From deputy to senior pastor

adminonDecember 21, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

In the end, it went surprisingly quickly: Already in the second round, the regional synod of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia elected Christian Stablein as its new bishop.

He is the new evangelical capital bishop. But also the chief shepherd for the faithful who gather for worship Sunday after Sunday in Brandenburg and in Silesian Upper Lusatia – a total of 940.000 Protestants. Christian Stablein, since

2015 Provost of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO), was elected by the state synod on Friday in the second round of voting to succeed Bishop Markus Droge. The former deputy thus "inherits" his boss.

Good listener

The 52-year-old theologian is originally from Lower Saxony. For just under four years, he has been a provost in a leading position at the EKBO, i.e. the theological head of the consistory, the highest administrative authority of the regional church. After the rather luckless Friederike von Kirchbach, Stablein succeeded in re-profiling the office of provost in the EKBO.

The marriage of same-sex couples introduced by the regional church or the current debate about the admission of children to the Lord's Supper would not be conceivable without the profound theological work of the provost, who is also a member of the synod of the Protestant Church in Germany.

Stablein approaches such topics dialogically, listens, does not rush ahead with his own position. He has earned the respect of the regional church for this. From 16. November, he will move his office from the third to the fourth floor of the consistory on Georgenkirchstrasse in Berlin. Because there resides since the times of Wolfgang Huber the bishop of the EKBO.

The newly elected bishop, however, will probably not change his style. "A bishop is a looker," Stablein told church parliamentarians immediately before the election in his typical staccato speech. "One who looks, asks, says, seeks how the communities are doing and how it is with God's word, in the world and for the world."The church, on the other hand, is a "community of stories" for the new bishop. A place to tell stories about God. The new bishop can also imagine a political church – "as long as it is not party-political".

An example of this can be found in the very south of the regional church, in Lusatia. Here, people have been arguing about the lignite phase-out for years. A few years ago, the EKBO established its own office there to accompany the upcoming structural change. "We are heavily involved in Lusatia because we believe that structural change needs civil society support," said Stablein. "As a strong voice of civil society, we also want to make this change possible." He therefore hopes that there will be a Lusatian fund that strengthens corresponding social concerns.

Parishioners run away

However, if you look closely in the EKBO, you will also notice that the church faces great challenges. For since 2004, it has seen nearly 300.000 parishioners lost. A turnaround is not in sight. "What matters is that we make the church missionary and attractive to the outside world, and stay together in diversity and colorfulness," Stablein said after his election.

"We need together all the good ideas and initiatives to speak as a Church beyond our space to society."People should be able to find in the Protestant church what they expect to find there: "Talking about how God's word comforts and sets free.""

Between half-truths and outright false reports

Dr. Andreas Puttmann © private

The freelance journalist and author Dr. Andreas Puttmann is a member of the Society of Catholic Publicists (GKP).

In the debate about Catholic hospitals and their treatment of rape victims, the Church is once again being swept into a misanthropic corner. Wrongly, finds the political scientist and publicist Dr. Andreas Puttmann. A commentary.

The rejection of an allegedly raped woman by two Catholic hospitals in Cologne is scandalous and shameful. Those responsible have apologized, and Cardinal Meisner, in his statement of January 22nd, has said that the Church has no need to repeat or paraphrase this. January the essential and necessary to it as also in principle to the church handling with rape victims, in appropriate way said. This need not be repeated or paraphrased here, but can – which is rarely true of official statements – be properly incorporated into the commentary:

Apology and correction from Joachim Cardinal Meisner.

On a completely different page are – in the truest sense of the word – the reactions in the media "leaf forest", in broadcasters and social networks. Even if one finds an initial indignation understandable, does not want to put every word spoken out of it on the gold scale and rejects a reflexive Catholic wagon mentality switching to unconditional defense (because it blurs origin and proportions of the injustice and stylizes the church to the actual victim), one can on the other hand quite frighten about the extent of the resentment, which unloads itself here once again over the Catholic church. Downright hateful, but above all stupid and uneducated are the interpretive patterns of many online commentaries and media brief experts on the topic of "Church and sex". On the occasion of the scandal, a Cologne tabloid devoted an entire page to "educating" its readers about what is permitted and forbidden by the Catholic Church, spreading half-truths and outright falsehoods such as the assertion that, from the Catholic point of view, sexual intercourse only serves to found a family, and that homosexuals are not permitted to take "communion.

In the "Kolner Stadtanzeiger," Joachim Frank unleashed a polemical all-out attack on "self-proclaimed 'pro-lifers,'" the "celibate caste of priests" and the "abysses of the Catholic-clerical complex," against "callousness, remoteness from life and unworldliness" and a "treacherous" talk of "curative treatment" to which a Catholic hospital must limit itself. The fact that the church cannot simply give its moral blessing to the "criminological indication", because it also grants dignity and rights to an innocent human being conceived in this way, simply means for him to "ignore the plight of the woman" and to "fade out" the consequences for the life of mother, child and family – a pure insinuation, because one can very well see and deeply feel the dramatic dilemma, but still come to a different moral consideration than the one which seems to be self-evident to the commentator. In this he can appear more "hardened" than the church he accuses is. Equally absurd is the insinuation that the church wants to "rehearse its power" in sexual morality and "show off". (Commentary by Joachim Frank) A little more respect for the seriousness of a conflicting ethical conviction should be expected from a theologian.

Insinuations and resentment cultivation by "rage journalists", but above all the equally unprofessional uninformedness, have become a tradition in public dealings with the Catholic Church. During the Williamson scandal, a top journalist blathered in an ARD special about a "Cardinal Lefebvre"; during the Pope's visit, ARD's Berlin bureau chief Deppendorf spoke of an "ecumenical encounter" between Benedict XVI. and the alleged Protestant pastor Wolfgang Thierse (actually Zdk member), after the death of John Paul the II. a WDR reporter talked shop in front of Cologne Cathedral about the "capital office" taking place there. Petra Gerster presented the German Catholic bishops entering a cathedral to ZDF viewers as a "joyless society of men" and reported on "Heute" news that the "arch-conservative hardliner" Bishop Muller had been appointed to Rome to head the successor organization to the Inquisition, responsible, among other things, for the equally "arch-conservative Pius Brothers" (who, however, reject Muller – but in arch-conservative darkness all cats are gray). In the abuse scandal, the "Frankfurter Rundschau" demanded that the Pope finally take a stand on the Odenwald School, while a talk show editor let the cat out of the bag at a politician's birthday party: "This finally gives us the opportunity to really finish off the Catholic Church.". A few months later, according to Allensbach, 47 percent of German citizens were convinced that child abuse was "widespread" among Catholic priests. This is how incitement of the people works.

So journalism schools, editors-in-chief and critical media consumers would do well to make it clear to (prospective) editors that you have to be as knowledgeable about church ies before writing and speaking as you are about pension insurance ies or offside rules, and that there is no exception to the imperative of journalistic fairness when it comes to the church. The latter, in turn, should ask itself whether the ethical instruction and guidance of its employees in the medical professions is perhaps in need of improvement after all, so that a professional ethical failure like the one that has now occurred in its two Cologne hospitals remains the absolute exception.

It is a tragic case: A priest who until recently was very respected, likeable and theologically highly educated, expresses himself in a way about dealing with sexual abuse that makes one shake one's head. Theologians classify the case.

The 79-year-old priest Ulrich Zurkuhlen caused a scandal with his sermon on the first Sunday of July in the Heilig-Geist-Gemeinde (Holy Spirit Parish) in Munster, Germany. He promoted being able to forgive one another, and explicitly referred this to priests who sexually abused minors as well. Numerous service-goers then left the church in protest.

"It was the first time in my 54 years as a priest that I was shouted down by a group of protesters during a sermon," Zurkuhlen wrote afterwards on his homepage. And points to the biblical stories in which Jesus forgives the adulteress and the prodigal son is taken back by his father.

"I would have liked to justify why I think that forgiveness is one of the basic duties of Christians and that there is also no other way to peace."

Theologians classify the case

Must abuse victims forgive perpetrators? This fundamental question was in the room after Sunday's sermon. Theologians find clear words about it. The parish's senior pastor, Stefan Rau, told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) that forgiveness is one of the most important categories of the Christian faith.

However, he said, the controversy in the congregation had been ignited by the question of who had a right to forgive and who had a duty to forgive. "At this very point, unlike Father Zurkuhlen, I am of the opinion that one can never demand forgiveness from a victim."No one has a right to forgiveness or can demand it from God.

The Jesuit Klaus Mertes, who in 2010 as principal started the uncovering of the abuse affair in the Catholic Church in Germany, expressed himself in an article for the internet portal katholisch.de similar. For him it is quite clear: "There is no 11. Commandment: you (victim) shall forgive (your tormentor) ". A victim should not want to see his perpetrator for the rest of his life. "Perhaps this very thing is even an aspect of 'forgiving,' insofar as 'forgiving' is 'giving away,' along the lines of 'I leave him/her to God's judgment,'" Mertes added.

"Victims are completely free to grant forgiveness"

Florian Kleeberg, a Catholic theologian from Munster, who wrote his doctoral thesis on forgiveness and redemption, also clarifies: "Victims are completely free to grant forgiveness. In the act of forgiveness, the balance of power turns around, the victim holds the key. Reconciliation can only be asked for, it cannot be forced. Only the victim can excuse the perpetrator and thus free him from the burden of his guilt."

Are abuse victims even able to forgive their abuser? While forgiveness can serve the victim's healing process, Kleeberg says. But "there are also crimes that can affect a person's identity to such an extent that they can no longer be healed. When the hurt is too great, the ability to forgive is extinguished. Even if one wanted to, one could not."

Zurkuhlen stressed on his homepage that he had said in the sermon that he thought "it was about time that our church hierarchs forgave the perpetrators of abuse at some point after all". Kleeberg objects that Zurkuhlen completely fails to understand who has the right to forgive. The perpetrators did not commit an offense against the church hierarchy, but against children and young people.

Bishop Genn puts his foot down

Munster's Bishop Felix Genn has retired Zurkuhlen from the ministry. As of now, he is not allowed to publicly worship, preach or hear confessions. He is "catchless", says Genn. "That a priest, with all that we now know about sexual abuse, especially by clergy, about perpetrator strategies and the suffering of victims, goes and makes such statements is inconceivable."

The bishop emphasized that while the topic of forgiveness can be addressed in a sermon. "What is crucial, however, is how you do it."

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