More than a routine visit

adminonDecember 15, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Actually, it was only supposed to be a routine visit: The regular report of a bishops' conference president on a national bishops' meeting to the pope and the curia. Of course, in view of the abuse scandals in Germany, Friday's papal audience for Archbishop Robert Zollitsch is attracting special attention in the media, politics and the church.

For the constantly newly reported cases of sexual as well as violent assaults by priests, often dating back 40 or more years, have put the German church in an explosive position and triggered a debate at different legal levels. Zollitsch meets in Benedict XVI. an interlocutor who, as a cardinal of the Curia, has already taken decisive and consistent action against cases of abuse by clerics like hardly anyone else. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he urged clear norms in the fight against sexual crimes committed by clergy against minors. His predecessor John Paul II. in 2001, in the letter "De delictis gravioribus", decreed that in the future all "particularly serious crimes" were to be reported to the supreme Roman authority for the faith as the highest ecclesiastical court. As cardinal prefect, Ratzinger played a leading role in guiding the U.S. bishops, who nearly a decade ago sought a convincing way out of the devastating series of scandals in the U.S. clergy in Rome and with the Vatican. As pope, he then made personal apologies to the victims of these despicable abuses with his trip to the U.S. in 2008. During his visit to New York, as he did a little later in Australia, Benedict XVI gave. He proposed an ecclesiastical three-step plan. He clarified that a pedophile cannot be a priest, thus he should be excluded from the priesthood. The acts would have to be dealt with on a legal and political level, justice would have to be done for the victims, and pastoral assistance would have to be provided. And, crucially, effective preventive mechanisms, beginning with the selection of seminarians and including the accompaniment of pastors. "I am ashamed, and we will do everything possible so that something like this does not happen again," Benedict XVI said. On his trip to the U.S. This three-step plan brought Benedict XVI. in mid-February to the Irish bishops, who have been rocked by a series of scandals similar to those in the U.S. Ireland's episcopate had also turned to the Vatican for papal authority to find a way out of the crisis of trust and credibility. It is considered unlikely that there will now be a similar cooperative reappraisal by the Vatican and the German church. Shortly after the publication of the Roman norms of 2001 and against the background of the U.S. scandals, the German Bishops' Conference had already ied its own guidelines on how to proceed in cases of sexual abuse of minors by clerics. Legal experts in the Vatican describe these norms as good and very far-reaching. Admittedly, some formulations could be made even clearer in order to avoid misunderstandings in view of the practice already in force. One of the neuralgic points is the question of when the church should inform the public prosecutor's office about cases of abuse – a question on which German state criminal law has so far made no provisions in the case of child abuse. Otherwise, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi found that the bishops' conference and religious leaders had responded promptly, decisively and with a desire for transparency to the scandal allegations. It would distort the perspective to focus allegations of sexual abuse solely on the church, he added. Zollitsch will now report to the pope on the state of affairs. Certainly Benedict XVI. and its most important employees are already largely up to date, even if the Vatican has so far held back with an evaluation of the events in the German-speaking countries. Of course, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is concerned with the canonical side of the "delicta graviora", with the violations of priests against the sacrament of penance and the commandment of chastity. However, this internal church area – quite different from the criminal side of abuse – is subject to papal secrecy. The Vatican is convinced that all other ies are in good hands with the German Bishops' Conference. Further words from Rome in this regard could be misunderstood in the emotionally charged situations, was one of the fears in the Curia. For example, to avoid equating German conditions with the more drastic abuses in the U.S. and Ireland.

The figures are astonishing: The Archdiocese of Berlin, which was in debt for more than 114 million euros a few years ago, is strictly adhering to the austerity measures it imposed at the time. At the turn of the year, bank liabilities still amounted to about 36 million euros, as Finance Director Bernd Junemann told the Catholic News Agency. From problem child, the archdiocese virtually transformed into a model boy in responsible budget management.

"Painful contributions" Without the help of the other 26 German dioceses, it would hardly have been possible. They promised the archdiocese 50 million euros in loans, 30 million of which were actually paid out. This did not happen entirely without conditions: a trustee committee made sure that the reorganization plan, which the archdiocese had drawn up with the help of a management consultancy, was adhered to. To its probably last meeting the committee in Berlin already met.The fraternal financial supervision of the other dioceses had its share in the fact that the archdiocese has now presented a budget for 2007 that is balanced without borrowing for the fourth time in a row. Junemann announced that the archdiocese will now not draw on the outstanding church loan of 20 million euros. This is likely to be very convenient for the other dioceses, many of which are now struggling with financial problems of their own to varying degrees.The archdiocese wants to be debt-free in ten years, according to its ambitious goal. This cannot be achieved without a "painful contribution" from all levels of the church, as Junemann acknowledged. Around 400 of formerly 2.700 full-time positions have already been eliminated in recent years, and several church buildings have been abandoned. After mergers, the 108 parishes in Berlin, Brandenburg and Western Pomerania are facing further drastic cuts in the next three years.

Own contribution for parishes By 2009, financial allocations from the archdiocesan ordinariate for "technical personnel" will be phased out, according to the archdiocese's latest official gazette. Personnel subsidies will then only be available for church musicians and the financial accountants of the congregations. Instead of the funds for janitors, sextons or cleaners, each congregation must then pay 2.000 euros per year for very small jobs, unless it can pay these employees from reserves or from its own income, for example from rentals.Some parishes want to compensate for the shortfall with the income from a foundation set up for this purpose, while most have to rely more on voluntary work. Berlin Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky sees the structural reforms not only as unavoidable steps toward financial reorganization, but also as pastoral opportunities for the 390.000 Catholics of the archdiocese. He called on the congregations to set priorities in their activities. The Archbishop of Berlin is sure that they could gain a higher profile by offering special church music or social services.

Celebration and announcement of the times

For its 100th. Anniversary, German Catholic Day comes to Leipzig. Quite deliberately, one wanted to celebrate the round birthday not in one of the Catholic strongholds, but in the midst of the secularized society.

Wroclaw, Prague and Gdansk, Vienna, Strasbourg and Metz: German Catholic Days have taken place in all of these cities over the past 170 years. At the end of May, Leipzig expects the 100. Catholic Day. To mark the occasion, Munster church historians Hubert Wolf and Holger Arning have published a book on "100 Catholic Days" with the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

History of the Catholic Days

In 100 short articles, they describe, for example, the great importance of the meetings for the development of social legislation and the social market economy, as well as the anchoring of democracy in the Catholic part of the population. The Katholikentage were the stage for the confrontation of the Catholic laity with the Prussian state, Bismarck or Hitler. The inner-church conflicts about the infallibility of the pope, sexual doctrine or abortion and celibacy are also outlined.

The history of the Catholic Days begins in 1848. In the year of the German Revolution, German Catholics also claimed civil rights such as freedom of assembly, association and the press, freedom of conscience and religion. On 23. In March 1848, the "Pius Association for Religious Freedom" was founded in Mainz. Six months later, the first general assembly of newly founded Catholic associations met there. This meeting went down in history as the first German Catholics' Day.

In 1868, the Bamberg Catholic Day decided to form the "Central Committee of German Catholic Days," which in the future would prepare the "General Assemblies of Catholic Associations". Since the 1950s, this body has called itself the Central Committee of German Catholics.

The 70s of the 19. The twentieth century was, moreover, marked by the Kulturkampf and the inner-church dispute over the dogma of the infallibility of the pope decided by the First Vatican Council. The assembly rejected any criticism of the dogma of infallibility "with disgust".

Temporary suspension of the Katholikentage meetings

During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 as well as during the First World War – from 1914 to 1920 – and during the entire Nazi period, there were no Katholikentage (Catholic Days). In 1933, the meeting in Gliwice, Upper Silesia, was canceled because Prime Minister Hermann Goring had made a "declaration of allegiance" to the Fuhrer and the Reich a condition. It was not until 1948, three years after the end of the war, that Germany's Catholics came together again on a large scale – and 100 years after the initial impetus, they met again in Mainz.

Since 1950, a Catholic Congress has usually been held every two years – alternating with Protestant church congresses and interrupted by the two joint Christian meetings, the Ecumenical Church Congresses of 2003 in Berlin and 2010 in Munich.

A "festival of encounter" and a reflection of the Catholic Church in Germany

To this day, Catholic Days are regarded as a "festival of encounter" and as "days of faith," but also as a statement of the times, a snapshot and a reflection of the Catholic Church in Germany. There were Catholic Days marked by inner-church disputes: 1968, for example, was regarded as the most turbulent Catholic Day of all time, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council and the student unrest. There were even demands for the resignation of the pope, who shortly before had published the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" on sexuality, the pill and contraception.

In other years, the meetings revolved around political ies: the peace movement and anti-nuclear protests were also booming among Catholics in the 1980s. After that, the consequences of the German reunification dominated. In 1990, the 90. Meeting held in the still divided city of Berlin. Shortly thereafter, Dresden was the venue in 1994 and addressed the great challenges of unity. In Saarbrucken in 2006, the motto "Justice in the sight of God" was still a socio-political focus.

Since then, the meetings have focused more on the inner church: With the slogan "Dare a new departure" for Mannheim 2012, the inner-church reform debate about the abuse scandal, church finances and parish reforms had finally returned to the center of the Katholikentage.

Info: Holger Arning, Hubert Wolf: "One Hundred Catholic Days. From Mainz 1848 to Leipzig 2016."With a foreword by Alois Gluck and an outlook by Thomas Sternberg. 256 pages with 131 illustrations.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply