“Giving a voice to those affected”

adminonDecember 16, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

The Catholic bishops in Germany have high hopes for the synod in Rome planned for October on the topic of youth and vocation. According to youth bishop Stefan Oster, the discussion about abuse is closely linked to many topics of the synod.

"Many questions around the ie of abuse lead directly to the topics of the synod," Oster said Wednesday in Fulda. These challenges include the critical question of whether the church is still able to speak to young people – "for example, when it comes to questions of sexuality, homosexuality and partnership, which are so important for young people. Here, many bishops have tended for years and decades to speak down from above, Oster admitted self-critically.

The young people also signaled to him again and again, the Passau bishop said, that they are "looking for a credible and authentic church that stands in life, goes to the margins – and also gives more space to women". All these topics are also decisive for the church's ability to regain the trust lost as a result of the abuse cases.

Rethinking vocation

Bishop Felix Genn of Munster, who is responsible for vocation ies, said in Fulda that in Germany the concept of vocation must be rethought. Accompanying young people on the path of their vocation must also change, he said. Church youth work should be more closely linked to the question of vocation, as in other countries.

Genn stressed that vocation should not be limited to the "recruitment" of new clergy, it also concerns the decision for a life in marriage and family. The working paper for the upcoming Synod of Bishops also points in this direction.

Change structures, ways of working and behavior

Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wubbe of Osnabruck said that never before had the voices of so many young people been included in the preparatory process for a Catholic Synod of Bishops. He recalled that the Vatican had sent out an online questionnaire and that there was a youth hearing in Germany in July 2017 and one in Rome in September 2017. Young people were also involved in the Roman presynod in March 2018, he said. At the synod itself, they could contribute to the working groups with their own contributions, among other things.

In recent weeks, several bishops from around the world have called for the cancellation of the Youth Synod in light of the current abuse crisis. Some participants had also personally announced that they would not come to Rome.

Bishops: cancellation of the youth synod would be a wrong signal

German bishops say demands are wrong. "That would be a wrong signal," said youth bishop Stefan Oster. "There is no better opportunity than now to address the ie of abuse, even there, where it is precisely about the young people in the Church".

From the perspective of Munster's Bishop Felix Genn, the synod can also provide an opportunity to openly discuss the ie of abuse at an important and crucial juncture in the universal Church. A refusal would destroy this chance. Genn went on to say that it was also important for him to address the problem of "spiritual abuse". By this he meant the tendency "to impose on the other my decision, which I believe to be right.". This would contradict the attitude of freedom, which must be respected here as well.

Cancellation would be met with incomprehension

Osnabruck Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Wubbe added: "It would be fatal to cancel now."His numerous conversations with young people in the run-up to the synod had shown him how great the hope was among many that important and also controversial topics would be discussed openly. A cancellation would only meet with incomprehension.

Oster, Genn and Wubbe will participate as representatives of the German Bishops' Conference in the Youth Synod on 3 and 4 June. to 28. October in the Vatican part. In addition, the conference chairman, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, is participating as a participant directly appointed by Pope Francis. The world bishops' meeting is themed "Young people, faith and vocational discernment".

With a funeral service in Freiburg Cathedral on Friday afternoon, the public took leave of Eberhard Schockenhoff. The former vice chairman of the German Ethics Council had died on Saturday at the age of 67 years.

In his address, Caritas scholar Klaus Baumann paid tribute to Schockenhoff as a "man of communication". This had applied at all levels and in all contexts: internal, interpersonal, pastoral, friendly, collegial, scientific and public. Schockenhoff was able to listen and make it clear that he wanted to understand his counterparts, Baumann said.

Freiburg University Rector Hans-Jochen Schiewer paid tribute to "the great scholar and great colleague" at the end of the Mass celebration. The university can be proud of having had this "alert and seismographic spirit" in its ranks. It had always been an enrichment to discuss with Schockenhoff.

Because of the Corona requirements, the number of people attending the service in the minster was limited to about 200. But the Mass celebration, which was also attended by Archbishop Stephan Burger, was about our site and other portals, as well as social networks retrievable. Schockenhoff will be buried on Saturday in the closest circle of family and friends.

Born in Stuttgart in 1953, Schockenhoff studied in Tubingen and Rome, where he was ordained a priest in 1978. He received his doctorate under Alfons Auer and was assistant to the later Cardinal of the Curia Walter Kasper in Tubingen. In the early 1990s, Schockenhoff was appointed professor in Regensburg; in 1994, he moved to Freiburg. In 2016, he additionally amed the presidency of the Catholic Academic Alien Service (KAAD).

Schockenhoff was a sought-after expert on life sciences and bioethics. Within the church he was an important mediator and contact person. He was committed to a sexual ethics that is oriented to the realities of life. He also played a central role in the current consultations on the future of the church and pastoral care, the discussion process Synodal Way.

No more public services to be held because of Corona. There was not even such a ban in the Second World War. But many churches remain open for prayer, to stand by people right now.

The silence is new. Anyone entering Cologne Cathedral, Germany's most important church, these days hears a rustling through the floor grids under which the historic excavations lie.

Almost nothing else. Before the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, several thousand visitors flocked to the cathedral every day. A barely suppressed whispering, giggling, clicking and rustling filled the sacred space. Now only individuals, often elders, come in silence.

Simply going to church or even celebrating a service together has become unthinkable in Corona times. To slow the spread of the virus, federal and state governments want to ban public mass celebrations. This did not even exist during the Second World War. Many churches close but not completely. For prayer they remain open – so to speak as a slimmed-down pastoral assistance.

Hamburg's Michel off-limits to worshipers

Even Hamburg's Michel, the city's popular landmark, is off-limits to worshippers and tourists for the moment. In the large baroque church, the heating system hisses quietly, and now and then the wooden pews crackle. Antje Schneemann takes a seat for a few minutes. After an appointment nearby, she has come to the Protestant house of worship for a brief gathering in times of crisis, she says. "I find that really pleasant."

The Michel doorman provides a piece of normality. As for more than 300 years, he continues to trumpet his 10 o'clock chorale every day from the tower of the main church. This can now be seen and heard on the Instagram channel of Sankt Michaelis. In the neighboring Catholic church of St. Ansgar, the so-called little Michel, priest Philipp Gortz invites people to personal prayer via a sign at the entrance – and asks churchgoers to touch as little as possible.

Almost emptiness in St. Paul's Cathedral in Munster

St. Paul's Cathedral in Munster is also almost empty. An elderly nun places flowers in front of a Madonna and sinks into prayer.

A young man sits in a pew with his hands folded, gazing at the large cross above the altar. All in all, about a dozen visitors found their way to the cathedral that morning.

"Yesterday, on market day, there were a whole 17 in the afternoon," says the sexton on duty. She's more than a keeper in these days when the coronavirus is messing with people's mental lives. "Most are happy to be able to speak a few words, too," she says.

In the morning, Bishop Felix Genn celebrated a service here, which was broadcast live on the Internet. The sexton was there, the cathedral organist and the cathedral cantor – no one else. The cathedral will only be opened for praying people after the morning live broadcasts. "It takes some getting used to," bishop says afterward.

But he knows that he is not really alone. "I don't speak into the empty church space, I pray and sing in my thoughts with the faithful at home."

"It's a disaster"

Two women take photos of the statue of St. Corona, which has been standing in the sanctuary for several days, along with flowers. "We come from Stuttgart and we are in the city for a week," reports one of them.

Despite everything, they want to make the best of the visit – by "keeping their distance and washing their hands". And then another very pregnant woman comes in with her four-year-old daughter. "We are about to give birth," she says. "Just then I wanted to light a candle."

In Cologne Cathedral, only a few candles burn in front of a larger-than-life image of the Sorrowful Mother of God. Otherwise, the many visitors from all over the world light rows and rows of sacrificial candles. Two sisters from Cologne, both in their eighties, look at the abandoned pews.

"I always pray to God to take the virus out of the world, so that the world can go back to what it was," the younger woman says with tears in her eyes. She says she was disappointed when public church services were canceled. At least churches remained open for prayer. "Because now you need pastoral support. It is a catastrophe."

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