“You don't get anywhere with lynch law”

adminonNovember 19, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

The abuse investigation is in full swing. How to deal with bishops who covered up abuse is one of the questions. In any case, they cannot be judged within the church by laymen, says Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Muller.

Regarding the discussions about corresponding plans of the U.S. bishops, the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in an interview with the Canadian website LifeSite-News (Wednesday local time): "I don't see the solution in 'the' laity taking the reins now, because the bishops couldn't do it on their own – as one thinks."

Abuses could not be overcome by "turning the hierarchical-sacramental catch of the church upside down.".

Being held accountable by the pope

If a bishop does not live up to his responsibility, he can be held accountable by the pope within the church, Muller said.

"With lynch law and a general suspicion" of all bishops and Roms one does not come further. The U.S. bishops' conference must carry out its tasks independently, he said. Bishops are not employees of the pope who are bound by instructions. However, the German cardinal said, now is "the hour of good cooperation to overcome the crisis and not of polarization and compromising". At the moment, however, there is a lack of confidence-building measures, he said.

Did not know about McCarrick problem

Muller did not want to comment explicitly on the much-discussed case of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick; he does not know McCarrick personally. When he himself was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2012- 2017), "no one told him anything about the whole problem".

That however McCarrick "with its clan and protected of a Homo lobby could mafia-like in the church its mischief drive", is connected with an underestimation of the moral reprehensibility of homosexual practice under adults , said Mueller.

Origin of the crisis in secularization of the church

The German cardinal therefore sees the origin of the entire crisis "in a secularization of the Church and in a reduction of the priest to a functionary". If bishops "no longer wanted to be seen as uncomfortable admonishers and people of yesterday," they would have to "as quickly as possible declare the truth of dogma and the principles of morality to be unattainable ideas and norms that no longer correspond to the reality of their lives.".

In this "un-spirit," the revelation is adapted in faith and morals "to the world without God" so that it no longer stands in the way of a life according to one's own lusts and needs.".

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen has rejected accusations that the pope is silent on the ie of clergy sexual abuse. Benedict XVI. had made it clear from the start that abuse was "a crime, a mortal sin," Overbeck said late Sunday evening on ARD television.

In Germany, this message is hardly received, because in this country "priests have gambled away trust and abused power". At the same time, the bishop emphasized that many priests were performing their duties impeccably. He commented on the program "Anne Will" on the topic "Benedict's silence – Are we still pope?". Against the backdrop of the abuse scandal, Pope Benedict XVI had. Apologized to victims of sexual abuse in Ireland in mid-March in a pastoral letter. On behalf of the Church, he expressed shame and remorse, reproached bishops with "failure in leadership. The Pope did not specifically address the German situation. The church in Germany nevertheless took the letter as a directive. "We Germans must also learn this" Overbeck emphasized that Benedict XVI. exercised "a universal ministry for the whole church. "We Germans must also learn this," the bishop said. In the five years of his pontificate, the pope has "brought new clarification to theologically substantive questions". In this context, the bishop also explicitly mentioned Rome's approach to the ultraconservative Pius Brotherhood. In an at times heated discussion, filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim accused the church of "mendacity and bigotry". He recalled witch burnings and the church's stance on homosexuality. Overbeck said homosexuality is a sin and goes against human nature. Sexuality has essentially to do with love, he said, which opens up to children.

After the temporary end of the advisory board for those affected by sexualized violence in the Protestant church, the Bishop of Braunschweig, Christoph Meyns, is counting on a new start in the fall.

The entire system must now be put to the test, the bishop told Deutschlandfunk radio on Wednesday. But the will to involve those affected is unbroken, he says. "We are not discouraged now by this failure in the first attempt," Meyns stressed.

The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) had announced on Monday evening the temporary end of the affected persons advisory board. The conception had failed, it was said. According to the report, the reason for this is the resignation of members of the committee, internal conflicts and dissent between the advisory council and the counterpart on the EKD side, the council of commissioners, about the further procedure.

Massive conflicts

Spokesman of the Council of Commissioners is Bishop Meyns of Braunschweig. There had been massive conflicts regarding the role of the advisory board and the question of how constructively and how critically the advisory board should work, Meyns said on Deutschlandfunk radio.

A "deep chasm" had emerged, and the deliberations on coming to terms with it had proved unsustainable. However, the decision was made not to dissolve the church. Over the summer, the EKD will evaluate its failures and then jointly consider: "How can we make a fresh start??"

"We wish for critical voices"

The same composition is still conceivable, Meyns emphasized. "We wish for the critical voices," he said. "So it is not at all the case that we are now saying that we do not want those who are now also publicly critical of us to be part of it."

Several of the twelve members of the Council of Concerned at the time of its founding in September had left, and four still active members accused the church on Tuesday of trying to "evade the criticism of those affected by its inadequate processes of coming to terms with the past" by unilaterally suspending the participation of those concerned.

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