To the apostle of the germans

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With a solemn pontifical mass the traditional Bonifatius pilgrimages were opened this weekend in Fulda. The Catholic Church venerates Boniface as a saint and martyr. He is considered the apostle of the Germans and the forerunner of the Occident.

Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen was the main celebrant at Sunday's festive service on Cathedral Square, while Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from Limburg was the celebratory preacher. The central mass celebration was again attended by several thousand faithful. All parishes of the Fulda city deanery traditionally went in a star pilgrimage to the cathedral church. In addition, there were numerous foot pilgrimages by parishes of the Fulda region to give their Christian witness to the world in veneration of the Apostle of the Germans and to pray for the Church of God at this time.Already on the eve of the Bonifatiusfest, the bells of all Fulda parish churches and all participating parishes rang at 8 p.m. to celebrate the diocese's feast day. "Pioneers of the Occident" Boniface is widely regarded as the "Apostle of the Germans" and a "pioneer of the Occident". He was born around 672/675 in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the southwest of England. As a birthplace since the 14. Century Crediton in the county Devonshire called. The Catholic Church reveres Boniface as a saint. His death and ecclesiastical feast day is the 5. June.On this day in the year 754 – before 1.250 years ago – Boniface was murdered by robbers during a missionary journey in Dokkum, Frisia. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried in Fulda. He had a Benedictine monastery founded there in 744. It is considered the nucleus of the city and diocese of Fulda. The tomb of Boniface is located in Fulda Cathedral. The Bonifatiusfest from Friday to Sunday in the East Hessian city was the highlight of the Catholic Church in Germany for the 1.250. Death anniversary of the saint celebrated Bonifatiusjahr 2004.In the year 719 Boniface, who was called Winfried (friend of the peace) by house, had in Rome of Pope Gregory II. The Congo was given the missionary assignment in Germania – and the ecclesiastical epithet Boniface (benefactor). It was this pope who ordained him a missionary bishop a few years later. The Gregorian II. following Pope Gregory III. (731-741) appointed Boniface archbishop and made him papal deputy and envoy in Germania. Boniface worked in parts of what are now Germany, the Netherlands, France and Austria. For example, he reorganized the bishoprics of Passau, Regensburg, and Salzburg, founded new bishoprics such as Eichstatt and Wurzburg, was himself bishop of Mainz, initiated numerous monastery foundations, and initiated several episcopal assemblies with the goal of reforming the sometimes dilapidated church in his missionary territory. These so-called Concilia Germanica took place between 743 and 747. In Geismar, Hesse, Boniface is said to have felled a Donar oak to demonstrate the powerlessness of the Germanic gods, of whom Donar was one of the most important.Historiography widely sees Boniface as a missionary, reformer, church organizer and martyr. When German Catholicism was founded in the 19th century. Seeking a new profile in the nineteenth century, Boniface became his national saint. In Protestantism, Boniface is not infrequently accused of being too closely tied to the papacy.

For almost 14 days in 2000, Frank Schmokel dominated the headlines: as a murderer and rapist. Can such a man be "converted"? This question was the starting point of the SWR film "For the Life of a Murderer," in which perpetrators and victims have their say.

After Schmokel died on 25. After he had critically injured his own mother and the accompanying caretaker during a day out in October 2000, he fled. A few days later, he killed a sleeping pensioner and stole his car. The police feverishly searched for him, it was feared that the sex offender, who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison for child abuse and attempted murder, would commit further crimes. All of Germany breathed a sigh of relief when Schmokel, on 7. November 2000 was arrested near Bautzen. Since then, he has been housed in the high-security wing of a special clinic. As for most people who grew up in Brandenburg, for Kristof Kannegieber the name Schmokel was synonymous with evil itself. He was surprised to learn in a conversation that the perpetrator had been "converted". This story interested the young filmmaker. He visited the free-church pastor Eberhard Bockmann, who cares for young people, the unemployed and prisoners in Brandenburg, including Frank Schmokel. Bockmann invited Kannegiesser to accompany him on a visit. This is how work began on the film "For the Life of a Murderer," which Kannegiesser shot as part of his studies at the Ludwigshafen Film Academy. SWR television will show the production in the series "Young Documentary" on Monday at 23.00 o'clock. Long telephone conversations The director visited Schmokel several times and had long telephone conversations with him. He tried to get a picture of the man many consider a monster who didn't deserve to live on. He spoke to the people who are still involved with the convict today and made efforts to contact the victims and their relatives. Many have refused to talk. Manfred Schafer finally agreed to go in front of the camera. He was fatally wounded by Schmokel with seven knife wounds and still suffers from the consequences of the violent act today. Schafer is convinced that his tormentor forfeited the right to life long ago. Pastor Bockmann counters that despite all the guilt a person has brought upon himself, no one has the right to judge definitively. The committed Christian believes that there is no such thing as a man who is only bad. Also Helga angel visits Frank, as she calls him, again and again. He thanks the volunteer inmate counselor with small gifts. Hard to imagine that this man is still dangerous to others. No final judgment Kristof Kannegiesser also appeared normal during the visits. It was casual, pleasant conversation with a man who was not very educated but still intelligent, Kannegiesser says. Since the clinic had forbidden any kind of recording, the documentary filmmaker recorded telephone conversations with Schmokel and inserted them as audio documents. This trick was good for the film. On the one hand this avoids that the prisoner can present himself. On the other hand, in these telephone conversations, the filmmaker has succeeded in capturing the other, dark side of the man, who is hard to fathom even for the psychiatric experts. It is hard to bear to hear Schmokel describe how he had his way with a girl and almost strangled her. He speaks without sympathy for the victim, and it sounds as if he is talking about the problems of building a garden shed. Kristof Kannegiesser does not make it easy for the viewer, for he refrains from passing a final judgment on Schmokel. But he stands firmly behind the people who care for him, although they abhor his actions. Kannegiesser: "I know that there must be people who do just that, not only for the perpetrators, but also for the basic values of our society." Note: "For the life of a murderer", film by Kristof Kannegiesser, SWR television, Mo 23.11., 23.00-0.00 o'clock.

After ten years, there was a change at the top of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia on Saturday, with Christian Stablein succeeding Markus Droge as the capital's bishop.

The big show is not Christian Stablein's thing: Berlin's future Protestant capital bishop has made a name for himself in the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO) through modest appearance and expertise. On Saturday, the 52-year-old succeeds Markus Droge (65), who is retiring after ten years as a bishop.

As provost of the EKBO, Stablein had already been Droge's deputy for a good four years. With the management tasks of a regional church of 940.000 believers in over 1.200 congregations he is thus well acquainted with. It may have been an important reason why the regional synod elected him to the bishop's office seven months ago.

"One who asks how the congregations are doing."

Like Droge, Stablein also comes from western Germany. In Hanover's regional church, the native of Lower Saxony, who is the father of four children, was active as a pastoral counselor and in pastor training. After his election as provost of the EKBO, he then became theological director of the consistory, the highest administrative authority of the state church. After the rather luckless Friederike von Kirchbach, he succeeded in reprofiling the office of provost in the EKBO. The marriage of same-sex couples introduced by the regional church or the debate about the admission of children to the Protestant Lord's Supper would be inconceivable without the profound theological work of the provost, who is also a member of the synod of the Protestant Church in Germany.

When it comes to such controversial topics within the church, Stablein doesn't push ahead with his own position, but listens first. "A bishop is an eye-catcher," is how he sums up his understanding of ministry. "One who asks how the congregations are doing."If you take a close look at the EKBO, you will also notice that the church is facing great challenges. Since 2004, it has lost almost 300.000 parishioners since 2004, and there is no sign of a turnaround.

Unconventional ideas

In his own words, the new bishop does not have a "master plan" in his pocket, but he does have some unconventional ideas that are also being discussed in other Protestant state churches. So he is considering offering "dormant memberships" as a temporary alternative to the radical break of leaving the church. It's meant to create open spaces for dialogue with people who have become strangers to their own church.

For Stablein is also aware that the traditional congregational structure is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. He pleads for a closer networking of all institutions of his church in a region, i.e. of parishes, schools or hospitals, as the Catholic Church also strives for with "pastoral spaces. The goal, according to the new bishop, must be that the church is "always and everywhere present, where it is in demand".

Challenges in the new office

In his new office, however, Stablein will also have to deal with a topic that the church, like other social institutions, has long touched only with pointed fingers. It is abuse by church employees, an ie that the Protestant church has now had to put at the top of its agenda, following the Catholic church's lead. "It hits the church much harder in the marrow of its own identity than it does other institutions," Stablein is aware of. At the same time, he promotes a differentiated view of the situation: the Protestant church in the territory of the GDR was far less influenced by a misunderstood liberalism that encouraged abuse in the West German state churches.

Right-wing populism is also a growing challenge for Stablein, like his predecessor in office. After the "open anti-Semitism of the past weeks," he asks himself "what we have also missed". The church must make it even clearer "that anti-Semitism is in no way possible for Christians," emphasized Stablein, who is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Berlin "Institute Church and Judaism".

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