Compliments to the carmelite sisters

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"Signs of hope in turbulent times": Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx presided over the celebration of the perpetual profession of Sister Margaret of the Holy Five Wounds at the Carmelite Convent of Saint Joseph in Aufkirchen, Germany.

He described it on Saturday as a "sign of hope in turbulent times". With perpetual profession, the Carmelite nun commits herself to her religious community for life, vowing poverty, celibacy and obedience in return.

Intentionless existence before God

As a contemplative community, the Carmelite nuns do not take on pastoral or charitable tasks externally, according to reports. They see their main task in the intentional existence before God, which at the same time becomes a sharing of the needs and concerns of their fellow human beings.

The cardinal thanked the new professed nun as well as her fellow sisters for their prayers. Learning to pray is the most important thing in the life of a Christian: "Because to pray is to become aware of the reality of God and to find my place in the world and security."

Praying means "I have an anchor and a face that looks at me". It is all the worse when people have lost the power of prayer because of what they have suffered in the space of the church through violence or sexual abuse," Marx emphasized.

From Mexico to Aufkirchen

Sister Margareta was born Monika Muhlhuber in 1989 in Reichertsheim (Muhldorf am Inn district). After training as an educator, she went to Mexico for a voluntary social year, where she worked in a children's home.

After her return, she worked for three years in the kindergarten in Reichertsheim before entering the Carmelite convent of St. Joseph in Aufkirchen in 2015. The Carmel Aufkirchen exists since 1896. Currently 17 sisters live there.

Sexualized violence is an ie that is currently also affecting the Protestant church in Germany. Now the chairman of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany has commented on the state of the reappraisal process.

When it comes to clarifying and coming to terms with sexual abuse in institutions of the Protestant Church, the chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, relies on "thoroughness before speed". He said this on Sunday in a "Spiegel" interview when asked whether the Protestant church was slower than the Catholic church in this respect: "The structures of both churches differ and that leads to different approaches in some cases."

"Things are clearly moving forward"

Sexualized violence affects all areas of society, the Bavarian bishop added. That's why they're also working with the federal government's independent commissioner: "Two years ago, we drew up an 11-point action plan, all parts of which have been worked on or are on the way to being worked on. This includes the establishment of an affected persons advisory council, which was constituted in September."A scientific study costing around 3.6 million euros is also about to start, he said. Some things have taken longer than expected – also because of Corona – "but things are clearly progressing".

On the comment that the Catholic Church increased its payments in recognition of the suffering to as much as 50.Bedford-Strohm countered that the Protestant Church had relied on individual recognition benefits at a very early stage: "Up to now, around 7.4 million euros in material benefits have been paid to those affected in this way. Each case is decided individually." In the national churches, he said, there are independent commissions made up of lawyers, psychologists and church representatives who are responsible for this: "They are guided by comparable compensation for pain and suffering."

Balloons outside Fulda Cathedral commemorate victims of abuse in the Catholic Church (archive) © Ingo Bruggenjurgen (DR)

The reappraisal of sexual abuse is still in the early stages in most Catholic dioceses, according to research by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Criticism of this circumstance comes from the victims' initiative "Eckiger Tisch".

A year after they agreed with the federal government's abuse commissioner to set up independent commissions to deal with abuse, only two of Germany's 27 dioceses, Bamberg and Passau, have created such a body, according to a FAZ survey.

"This shows once again that we have no suitable instruments to deal with the past injustice," said Matthias Katsch, spokesman for the victims' initiative "Eckiger Tisch," to the newspaper.

Expert reports published or in progress

According to the survey, 15 of the 27 German dioceses have not yet commissioned an abuse study that would also name those responsible for unlawful behavior, the newspaper writes. The (arch)dioceses of Limburg, Aachen, Cologne and Berlin have published studies on the extent of sexualized violence and how diocesan leadership deals with those accused and affected.

Reports are currently being prepared for the (arch)dioceses of Munich, Munster, Essen, Mainz, Freiburg, Paderborn, Hildesheim and for the Mecklenburg part of the archdiocese of Hamburg.

"Reappraisal process needs a common roof"

However, the studies differed significantly in terms of authors and questions. "The FAZ quoted Katsch, a representative of the victims, as saying: "The process of coming to terms with sexualized violence needs a common roof.

According to the report, several dioceses have argued that the commissioning of an abuse study should be left to an independent commission, but such a commission has not yet been established because they are still looking for interested parties for a victim advisory board.

Agreed on "joint declaration

A year ago, the bishops and the Federal Government Commissioner for Abuse, Johannes-Wilhelm Rohrig, agreed on a "Joint Declaration on Binding Criteria and Standards for Independent Processing of Sexual Abuse".

One point was the involvement of those affected: The commissions in the dioceses must each include two victims of sexualized violence. Further members are to be proposed by the respective state governments. Less than half of the recommended seven members may be employees of the Catholic Church or belong to a lay body of the diocese. All members are appointed by the respective bishop.

As the FAZ survey revealed, some 12 months after the agreement was reached, two bishops have established an independent commission according to the agreed standards: the Archbishop of Bamberg Ludwig Schick in late February 2020 and, most recently, the Bishop of Passau Stefan Oster, in whose diocese an independent commission was constituted on Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman.

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