Exodus from bishop's palace?

adminonDecember 10, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Bishop Walter Mixa, who has resigned, wants to move out of Augsburg's Episcopal Palace, according to a report in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. Mixa wants to continue as a priest despite all the accusations, a confidant of Mixa said according to the paper. Over the weekend, there was also further speculation about the background to the resignation.

"He is now looking for his own apartment or a house to rent," a confidant of Mixa said, according to the paper. After a stay in hospital in Switzerland, the former bishop of Augsburg still lives in the official residence of the Episcopal Ordinariate.Meanwhile, over the weekend, debate continued over the circumstances of Mixa's resignation. According to information from the news magazine "Focus", Pope Benedict XIV had. even instructed Archbishops Robert Zollitsch and Reinhard Marx in April to persuade Mixa to take some time off. Initially, Benedict had entrusted this task to his Apostolic Nuncio in Germany. When Augsburg bishop did not respond, pope sent Freiburg and Munich archbishops, magazine reported.Mixa, on the other hand, had accused his fellow ministers of intrigue a few days ago. They would have forced him to resign because of the beating accusations. In an interview with "Die Welt," Mixa had said he wanted to talk to the pope about a possible reinstatement.According to a report in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung," the accusation of sexual abuse was not the reason for the pope to accept Mixa's request for resignation. Therefore, the discontinuation of the investigation by the Augsburg public prosecutor's office does not play a role in this context. According to the newspaper's information, the pope agreed to Mixa's request, which has since been revised, because he had a file with serious accusations against the bishop. These concern Mixa's possible alcoholism and allegations of sexual assault against young priests and candidates for the priesthood.Witnesses from Mixa's closest personal environment had made corresponding statements about his way of life, which were attached to this file, reported the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung". The documents were transmitted via the Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin.In light of the Mixa affair and the numerous cases of abuse in the Church, the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Alois Gluck, reiterated his calls for reforms. There must be talk about new structures that promote cooperation and transparency, Gluck told the "Welt" (Saturday edition). These are "the most effective means against group formation and poisoned situations.". For example, an independent ecclesiastical administrative jurisdiction for the settlement of conflicts was missing.Regarding Mixa, the CSU politician said, "The Causa Mixa is for me also a deep human and personal tragedy."He hopes that with the help of Rome it will soon be possible to reach a final settlement. "This is important to prevent the creation of legends. And the only thing that helps against the creation of legends and myths is transparency," said Gluck.The case of Mixa was not triggered by an ecclesiastical struggle for direction, the ZdK president emphasized, but by a "person-related fact". He warned against reading into it a directional debate between liberal and conservative forces.

Prince Charles © Dean Lewins

Prince Charles has distanced himself from a pedophile Anglican bishop with whom he was friends for many years. A letter from the prince on the case was read to a British committee on sexual abuse.

In the letter, he rejected speculation in the media that he had interfered in the proceedings against former Bishop Peter Ball.

The former Anglican bishop of Gloucester was sentenced in 2015 to 32 months in prison for "misconduct in a public office" and 15 months for "sexual assault". The 83-year-old had previously confessed to sexually abusing 18 teenagers and young men between 1977 and 1992. Already in the early 90s, one of the victims had accused the then bishop. Ball had only been warned at the time.

Not interfering in investigations

British media reported members of the royal family had intervened in the case. Prince Charles has now contradicted this in his statement, saying that while he had repeatedly exchanged letters with the bishop, he had not interfered with the police investigation.

Charles added that he regretted being wrong about the bishop: "It is important to note that in the 1980s and 1990s it was basically amed that people like bishops could be believed."Peter Ball had told him that he had been a victim of "indiscretion", which led to his resignation as bishop. After Ball's 2015 conviction, he immediately cut off contact with the bishop, Charles reported.

Bishop financially supported

However, the prince confirmed that he had financially supported the bishop after his resignation, giving him small gifts of money from time to time. In addition, he said, he helped Ball find a new home in one of Duchy's houses after he had to move out of the bishop's home.

Like many others, he had been deceived over a long period of time, Charles explained. The "true background to Mr. Ball's activities" had not been known to him. To help the inquiry committee, he said, he had agreed to volunteer to set out the facts in a letter.

Bishop Georg Batzing © Andreas Arnold

Church and spirituality are in demand in the Corona crisis, according to the president of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Batzing. In a newspaper interview, he also commented on abuse and other ies.

"I experience that there is a lot of prayer," said Batzing in an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung". Many people had reviewed their resolutions in the just ended Lent, for example, selectively to give up sweets, said the Limburg bishop. And many have "accepted what is now demanded of us: namely, the isolation, the distance, the renunciation of physical closeness, in order to protect those who are close to us and who are at risk."

The situation of celebrating church services without believers is "strange", Batzing added. "Liturgy is dialogue. Now we priests lack dialogue partners." Church services in digital transmission are a way to still stay connected with each other: "There have never been so many streamed church services as there are now."

He expects that the Corona crisis will bring about significant changes, the bishop explained. "I would be happy if this crisis would lead to more solidarity not only in Germany, but in all of Europe." In addition, he hopes "that we get a better idea of what counts in life. This often recedes into the background," Batzing said. In the midst of the crisis, Easter was a "point of hope" that made it tangible: "We can endure this because we know that life will blossom again."

Cover-up of abuse was "colossal mistake" by church

Bishop Georg Batzing has called the cover-up of abuse cases by clergymen a "colossal mistake". "The perspective at that time could not draw on the knowledge that we have today," he said in an interview with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung". This is not an excuse, but must be considered.

Today it is known "what abuse does to children and young people," Batzing continued. "From today's perspective, it is no longer comprehensible that those affected were not heard and perpetrators were protected."In the past, on the other hand, both society and church representatives believed "that sexual tendencies could be treated and that abuse could be stopped. The victims' perspective was not in view." In retrospect, this is "very shameful," the bishop said. "Today we are further there from bitter insight."

Compensation payments

On the financing of compensation for pain and suffering to those affected, Batzing said the bishops' conference had "deliberately not chosen a uniform solution". He said he could understand if people objected to such payments being made from church tax funds. On the other hand, there is "not a cent in the assets of a diocese that does not belong to all church members. There are dioceses that have nothing else, especially in the East." First, the perpetrators should be held accountable, the bishop added – "but very many are no longer alive".

The bishops had agreed in early March to significantly higher payments to victims of abuse than before. According to the model, the church is guided by the civil law pain and suffering compensation table and corresponding court rulings. This currently means sums between 5.000 and 50.000 euros per case. At the same time, the church always wants to pay the sums "at the upper end of the discretionary range".

Must "jump over ditches" as church

The church can offer "orientation knowledge," according to the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, he said that in order for people to accept this offer, the church would have to "jump over ditches. With many people, he said, the message is currently getting through that the church remains "with a prohibition morality" on the subject of sexual morality. "I would like to open that up," Batzing emphasized.

He also often hears from young people that they want to stay in the church, the Limburg bishop explained. "But then they say: If you're so slanted off the mark, then I can't do it anymore." This gap must be overcome, he said, "without developing a completely new doctrine.". One example, he said, is the church's position on same-sex relationships. "We've long been moving in moral theology toward saying that when genuine love and fidelity are lived out, we need to acknowledge that. People decide for themselves how to live anyway. Can we tell them that their union is under the blessing of God?"

Also the discussion about the role of women in the church is "not off the table", Batzing emphasized. The goal has not yet been reached with "pay, quotas, women in leadership positions".

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