Mary 2.0 in Munster: Andrea Temming (kfd), Adelheid Kellinghaus (Maria 2.0), Lisa Kotter (Maria 2.0), Judith Everding (kfd) © Andrea Niemann (private)
The two initiators of the church reform movement "Maria 2.0", Elisabeth Kotter and Andrea Vob-Frick from Munster, want to leave the Catholic Church. The formal date for this is to be in April.
Although they want to remain Catholic, they no longer want to be a member of "the Roman Catholic Church, an institution under public law," as Vob-Frick told the Evangelical Press Service (epd) on Thursday. So could formally complete her resignation only in April, because she had not previously received an appointment.
She had to realize that it was impossible to change the hierarchies and power structures in the Catholic Church, Vob-Frick explained. When Catholics who are willing to reform express themselves publicly, they have to experience time and again that there are refusals or a veto from "the masters from Rome. As current examples, she cited the cases of sexual violence by priests, the interventions of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the process of the so-called synodal way, with which the German Bishops' Conference is seeking reforms, and most recently the ban from Rome on the blessing of homosexual couples.
They had to learn a lot of negative things about the Roman Church
Elisabeth Kotter names personal reasons of conscience for her resignation. She does not want to claim "that the people who stayed in the church are doing the wrong thing". There are also reasons for many. But she has had to learn so much about the Roman church in recent years that she is now leaving. She speaks here exclusively of herself, she emphasized.
Kotter also told Westdeutscher Rundfunk on Thursday that for her the question is whether membership in this institution is not also complicity. "For me, the point has come that I can no longer reconcile this with my conscience." She will continue to work on "Maria 2.0" engage. "I will continue not to be deprived of the right to criticize and to try to set things in motion."
The initiative founded in 2019 "Maria 2.0" advocates for greater participation and rights for women in the Catholic Church. She demands more equal rights for women and their access to all church offices. The starting point of protests and church strikes by volunteers in the archdioceses and dioceses was two years ago Munster.
For your information: This is a report published by the Evangelical Press Service on 26. March corrected catch. In the original, the message contained the following retracted paragraph:
Elisabeth Kotter names personal reasons of conscience for her resignation. She does not want to claim "that the people who stayed in the church are doing the wrong thing". But she had to learn so much negative about the Roman church in recent years, "that it is now enough!". Anyone who continues to remain part of this system is "guilty of complicity," she said. With Andrea Vob-Frick, however, she wants to remain involved in her home church in Munster and contribute to the interfaith dialogue in the region. Even with "Maria 2.0" remain the two women. They emphasize: "We are still church."