Marx: Catholic Church also needs women in leadership positions © Tim Brakemeier
Women must take on more leadership roles in the Catholic Church – DBK chairman Reinhard Cardinal Marx demands this. This is also a matter of credibility, Marx said during the Youth Synod in Rome.
If the Church wants to support the dignity of women, "it is not enough to repeat the relevant magisterial texts," Marx said during the Youth Synod in Rome. For the sake of its own credibility, the church needs to involve women far more in leadership roles at all levels, from parishes to the "Vatican itself," the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference said, according to a widely circulated speech manuscript.
"We really have to want this and also implement it," Marx declared. It said there was a need to address "the often uncomfortable and impatient questions young people have about equal rights for women, including in the church."
"Breaking Clerical Circles."
The Munich archbishop referred on the one hand to the working document of the synod, in which the great dissatisfaction of young people with regard to the discrimination of women is named. At the same time, he cited initiatives and talks by German bishops on more responsibility for women in the church.
On the one hand, he said, this includes already involving women in leadership roles as much as possible. At the same time, the bishops would have to discuss further ies such as sexual morality, the theology of sacraments and ministry, as well as more gender justice. This is also important, he said, because women in church leadership positions "contribute decisively to breaking open closed clerical circles," such as those criticized by the German bishops' recent study on abuse in the church.