“Great scholar and great colleague”

adminonDecember 16, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

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.

Mostly single people are canonized or canonized, the rare variant is the canonization in the "double pack". Helmut Moll, commissioner for beatification and canonization in the archdiocese of Cologne, has published a monograph on this phenomenon.

CBA: Prelate Moll, why do "single" saints occur so much more frequently than married couples??

Helmut Moll (Representative for beatification and canonization proceedings in the Archdiocese of Cologne): Among the 6.600 canonized Catholics in church history, there are actually only 60 married couples. That's because the people who followed Christ mostly did it in a direct way – that is, they lived unmarried and in faithfulness to God. That is why many priests and religious have been beatified and canonized.
CBA: Is marriage itself possibly not so highly regarded by God? Finally, the apostle Paul writes: "But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain as I am. But if they cannot abstain, let them marry; for to marry is better than to be caught in the fire."
Minor: St. Paul comes from the Old Testament and says, "I want everyone to live like me". And he was unmarried. So he was there undivided for God, but the married man splits up. He wants to be there for God and for his partner. Jesus, however, also says that marriage is not the only thing, but that only those who are faithful and definite to each other are able to grasp it. And because even then there were hard-hearted, opinionated and selfish people – i.e. little filled with love – Jesus clearly states: Marriage is a sacrament, with the bond to God, and this bond is final.
CBA: Were the couples you describe destined to find each other in order to become saints together?

Minor: We distinguish two different types: There are the martyrs' couples; they lived until the time of Emperor Constantine and in the early modern period from the 16th century onwards. The persecution of Christians in Asia began in the nineteenth century. The other is the confessing couples: the partners have decided to live a consistent Christian life. In both types of marriage we find certain similarities between man and woman: in the case of the martyrs, marriage meant togetherness in life as well as in death. They died on the same day under the same conditions: by being burned or hanged on the gallows, or they perished by starving or dying of thirst in dungeons. In the case of the confessing couples, it is obvious that the conditions were very similar – they possessed a great spiritual congruence, they had the same way of life and the same educational prerequisites. Often they were also rulers of a country – like in Bamberg Henry II. and Kunigunde, – who did a lot for the church.

CBA: What makes a holy couple at all?? Must live it chastely and submit to special rules?

Moll: These people simply lived an entirely Christian life. The Italian couple Beltrame Quattrocchi had four children, the French Louis and Zelie Martin even nine. Sexuality was not forbidden. On the contrary, love was also shown in the fertility of marriage. Their motto was: If we have said yes to each other before God, we stay together, we stick together, we stand together. These couples may have lived in their respective times, but they had something supra-temporal about them. They have told each other once and for all: You and you forever.

CBA: You call your book a response to "today's divorce mentality". What can modern couples, 90 percent of whom have long since entered marriage untouched, learn from these deeply devout and demure couples?
Minor: About 80 percent of all young people wish that their partner would remain faithful to them. But they can't live it because today's society is very permissive and preaches the so-called culture of provisionality: "As long as I like you, as long as you are beautiful and I don't find anyone better, I will stay with you." When a supposedly better partner comes along, they drop the other like a hot potato. The married couples presented by me, on the other hand, were outstanding in their reliability, finality and faithfulness. Their form of marriage was not influenced by any zeitgeist and was therefore exemplary.

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".

Leave a Reply Cancel reply