The Catholic bishops in Germany want to deal with the sexual abuse in the church also by means of a synodal way. The Erfurt theologian Julia Knop is confident that this will succeed.
"If it is possible to develop the appropriate format for the debate and to proceed in a truly participatory way already in the formatting of the path, I am confident," she said in an interview with the portal katholisch.de on Wednesday. At their plenary assembly in Lingen last week, the Catholic bishops had decided on a "binding synodal path" for renewal and change in the Church.
There should be no red lines, either thematically or operationally, stressed Knop, who had participated in a study day on the consequences of the abuse scandal at the spring meeting. "Any attempt to control this process in advance or hierarchically – through thematic taboos, through official reserves of decisions, or through asymmetrically designed formats of conversation – can derail it," she warned.
Also the different groups must come into discussion with one another, so that there are not "loud echo chambers".
Bishops tremendously committed
The theologian added that she had experienced the bishops in Lingen as "tremendously committed". "Everyone is aware of the dramatic nature of the situation."In her view, it is important in the future to examine the current understanding of ministry and church to see where "a precarious exercise of power" is favored.
"It is far too short-sighted to look for causes for abuse of power only in the personality structure of individual priests and to work on them individually. One must perceive conceptual theological, spiritual, habitual and especially liturgical amplifiers of a precarious understanding of ministry," Knop explained.
Question of ecclesiastical sexual morality and celibacy
In addition, the bishops would have to look at the open questions about church sexual morality and celibacy. These questions are "of considerable relevance and they do not come to rest," said the scientist. From the theological side, these ies are certainly being thought through; however, this has so far been associated with risk, she said.
Knop: "To taboo life-relevant topics again and again and to want to prevent their debate hierarchically, divides and harms the church quite substantially."