“The center serves the entire diocese”

adminonDecember 15, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

It should be ready by the end of June 2013: The new official residence of Limburg Catholic Bishop Franz Peter Tebartz-van Elst. The ensemble of buildings on Limburg Cathedral Hill made headlines across Germany. Critics criticized, among other things, the cost and the nature and scope of the construction work in the heart of the medieval city center. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Saturday, the bishop explained what the "Diocesan Center St. St. Nicholas" means. And why he continues to stand behind the decision to build it, made by the cathedral chapter before he took office.

CBA: Mr. Bishop, in the "Diocesan Center St. Nikolaus" you should have your new official residence, your apartment and your chapel in the summer of next year. How exactly will it look there?

Tebartz-van Elst: The very name "Diocesan Center St. Nicholas" says that the center serves the entire diocese. By far the largest part of the building is taken up by conference rooms, interview rooms, an event hall in the basement, staff offices, the Cathedral Sacristy branch, the reference and working library for staff and me, guest rooms, the chapel, which covers just under 60 square meters, and some technical and basement rooms. In the rear part of the building, three rooms will be available as an apartment for the diocesan bishop: a combined dining and living room next to the kitchen and, on the floor below, a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.
CBA: Where have you lived so far?

Tebartz-van Elst: My workplace and that of my co-workers is currently located in rooms of the Episcopal Ordinariate in Limburg's Old Town. On the other hand, I have lived so far in the former seminary of the diocese. Since it has no longer served as a pastoral seminary for the training of priests for several years, it has become a well-frequented conference and event location with a lot of public traffic. Apart from this often impractical spatial separation, the conference operation in the former seminary also makes it very difficult to organize the episcopal ministry of leadership spiritually and organizationally. These diverse demands on the ministry of a bishop will be met by the future "Diocesan Center St. St. Nicholas" coherently just.
CBA: Nevertheless, we asked again: What exactly is meant by the term "Diocesan Center" and why is it under the patronage of St. Nicholas??

Tebartz-van Elst: The term "Diocesan Center" refers to the content-related orientation and purpose of the building ensemble. It bundles the various functions for the Limburg diocese: it is a spiritual center, a workplace for the diocesan bishop and his staff, and a conference and meeting place. Against this background, it will be under the patronage of St. Nicholas, who is the second patron of the diocese. The High Cathedral Church – just across the street – bears the patronage of St. George, the first patron of the diocese.
CBA: It will probably not be possible to keep to the original budget of around 5.5 million euros.

Tebartz-van Elst: A serious information about the costs of the stabilization of the medieval wall at the property boundaries, the extensive monument renovations of the Old Vicarage, which is in danger of collapsing, the former sexton's house as well as the new building on the demolition site of an asbestos-contaminated building from the 1960s can only be made after all work has been completed.
CBA: Are you nevertheless confident that the center will be accepted by the faithful in your diocese?

Tebartz-van Elst: When people see the attention to detail with which it has been renovated and repaired, how excellently the craftsmen have implemented the specifications of the preservation order, and how the modern building fits into the surrounding historic buildings, I am confident. In the event room in the basement, directly next to the foundations of a historic fortified tower of the city fortifications, which was only found during the construction work, the diocese will hold discussion and meeting events, which will then also be accessible to the participating faithful and the citizens. In this way, in addition to the numerous visits and visitations in the diocese, I get into conversation with the people.
CBA: The extensive construction measures were decided by the Limburg Cathedral Chapter at the beginning of 2007, i.e. before your term of office. How did it come about, and would you as bishop have had the opportunity to make cuts afterwards??

Tebartz-van Elst: The building measure was decided by the Limburg cathedral chapter at the beginning of the sedis vacancy in February 2007 – about a year before I came to Limburg, when it was not yet clear who would be the new diocesan bishop. The cathedral chapter had considered the working and living situation of the future bishops of Limburg and decided that they – as in many other dioceses in Germany – should live and work in the immediate vicinity of the cathedral. With that, I was charged with continuing this decision, and it is evident from my five years of experience in the provisional arrangement how necessary and correct it is. Since the financing of the entire project had already been secured since that time and had not been set up at the expense of the parishes of the diocese, it also seems responsible.

The interview was conducted by Joachim Heinz,

Eleven times not cleared up or not reported

Archbishop Stefan Hebe © Lars Berg (KNA)

An expert report on abuse incriminates Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hebe. As head of personnel and vicar general in Cologne, he allegedly failed to properly investigate or report eleven cases. What is Hebe accused of?

Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hebe (54) has offered his resignation to Pope Francis. The abuse report for the Archdiocese of Cologne presented on Thursday attests to eleven breaches of duty in dealing with nine alleged abusers by Hebe, who used to work there as head of personnel and vicar general.

Breaches of duty according to the expert opinion

After evaluating more than 200 documents, lawyers from the law firm Gercke Wollschlager found that Hebe had violated his duty to report suspicious cases to the public prosecutor's office or the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith five times. Six incidents he allegedly failed to properly clear up.

One case involves a clergyman who allegedly sexually abused his then eleven-year-old nephew in 1971. The nephew turned to the Archdiocese of Cologne's sexual abuse contact person in 2011. He reported that his uncle had also tried to sexually abuse his two cousins.

In a conversation with personnel director Hebe and the legal advisor, the accused then admitted that he had tried to touch his nephew. At that time, however, he was already 17 to 18 years old. The rest of the allegations were fabricated. The victim received a benefit from the archdiocese in 2012 in recognition of his suffering – an indication that his account was considered plausible. Beyond that, however, nothing happened.

Hebe should have had a conversation with the nephew according to church guidelines, clarified his age at the time of the crime and located the cousins, the experts said. The legal advisor should have reported the case to the prosecutor's office. Hebe told the lawyers that the person concerned had been asked to ask the cousins to come forward. But this did not happen. The case was apparently closed for him.

Much is unclear

It is unclear whether Hebe informed his superiors at the time, Vicar General Dominikus Schwaderlapp and Archbishop Joachim Meisner, about the case. They should have initiated canonical proceedings. Hebe told the reviewers that he had wondered himself when reading the file that the case had not gone further. From his point of view, the head of the Cologne ecclesiastical court, Offizial Gunter Assenmacher, had been responsible for proceedings under canon law. Whether the latter learned of the case is unclear.

Similarly, other incidents came to nothing – partly because one of those responsible relied on the other, partly because personnel manager Hebe, according to the report, arrived at incorrect assessments. Thus he justified his non-action in several cases with the fact that he considered the described acts only for border-violating behavior and not for sexual abuse. But this should have been assessed by others, such as the public prosecutor's office and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the experts said.

In the case of the priest U., who is alleged to have committed multiple acts of sexual abuse against his three underage nieces between 1993 and 1999, the lawyers accuse Hebe of deliberately failing to keep a record of a conversation with U. to have kept a record of its activities so that it could not be confiscated in the event of a government investigation. This is documented by a memo written by Hebe's secretary and signed by himself. Hebe stated for the record that he could not explain how his signature came to be under the note.

Possibly there had been a lot to do on that day. In any case, the priest's file remained free of incriminating evidence and no ecclesiastical investigation was initiated. After the case was reopened in 2018 under Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki, the Cologne public prosecutor's office filed charges last year against U. raised.

Hebe was also involved in the case of Father A, who has since been dismissed from the clergy. Despite two convictions for child abuse in the 1970s and 80s, the priest was allowed to continue working as a pastor for decades in his home diocese of Cologne and in the dioceses of Munster and Essen. In 2008, another victim reported to the archdiocese, from A. to have been abused between 1964 and 1970 at the age of 8 to 14 years. He wanted to know if the archdiocese was already aware of the incidents at the time and if the priest was held accountable.

Head of personnel Hebe replied to the person concerned in a letter that the clergyman had served a prison sentence, but that the archdiocese was not aware of any complaints from the period in question so far. Thus the case was closed for Hebe. According to the experts, he should have clarified the matter further, for example by confronting the clergyman with the accusations.

Not prepared to deal with abuse cases

In total, 135 suspicious activity reports were received by the archdiocese during Hess's tenure as head of personnel and vicar general. At least that many are registered in the files. In his questioning, Hebe repeatedly stated that he could not remember the individual cases exactly. In part, his memory returned through file study – a total of several thousand pages.

In general, Hebe stated that he had not been prepared for dealing with abuse cases before taking up his position as head of personnel. Mostly he had considered with vicar general Schwaderlapp, the legal adviser and the Offizial Assenmacher what to do.

The informal committee is said to have met regularly in the vicar general's office. The decision to deal with an accused person, however, had always rested with Archbishop Meisner. He had informed the latter about all suspicious reports, Hebe ared. This is often not documented in the files. It becomes clear that Hebe apparently saw himself more as an advisor to the archbishop than as a decision-maker.

The study credits Hebe with the fact that the year 2010, when reports of abuse "flooded" the archdiocese, fell during his time as head of personnel. In view of numerous legal changes, there was a lack of clarity about the legal situation. In addition, Hebe had relied on the partly inadequate advice of the legal advisor and the Offizial Assenmacher.

In some cases, Hebe was able to clear up the accusations against him. In not a single case do the experts attest to obstruction of justice in the criminal law sense. Nevertheless, his declaration of innocence, which he had expressed several times beforehand, can no longer be upheld after the publication of the study. The Hamburg archbishop's request for resignation is seen by many observers as a consistent and appropriate step.

Right or left - the templates do not fit

Peacemaker, superstar, visionary: for an entire generation John Paul II was. the face of the church. He ruled for two and a half decades, at first powerfully and dynamically, at last seriously ill.

For more than 26 years, he led the universal Catholic Church and ushered it into the new millennium: the tenure of Pope John Paul II. (1978-2005) was the second longest of the 2.000-year history of the church. Moreover, the Pole whose civil name was Karol Wojtyla was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. On 18. May he would have been 100 years old.

Wojtyla, born in Wadowice near Krakow in 1920, was deeply influenced by his native Poland, its history and culture. As a young man he experienced the Second World War and the German occupation, worked in the quarry of a chemical factory and studied in the underground seminary. Afterwards, he also experienced the other totalitarian system in communism. As a young priest, as a theology professor and above all as archbishop and cardinal in Krakow, Karol Wojtyla demonstrated stamina in dealing with totalitarian rulers and officials.

Gifted communicator

The pope from Poland proved to be a gifted communicator, who promoted the church with pastoral creativity, strengthened its reputation and influence in the world and society – and was celebrated by the media as a "superstar. The new pope cultivated a new style, did away with carrying chairs and majestic "we," continued skiing in his spare time. In his inaugural address, he appealed to the Church and the world: "Do not be afraid of! Open, yes tear the gates wide open for Christ. Opened the borders of the states, the economic and political systems to his saving power."

John Paul II. launched many spectacular initiatives. He convened 15 synods of bishops, invited the world's religions to the peace summit in Assisi, received 890 heads of state and government, and proclaimed 1.800 Saints and Blesseds. He wrote 14 encyclicals, a wealth of doctrinal letters and messages, and gave 900 speeches a year.

A "political" pope

Peace and justice, human rights, freedom and solidarity became the strong themes of his pontificate. He stopped the previous "Vatican policy towards the East", which was based on compromise, and took a harder line towards the communists. With demands for a social market economy, free trade unions and, later, globalization based on solidarity, he further developed the Church's social teachings.

John Paul II. was a "political" pope. This was especially evident in his 104 foreign trips to 129 countries, during which he traveled 1.2 million kilometers. They became a guiding tool of his pontificate. He spoke to dictators like Chile's Augusto Pinochet and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Thanks to his robust constitution, he survived the still-unsolved assassination attempt by the Turk Ali Agca on 13. May 1981. The masterminds are suspected to be behind the Iron Curtain.

John Paul II. Contributed decisively to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Eastern Bloc and Soviet regimes. Former Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev credited him with a significant contribution to the overthrow of communism in Europe. Once again, before the Gulf War in 2003, the pope became a sought-after contact point for top politicians of all camps – even though he, already severely marked by his illness, could not prevent the war.

Ecumenism and interreligious dialogue

Bridges built by John Paul II. built in ecumenism and dialogue with other religions. Some successes as well as setbacks he recorded in reconciliation with Judaism. He was the first bishop of Rome to visit the synagogue of the Eternal City, where he greeted the "elder brothers". On his 2000 Holy Land trip, he went to the Wailing Wall and to a moving memorial ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial site.

Spiritual highlight of his term was the Holy Year 2000. John Paul II. had set himself the goal of leading the church into the third millennium. 30 million visitors to Rome passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. In a prayer of forgiveness, the "great mea culpa," the pope asked forgiveness for errors and omissions of Catholics in 2.000 years of church history.

Templates do not fit

Even in retrospect, it seems impossible to force the Wojtyla pope into a pattern. Progressive or conservative, right or left – the templates do not fit. As celebrated as he was at the beginning of his pontificate and in his last years in office, as revolutionary as some new openings and gestures seemed, from the 1990s on he was also criticized for conservative positions: on moral or disciplinary ies, on certain forms of liberation theology, against progressive theologians.

There were protests against conservative bishop appointments, especially in the German-speaking countries. In addition, John Paul was criticized for giving the Vatican curia too much free rein as a result of his frequent travels. Also, he had not acted decisively enough against sexual abuse by clerics.

His last phase of life was marked by illness and suffering. Already at his funeral mass on 8 September. In April 2005, posters and chants demanded his immediate canonization. The pope from Poland was beatified in May 2011 and canonized in April 2014.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply