“We rely on dialogue”

adminonNovember 3, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

At the end of the 98. The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Alois Gluck, described the meeting as a "great celebration of faith" on the occasion of the 20th German Catholics' Day. At the same time, in his speech at the closing service in Mannheim on Sunday, which was interrupted several times by applause, he called for change: "For us, deepening the faith and necessary change are not mutually exclusive."The Catholic News Agency (KNA) documents the text of the address.

This Catholic Day was a great celebration of faith. I thank all those who helped in the preparation and execution that we could celebrate this festival together.

We have experienced a lively, faith-strong and vital church. Again and again I heard: "I have recharged my battery here".

Yes, the situation in our church is more than the sum of its deficits. A lot of great things are happening in our church and in the name of the church, but also by Catholics acting in their own responsibility as citizens!

For me, it was a joyful experience to witness the diversity and commitment of so many ecclesial communities, associations and organizations on the Church Mile. This diversity is not danger, but richness! This is the fruit of the commitment of many, many volunteers. They live faith and church, that is a special treasure.

This Catholic Day was open to all the questions that beset us in the situation and development of our Church. For us, deepening faith and necessary change are not contradictions. We rely on dialogue – and we expect dialogue and results. In the freedom of the mind and the word, and with respect for other people and their positions, we deliberated, discussed and debated controversially. This culture of discussion should become the benchmark for all our church debates.

For this, the attitude of the listening heart, which the Holy Father put on the heart of the politicians in the Bundestag, is also a good orientation within the Church. The "listening heart", that is the way to the people, so church becomes more attractive again! This also helps to overcome the often noticeable fear of change, pessimism, despondency.

"Let us trust in life, because God lives it with us."This is what the great son of this city, Alfred Delp, told us from prison. This is a good foundation for life in this time.

Only complaining or lamenting is not our way. We want to help shape the tasks of our time and the freedom of our society with value orientation, with expertise, with staying power.

"The dignity of man is inviolable," reads the first sentence in our Basic Law. This is the compass for our efforts to give progress a new direction, a new meaning, a new quality. Progress in the service of all people. "The dignity of man is inviolable", this is also a self-commitment for dealing with people who do not correspond to one's own origin or character, for example foreign fellow citizens, or homosexual people or other groups. For Christians, the dignity of the human being is also the clear demarcation line against radical right-wing and national conservative groups that pretend to defend "Christian occidental values" and in the process create sentiment against people.

Dare a new departure with courage and trust in God – in our lives, in our church, in our country, in global solidarity. This is the message of this Catholic Day. I wish you all a good return home!"

Wave of protests against vilification of john paul ii.

Scandal over play with statue of John Paul II. © N.N. (CBA)

Scandal on a Warsaw stage: In the play "The Curse," a woman performs oral sex on a statute of the former pope. Prosecutors are investigating for hurting religious feelings.

It has been a long time since Warsaw has seen such a provocative play. An actress from the "Teatr Powszechny" simulates oral sex with a statue of the canonized Pope John Paul II for about a minute in one scene. (1978-2005), who is revered in his native Poland. Another is about what a hitman should be paid to assassinate the leader of the ruling national conservative party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Feelings of Catholics hurt

At first it looked like Poland's bishops didn't want to stir up the ie. At first, they only sent forward the press officer of the episcopate, who called for prayers for an end to the "blasphemy," but did not speak up themselves. Finally, on Thursday, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former secretary of John Paul II, also condemned the performance., "the disgusting disparagement of the person of St. John Paul II". It was a "gross injustice" to accuse the former head of the church of bad things. "Sadly, I must state that in the name of the alleged freedom of art, the feelings of Catholics are deliberately hurt," complained the former archbishop of Krakow.

The head of the church's John Paul II.-Center in Krakow, Jan Kabzinski, started a collection of signatures against the play. "I demand that the financing of the theater with public money be ended and the theater director be recalled," the petition appeals to Warsaw's liberal mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. "Particularly scandalous" is the fact that the capital maintains such a theater. "There is no doubt that this kind of provocation, namely pornography, blasphemous scenes, mockery of the Church – and for this purpose the abuse of a figure of St. John Paul II. – as well as incitement to political hatred, should not be allowed to take place."

For an end to "blasphemy"

Signatures are to be collected on Sunday after each Mass at Krakow's St. John Paul II Church.-Kabzinski announced that the collection would be collected at the sanctuary. In addition, he said, prayers are being offered at church services for an end to "blasphemy". Poland's Catholic Action lay movement also insists that the theater remove the play from its repertoire. "The performance is nothing more than a deliberate provocation with clear characteristics of hate speech," their spokesman said. "Both the director and the actors have crossed the line of common sense."

Theater invokes artistic freedom

The "Teatr Powszechny" (General Theater) in a first statement invoked the freedom of art guaranteed by Poland's constitution. "Everything we do in the theater is fiction.

Fiction can hurt and wound feelings in a society. But it continues to be fiction." Thursday night was to be the fourth performance of the play since Saturday's premiere to a sold-out crowd. The theater is one of Poland's most prestigious theaters, receiving two million euros in taxpayer funding annually.

In the production of the Croatian director Oliver Frljic (40) the church is denounced among other things for sexual child abuse. In one scene, the statue of the Pope is hung on a rope and the sign "Defender of Pedophiles" is attached to it. The performance of "The Curse" clearly deviates from the original by Polish playwright Stanislaw Wyspianski, who is also famous for the stained glass windows he designed in Krakow's Franciscan Church.

Public prosecutor's office starts investigation

The city of Warsaw is not yet thinking of dismissing the head of the theater or otherwise intervening, its spokesman said. Whether the theater makers had hurt religious feelings would be for a court alone to decide. The prosecutor's office had begun investigations into the play on Wednesday.

Earlier, a politician from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party announced criminal charges. The play incites hatred, calls for murder and desecrates Christian symbols, said the deputy Dominik Tarczynski. "No one would dare to treat Muslims or Jews in this way."A party colleague and the right-wing populist Kukiz movement condemned the stage's use of public funds to desecrate Christian symbols.

Liberal opposition MP Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, however, liked the play so much that she immediately watched it a second time. For them it is art and not a crime.

The Minister of Culture, Piotr Glinski, has so far refrained from saying anything about the scandal. In November 2015 – shortly after taking office – he had taken action against the performance of Elfriede Jelinek's "Death and the Maiden" at a theater in Wroclaw. Reason was alleged sexual acts on stage. In Glinski's view, the staging violated "principles of social coexistence". But the stage held on to the play with success.

In an ecumenical Passion devotion with President Manfred Rekowski, Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki emphasized the power of faith. With the Crucified One in view, "we can confidently face the darkness," Woelki said.

At the beginning of his homily, the Archbishop of Cologne described the oppressive atmosphere in society caused by the Corona pandemic. In addition to fear for their own health and that of relatives and friends, many would have to fear for their livelihood. "Duration and consequences are difficult to assess," Woelki says.

In recent weeks and months, a darkness has settled over many people: "the darkness of fear, the darkness of illness, of loneliness, of suffering."The view of the crucified Jesus, such as on the Isenheim altar, can give strength. "If we do not lose sight of the Crucified One in the light, we can confidently face the darkness. We will get through," says Cologne archbishop.

Rekowski: Churches no space without sin and guilt

Against the backdrop of the abuse scandal, Rhineland President Manfred Rekowski called on the churches to call injustice in their own ranks by its name and to stand firmly on the side of those affected. The Christian churches are no
Space without sin and guilt, said the leading theologian of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland on Saturday in a joint Passion devotion with Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki in the Johanneskirche in Dusseldorf. "People experience injuries to body and soul in the space of the church, also by perpetrators who work for the church."

The joint devotion of the Archbishop of Cologne and the Rhenish President at the beginning of the Passion period has a long tradition. In view of the slow processing of sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Cologne, however, voices had been raised in the Rhenish church this year that the devotion should be canceled. Rekowski, however, stuck to the common prayer. The president took part in the joint prayer service for the last time as Rhenish president; he will retire in March and hand over his office to the 50-year-old theologian Thorsten Latzel.

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