Confidential exchange

adminonJanuary 10, 2022January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Symbol image abuse in the church © Clearviewstock (shutterstock)

The commission to investigate sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in France has received two thousand calls, emails and letters in the first three months. Fifteen cases of them have been handed over to the public prosecutor's office.

"All these testimonies reveal a lot of suffering and great distress," the commission's chairman, Jean-Marc Sauve, said in Paris on Friday, according to French media reports. He was impressed by the willingness of victims to tell their stories, Sauve said.

Two-thirds are men, he says

The commission, which began its work in February, is to investigate cases of abuse and how church authorities have dealt with them since 1950. Most of the people who contacted the commission were over 50 years old, he said. Two-thirds are men, he said. 650 people had agreed to answer a detailed questionnaire. A total of 16 victims had already been heard by the commission. 15 cases had been passed on to prosecutors because the offenses were not yet time-barred, he said.

According to the media reports, the requests for contact came mainly from the metropolitan areas of Paris, Lyon, Marseille and the departments from the north and west. "Many victims have not necessarily broken with the Catholic Church, but there is a sense of betrayal of the teachings of the Church and the Gospel," Sauve said.

Contact with the commission still until June 2020

Alleged victims of abuse in France can still report to the commission until June 2020. It is then to present its report at the end of 2020. The commission has a total of 22 members. They have between 3 and 3.5 million euros at their disposal.

Maria Jepsen © Stephan Wallocha (epd)

25 years ago, on 30. August 1992, was the first time a woman was installed as an Evangelical Lutheran bishop. Maria Jepsen took part in the main church St. Michaelis received the cross of office from her predecessor, Bishop Peter Krusche.

The Gospel contains clear words "against paternalism by patriarchal people," said Maria Jepsen (47) 25 years ago in her sermon to about 4.000 guests. The urge for recognition is also in the church again and again the cause of disputes. She refrained from using words of power or authority during her 18 years in office.

The themes of her first episcopal sermon also became determinative for her term of office. Jepsen recalled the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen a few days earlier, the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and the famine in Somalia. The church's yardstick should be the people on the margins.

No fear of a woman

The men should not be "frightened by a female bishop," said Mayor Henning Voscherau (SPD) whimsically at the subsequent reception in the town hall. Some might be "redeemed by female spirituality". Catholic auxiliary bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke joked that he regretted that his first name was not "Joseph". This would suit Maria well. Good relations with the archdiocese were then also formative for Jepsen's term of office.

Four months earlier, on 4. April 1992, she had been elected bishop. Already in the first ballot she received 78 of 137 votes in Michel. 44 was given to her opponent Michel main pastor Helge Adolphsen.

Protest and recognition

The fact that the first female bishop was elected in the North Elbian Church was not a big surprise. With Schleswig, Lubeck and Hamburg, three bishop's seats were available at once. The first attempt was made by the Kiel pastor Rut Rohrandt in Schleswig at the end of 1990, but she lost to the later bishop Hans Christian Knuth. In the summer of 1991, Kathe Mahn (Hanover) ran unsuccessfully against Karl Ludwig Kohlwage in Lubeck. The male bastion was then broken in the third attempt.

The election of a liberal, feminist theologian also provoked protest from church-conservative groups. Tubingen theology professor Peter Beyerhaus declared her election a "most serious spiritual catastrophe". More important than the question of men or women, Jepsen countered, was to bring the voice of the church into the public sphere in the first place. She was tireless in her travels around the city, visiting AIDS aid, hospices, daycare centers, hospitals, retirement homes and homeless shelters.

What does it do today?

In April 2002, she was re-elected for a second ten-year term. But on 16. July 2010, the then 65-year-old announced her resignation. At the beginning of 2010, cases of sexual abuse by a pastor in Ahrensburg near Hamburg came to light. She amed responsibility for church policy, even though she could not be proven to have committed any crime. She later said she had wanted to "avert harm" from the church and the bishop's office.

Two months later, she left Hamburg and moved to Husum with her husband Peter. "I'm still bumming off overtime," says the now 72-year-old. She is committed to the Husum-Schwesing concentration camp memorial, where the Nazis operated a subcamp. She avoids receptions and honorary offices. Instead, she visits exhibitions and flea markets, goes for walks and bike rides. She regularly translates texts from the Old Testament: "Hebrew is full of poetry and permeates life right into mundane everyday life."

The cliche of the "AIDS continent" has clung to Africa for years. Nowhere else in the world is the deadly virus spreading so rapidly. According to critics, the Catholic Church with its rigid ban on condoms also contributes to this. They therefore welcome the much-noticed remarks of Pope Benedict XVI. On possible exceptions. Many African Catholics themselves, however, doubt a decline in new HIV infections – and even consider the statements of the church leader to be bold and misinterpreted.

Malawi is often overlooked. The small country with the scarcely 15.5 million inhabitants seems neither exciting nor attractive – no vacation paradise like neighboring Tanzania and no raw material supplier like Zambia. It only makes the headlines when U.S. pop star Madonna adopts an orphan and tries to move the Western world to tears. But Malawi clings to yet another cliche: It is "AIDS country". How many people are actually infected can no more be said than for the rest of the continent. Estimates speak of twelve percent of all adults; more than one million children are said to be AIDS orphans by now.

But George Buleya, secretary general of the Malawi Bishops' Conference, is convinced that even condoms will not change the situation. That's why he also wants to clarify the Pope's statements. "The Catholic Church has by no means done an about-face," the daily Nyasa Times quotes him as saying. Pope's statement is "not a free pass for condoms". Instead, she says, the continent should continue to rely on the so-called ABC strategy. A stands for abstinence, B for be faithful – and only in third place comes the C for condom.

Clear words also from the neighboring country: "Tanzania is sticking to its anti-condom line," says Methodius Kilaini, auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Bukoba on Lake Victoria. Relaxation here seems unthinkable. In any case, the Pope's statement to tolerate condoms for male prostitutes has been misinterpreted, he said
– especially by HIV activists. They had waited a long time for a change of course and, according to the daily newspaper "The Citizen," now let speculation flourish.

Several non-governmental organizations and human rights activists, meanwhile, welcome the piecemeal opening. One of them is David Kamau, head of the Kenyan movement for better treatment conditions for HIV and AIDS patients. The pope has "accepted a piece of reality," he told Kenyan television. The principle of abstinence simply doesn't always work, he said. If the church fails to convince its members of values such as morality and abstinence, then it is a consistent step to allow the use of condoms, he said.

At any rate, South Africans seem to be asked to do this at almost every turn. Vending machines with free condoms hang and stand everywhere, especially in public buildings in the major cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health had to announce in the middle of the month that almost every third pregnant woman had tested HIV-positive. The study is considered representative; about 34.000 women took part.

The fates, human misery, suffering and stigmatization behind such figures are well known to Sister Alison Munro, the HIV and AIDS Officer of the South African Bishops' Conference. However, the religious does not want to comment directly on the pope's statement. "Together with our partner organizations, we rely on accurate information about Catholic teaching," she emphasizes. These included abstinence before and fidelity during marriage. But there also needs to be guidance on condom use for those who may have unprotected sex and become infected, he said. The last resort? This is one's own conscience: "On this basis, everyone must ultimately make the decision themselves," says Sister Alison.

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