Publicly accessible

adminonDecember 23, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Symbolic image: Documents on a desk © JARIRIYAWAT (shutterstock)

The special report on a clergyman twice convicted of abuse, previously withheld by the Archdiocese of Cologne, is now publicly available. A newspaper posted the expert opinion on its homepage.

The investigation, which was already presented in August of last year, is part of an overall report by the Munich-based law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), whose publication the archdiocese canceled at the end of October due to "methodological deficiencies". The Cologne criminal lawyer Bjorn Gercke is to be elected to 18. March to present a new investigation.

The report, which can now be read in the "Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger," accuses the late Cologne Cardinals Joseph Hoffner (1906-1987) and Joachim Meisner (1933-2017), as well as Munster Bishop Heinrich Tenhumberg (1915-1975), of having "in breach of duty" failed to take legal action under church law against the now 87-year-old clergyman and of having reinstated him in pastoral care despite knowledge of his sexual assaults.

Accusations also affect the ex-vicars general Peter Nettekoven (1914-1975) and Norbert Feldhoff (81); the latter, according to the "Stadt-Anzeiger", does not want to comment on this at present. The experts accuse the former head of personnel in Cologne and now Archbishop Stefan Hebe of Hamburg of not forwarding a suspected case against the clergyman, reported in 2008, to the person responsible for it in the Archdiocese of Cologne. Hebe rejects the accusations.

A. Was a priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne and had been active in Cologne and then Essen-Kettwig since 1960 before being sentenced to prison in 1972 for "continued fornication with children and addicts". He was then assigned to the diocese of Munster from 1973 until he received a suspended sentence in 1988 for again sexually assaulting minors.

In 1989, A. to return to Cologne as a chaplain for the elderly. He was then active as a retired chaplain in the Bochum-Wattenscheid diocese of Essen from 2002 to 2015. In 2019, Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki banned him from priestly services. Meanwhile, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican has begun an ecclesiastical criminal trial against the clergyman, who now lives in a nursing home.

Bishop Overbeck admits mistakes

Woelki last week called the handling of the case a "decades-long string of serious mistakes". He expressed particular incomprehension about the fact that Rev. A. reassigned to chaplaincy for the elderly in 1989 and that the "course of suspension begun at that time was abandoned for completely inexplicable reasons". At the time, Meisner and Feldhoff were at the head of the archdiocese, but Woelki does not name them.

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen also acknowledged mistakes made by officials in his diocese in handling the case. He also said he was personally at fault: After he had learned of the case in 2010 shortly after taking office in Essen, he had not let himself get the personnel file.

The diocese of Munster, which along with the diocese of Essen had also commissioned the WSW special report, pleaded for publication of the investigation. The Archdiocese of Cologne rejects this and refers to the new investigation mandate.

Child in Ethiopia © Wolfgang Radtke (KNA)

Almost 30 years after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child came into force, millions of children are still malnourished. A prognosis now paints a bleak picture: if nothing changes, many of them face starvation by 2030.

Worldwide, some 56 million children under the age of five face death from hunger, violent conflict and preventable diseases by 2030, according to a forecast. A total of 150 million girls and boys are chronically malnourished and 50 million are acutely malnourished, according to the German government's answer to a small question from the Green Party, which is available to Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd).

The parliamentary group had inquired about the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The forecast was first reported by the "Saarbrucker Zeitung" (Monday).

Malnutrition and armed conflict

In its response, the German government refers to figures from the children's aid organization Unicef, the World Food Program and the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to the malnutrition of many children, he said, the fate of children in armed conflicts is a major challenge. Children are "particularly vulnerable to violence and systematic violations of international humanitarian law," the document said. These included, among other things, recruitment as child soldiers or use as human shields.

More than two-thirds of all boys and girls worldwide also experience various forms of violence, the statement continued. One-third of all victims of human trafficking are reportedly children, a majority of them girls. One in ten girls worldwide experiences sexual violence. Equal access to education is also often not given.

Consequences of climate change

In the future, according to the federal government, the consequences of climate change will be particularly threatening for children. Half a billion children live in regions at high risk of flooding, 115 million live in regions with tropical storms and 160 million live in extreme drought, he said. One quarter of all deaths of children under five years of age are due to pollution, it said.

To improve health conditions for children and mothers, Germany paid a total of 572 million euros in 2017, it said. Recipients had been bilateral and multilateral organizations.

The Greens' human rights expert, Kai Gehring, stressed that children's lives worldwide should finally be better protected and placed at the center of German foreign policy. "It blatantly contradicts all humanitarian goals and children's rights to aggravate the situation of children through German arms exports," said the Green politician. The federal government should better invest the billions of dollars discussed for war weapons in the survival and future chances of children, he said.

Entitled to special care and support

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted on 20. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1989. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to special care and support, to promotion and protection, to an upbringing that is free of violence and protects them, to education and training, to an upbringing as democratic inhabitants and to their appropriate participation in political and social life.

Despite reservations from Rome, the Ecumenical Church Congress wants to dare more church meal fellowship among Christians. In an interview, the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Batzing, promotes an ecumenism of conscience.

CBA: Because of the pandemic, this Ecumenical Church Congress will take place mainly digitally. Other major digital events, such as party conventions, have made it into media headlines. Will the oKT also succeed?

Bishop Georg Batzing (Bishop of Limburg and President of the German Bishops' Conference): What matters to me is not the headline, but the message we want to send to the public: As Christians, we stand together in a world with big questions for the future. And we want to make a Gospel-motivated contribution to these ies that will enrich public discussion and decision-making processes. That is why the Kirchentag is called "ecumenical.

We bear witness together to faith in the just, gracious and life-affirming God of Jesus Christ. We would all have liked to see a big celebration of faith in Frankfurt, with people and encounters on the ground. This is not possible in view of the pandemic. Nevertheless, it is important and right not to have simply canceled the oKT, but to set this – albeit digital – sign. With this we make clear: We take the pandemic seriously, but we do not let ourselves be paralyzed by it.

CBA: A major theme should become "coming to the Lord's table" left to the conscience of the individual, regardless of denomination. Will such sacramental services that transcend denominational boundaries still take place at the oKT, despite the written objections from Rome??
Batzing: On Saturday evening we celebrate services in our respective confessional traditions, which are designed in an ecumenically sensitive way. This gives everyone the opportunity to visit each other in the diversity of Christian denominations, to experience each other as hospitable and to witness their common faith in the living presence of Jesus Christ. I will be celebrating the Eucharist in Frankfurt Cathedral.

In many places, Christians will gather in confessional services. I appeal, however, not to make participation a demonstrative sign, but to respect the spiritual character and the honest personal decision of each and every individual.

To make it clear once again: the form of celebration offered is not about intercommunion in the sense of a general reciprocal invitation to participate in the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper, but about the question of how we deal with the personal decision of conscience of individual Catholic or Protestant Christians. For me, I respect such a decision and give communion if someone joins who believes what we Catholics believe and wants to receive the body of the Lord in faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ.

It is not a matter of generally inviting non-Catholic Christians to communion, because there is still no full church communion between the separated churches. Incidentally, Catholic canon law allows non-Catholics to receive Holy Communion under certain conditions. Undoubtedly, however, we must continue the theological dialogue on the meaning of the Eucharist and the Lord's Supper and their significance for the church community.

Fortunately, there has already been a clear convergence in this area in recent years.

CBA: The two largest Christian denominations in Germany, but especially the Catholic Church, have had the wind blowing in their faces for years. Public trust is waning, members are leaving in droves. What do you hope for from the oKT in this situation??
Batzing: The oKT will make clear that we as Christians shape the world together and stand together. We make it clear that we stand up for ies that focus on cohesion in society, social justice and global solidarity. And we will show with the oKT that we stand up for an image of God and humanity that is important for the current debates and is brought in by us.

This means: we take our social responsibility seriously and take it seriously. At the same time, we bear witness to our faith and try to communicate experiences of this faith and its relevance to the major ies of the future in a variety of formats. We may be measured by the reliability with which we fulfill this mission.

CBA: Ecumenism of Protestants and Catholics in Germany currently means "living in reconciled diversity" rather than "being on the way to an ever more perfect ecclesial unity.". What would it mean for ecumenism if the Catholic Church in Germany were to overcome divisive differences with liberal Protestantism in its church discipline and doctrine (key words: celibacy, ordination of women, sexual morality) in the course of its reform efforts??
Batzing: These ies are also important in ecumenism. But when we deal with them on the Catholic side, it is not a matter of assimilation to Protestantism, as some accuse us of doing. Once apart from the fact that "Protestant" doesn't sound like a danger to me, the inquiries do come from the innermost core of the Catholic Church.

Therefore, we will continue on the synodal path we have embarked on in a theologically sound way, in order to arrive at decisions based on content, which we can implement here in our country or take them as inquiries to the universal church. It is good that representatives of the ecumenical community are accompanying us critically on this path. But it is already important that we understand: The Synodal Way aims at an inner reform of the Catholic Church in our country. This can then – in a second step – also have an effect on ecumenism.

The interview was conducted by Ludwig Ring-Eifel.

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