemently disagree. The most important lesson to be learned from the abuse cases is the greatest possible transparency and an end to taboo and speechlessness in matters of sexuality, violence and border crossings. And Siebner is certain that much has been achieved in the past year. "There are now words for what was previously unspeakable, that is the change."

High school graduate Marie-Sophie Grunewalder confirms: "Every student knows who to turn to. There are contacts we trust."The new display case in the school hallway lists points of contact: School chaplain, guidance counselor, school psychologist, high school guidance counselor, and a reference to "Wendepunkt," an outside counseling service that also advises teachers during continuing education events.

Christian Spitz, chairman of the parents' association and pediatrician, knows from his own practice: "I'm afraid that we can't eliminate abuse from the world. More than five percent of all children are victims of abuse."That's why it's important to him to break the taboos and silence structures in schools. "We must not let up, and must address the uncomfortable topic again and again."Children should be empowered to say no when boundaries are crossed.

At the same time, one year after the acts were uncovered, it is clear that for most students the scandal has long since receded into the background. "That was then quickly no longer an ie," says student spokesman Johannes von Gumppenberg. And guidance counselor Georg Leber says: "Although the news about abuse hit like a bomb. But it quickly became clear that this dark past could not shake the confidence in the school today."

Lay new registrations
In view of the scandal, it sounds surprising: no student was deregistered from the college, new registrations rather increased. When Leber gives information about the college at the surrounding elementary schools, he has to face many questions from parents – but no one wants to know anything about the abuse cases.

One reason for the continuing parental trust: The Jesuit order has apparently succeeded in making it clear that in the year
in 2010, there could be no more cover-ups and a policy of providing information in tidbits. Father Klaus Mertes from Canisius College in Berlin and Father Siebner in St. Blasien dealt openly with the cases, which cast such dark shadows on their order and their schools.

"It was clear to me from the beginning that there could be no alternative to painful disclosure of all the facts," Siebner says. Even if this did not always meet with approval within the church and the word of the nest-destroyers made the rounds: the college is reaping the fruits of this policy today.

But one shadow remains. Because the pressing question of the victims, why there is still no agreement on recognition payments, can also Siebner not satisfactorily answer. Although he clearly advocates that the church should go ahead with a four-digit sum as a "symbolic act of atonement". His vague hope that a solution for the whole church will be found "very soon" is not enough for the victims.

Benedict XVI. will in all likelihood not take part in the canonizations on Sunday. He is "no longer as agile as he was a few months ago," said the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Becciu made remarks to journalists at the Vatican on Thursday. Among others, Benedict's predecessor Paul VI will be canonized. and the assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Paul VI. (1963-1978) had appointed the young dogmatics professor Joseph Ratzinger as an advisory theologian to the Second Vatican Council shortly after his election as pope and named him archbishop of Munich and cardinal in 1977. When, at the end of April 2014, John XXIII. (1958-1963) and John Paul II. (1978-2005) were canonized, Benedict XVI, who is now 91 years old, attended. Still attending the ceremony at.

That Paul VI. and Romero be canonized in the same ceremony, Becciu reasoned that several proceedings had come to an end, making the time for such a ceremony. Both men would have given their lives to the church, Paul VI. in a "bloodless way", Romero as a martyr.

Conscience more important than public acclaim

On the doctrinal letter "Humanae vitae" (1968), Paul VI's last encyclical., which resonated mainly because of its rejection of artificial contraception, Becciu said the pope had been aware that it would make him unpopular; but he had put his conscience ahead of public acclaim.

Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez expressed hope at the same press conference that Francis would also visit Romero's tomb in San Salvador on the occasion of his trip to Panama next January. Francis had positively received a corresponding proposal. The wounds that also existed within the Salvadoran church since the time of the military junta have since healed, the cardinal said. El Salvador is experiencing a "spiritual revolution," according to the auxiliary bishop of the capital diocese.

Future saints: Romero and Paul VI.

Romero, an important representative of liberation theology, came into opposition to the military dictatorship in El Salvador at the time through his advocacy of social justice and political reform. On 24. March 1980 he was shot at the altar during a Mass. His death sparked civil war against military junta that has ruled since 1979. Romero was beatified in San Salvador in May 2015.

With the tenure of Paul VI. is primarily associated with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), during which the Catholic Church redefined its relationship with the modern world. Born Giovanni Battista Montini near Brescia, the pope also became known for his encyclical "Humanae vitae" (1968) on sexual ethics. His doctrinal letter "Populorum progressio" (1967) on global development and economic ethics was groundbreaking.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply