Women continue to advance

adminonNovember 30, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Women continue to make headway in the Bundeswehr. The number of female soldiers in the armed forces has more than tripled since 2001. Around 17,000, or about nine percent, of all professional and temporary soldiers are women. Over 2500 women are represented in officer careers. Women now study almost all subjects at the two Bundeswehr universities.

As the Defense Ministry further announced in Berlin on Monday, 40 percent of the female soldiers belong to the medical service, 22 percent to the armed forces base, 20 percent to the army. 11 percent serve in the air force and 7 percent in the navy. There are currently more than 380 female soldiers on foreign deployments. The first of the female soldiers recruited as of 2001 take up leadership roles as company commanders or company sergeants. Guttenberg satisfied Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) says he is very satisfied. "I am pleased that women are now the norm in the Bundeswehr," Guttenberg emphasized. The goal is to have 15 percent women in general careers and 50 percent in medical service careers.The former head of the Bundeswehr Georg Leber (SPD) had opened in 1975 the medical and music service for the women on a voluntary basis. But they were not allowed to serve with weapons in hand in combat units until 1. January 2001 start. ECJ cleared the way It was not until the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of 11. January 2000 marked the turning point in the history of the Bundeswehr, paving the way for women to enter all military careers. The ECJ president announced at the time that Germany, too, must open up service at arms to women in its armed forces.At the time, this possibility had been fought for by Tanja Kreil, an electronics technician. She went to court and "defeated" the last bastion of men, which provided for service in combat units exclusively for the male sex. The women's associations cheered and pointed out that the opinion that women are exclusively responsible for the three "C's" – children, kitchen, church – belongs to the "old iron". Only in the ranks of the fighters of the "Kommandos Spezialkrafte" (KSK) no woman has made it yet. Only two female generals So far, only two women have risen to the rank of general in the armed forces. After Verena von Weymarn, who retired in 2004, Erika Franke became the second female Surgeon General with the golden epaulets.With practiced female hands, the combat aircraft "Tornado," "Transall" transport planes and military helicopters are already being flown. Female tank commanders pilot the "Leopard" heavy battle tank and the "Buffel" armored recovery vehicle. Psychologists have supported the thesis put forward by then Defense Minister Peter Struck (SPD) that more women would "do the Bundeswehr good". In the U.S., the most female soldiers The percentage of women in the world's armies varies. It ranges from less than one percent to 15 percent in the United States. American women who joined the armed forces celebrated their triumph in 1976. Military academies at West Point (Army), Annapolis (Navy) and Colorado Springs (Air Force) opened to female combatants. Scientific research shows that while men are superior to women on average in physical strength, women could usually outperform men in operations that require greater manual dexterity or persistent concentration.

The report about the abuse at the Domspatzen was almost unanimously reacted with horror. Wolfgang Beck explains on our site interview, what went wrong and why the scandals are an opportunity for the church.

Interviewer: Those were clear words that you chose on Saturday. You are a priest yourself. Were you surprised by the shocking extent of the abuse and mistreatment of your colleagues??

Father Wolfgang Beck (Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Catholic University in Sankt Georgen): No, you also have to say that as a Catholic Christian you have become accustomed to a lot in recent years. The process of coming to terms with the past in Regensburg has been going on for a number of years, so it was clear that the report would certainly contain a lot of things that would cause another shock. But then what is also important are two different levels: One is the processing that must be done and that the victims are taken care of. The bishop of Regensburg reacted quite well with a pastoral word on Sunday. The second level is then to say that we have had similar situations over and over again in recent years where things have come to light. And we have to ask ourselves what structures exist in the Catholic Church that are also responsible for the fact that perpetrators are obviously attracted here, or at least that an ideal field has been created for their deeds. I think there are structural components that have not yet been sufficiently illuminated.

Interviewer: So it is the structures of clerical power and intransparency that have made this level of abuse possible. Do these structures still exist?? After all, the events in Regensburg happened 25 years ago.

Beck: Yes, I would argue that it still exists. Of course, much has changed in the past 25 years, and it would be strange if it didn't. There has been great progress in both violence and abuse prevention work. You have to appreciate that in a positive way. But the structural processes that exist within the Catholic Church have not changed much. There is still a very great lack of transparency, a great clericalism, which also largely eludes any control, or at least only allows it to the extent that it is indispensable. The Catholic Church is a bit driven by what is happening in public discourse. I think that the church needs to be kept on its toes, or to be kept on its toes by a public that clearly says: We simply don't accept some things. And this is not one of the areas in which the church can say: we'll just handle it differently and according to our own taste. But there is a social and public interest in some topics being dealt with in the church.

Interviewer: In particular, you also warn against putting things into perspective now. You warn against representatives of the church now saying that corporal punishment was just common practice back then. And the sexual abuse, that were only individual cases. You don't consider such voices, which there are now, to be inappropriate, but even dangerous – why?

Beck: Because of course they are strategically oriented and try everything to avoid this second level, this rather deeper level of dealing with church structures. So it is an appeasement, which reduces the problem to the individual case, to an acting with the victims. This is all right and good, but it must not lead to a situation where the actual reforms are not tackled. I would quickly want to identify this strategy of weakening in some statements.

Interviewer: You also say that the abuse scandals can be an opportunity for the Catholic Church. What is this opportunity?

Beck: The opportunity would be to address honestly and transparently some fields of one's own structures where one has to say: This is a field in which we are simply pre-modern. We are not yet set up in a way that is standard in our modern society and should be taken for granted."For example, with regard to questions of co-determination, transparency and decision-making processes, and the separation of powers. We still have a monarchical system in the way bishoprics are understood in the Catholic Church. Many people are not aware of this. But whoever is a Catholic bishop in our country is at the same time a legislator and thus also very largely removed from any neutral control. There are, of course, approaches that have emerged in recent years. But these are also only beginnings. It has to be said: The Catholic Church has not yet arrived in the modern age, and it needs a little help to get up to speed.

Interviewer: Did you receive any reactions to your clear words in the Word for Sunday?. Everyone must not have liked what you said and denounced there?

Beck: So, for the most part, the reactions were positive and encouraging. For the most part, I got the feedback that said "All respect, this is what we've been waiting for, that this is being addressed so honestly." In these positive and encouraging e-mails, however, it then also often comes up that things will not be easy for me and that I would face headwinds. These are fears that are certainly not born out of thin air. There I will have to dress perhaps warmly.
Interviewer: That's not when a bishop calls up and says, "Wait a minute. What are you criticizing the clerical power for – that is not so true! Stop fouling your own nest like that?"

Beck: So far, two dioceses have shared the Word for Sunday on their Facebook presence, and one bishop has shared it as well. So it's encouraging that there doesn't seem to be a lot of horror about this. I am curious to see what the further reactions will be. But I would also guess that they are more likely to try to sit this one out and keep quiet, in the hope that Wolfgang Beck, as the spokesman for the "Wort zum Sonntag" (Word on Sunday), will once again devote himself to other topics.

The interview was conducted by Hilde Regeniter.

Georg ratzinger: did not know about sexual abuse

Regensburg Cathedral Boys' Choir © dpa

Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI., By his own admission, had no knowledge of sexual abuse cases at Regensburg Cathedral Boys' Choir. He told the "Passauer Neue Presse" that

With regard to the beating accusations, the 91-year-old pointed out that beatings and slaps were "common in all areas of education as well as in families" at that time. "With the Domspatzen, they had no other significance than in the areas mentioned as well," said Georg Ratzinger, who directed the world-famous boys' choir from 1964 to 1994.

The lawyer commissioned by the diocese of Regensburg, Ulrich Weber, had given an interim report on the allegations of beating and abuse on Friday. He spoke of at least 231 cases of physical violence; according to the report, 62 cases involved sexual assault "ranging from fondling to rape". Weber estimates that of the 2.100 children in the preschool of the choir in Etterzhausen and Pielenhofen were beaten by about a third between 1953 and 1992.

Attorney Weber: "gross disproportionality"

The lawyer left no doubt that, in his opinion, Ratzinger was also aware of the chastisements. He had learned of violence in the preschool at least in 1987. Weber also stressed that even if the beating is seen in the temporal context of education at the time, it shows a "gross disproportionality".

In the interview, Ratzinger admitted to having known about regular and "very severe" slaps by longtime preschool director Johann Meier. However, he had never observed Meier "beating a boy under the table" and had never seen any traces of injuries on any of the students. Meier had taken early retirement in 1992 after criticism of what Ratzinger called his "harsh pedagogical methods".

Ratzinger: No "system of fear"

The long-time choirmaster also contradicted Weber's assessment that a "system of fear" had prevailed at the Domspatzen. "This is not the truth," he told the newspaper. From meetings with former Domspatzen he sees "that the years in the choir were for them, in addition to all the hardships that are part of any education, a time of inner formation and maturation, for which they are grateful to this day".

One would not "return in this way" to a place of fear and violence, Ratzinger says.

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