It began in wurzburg

It is a small anniversary, but one that will be celebrated: With a commemorative service Monday in Wurzburg Cathedral, the German Bishops' Conference looks back on its eventful 160-year history. One day later, the Spring Plenary Assembly will open a new chapter with deliberations on the successor to Cardinal Karl Lehmann. For a long time, the Bishops' Conference was not an all-German assembly.

In its first phase from 1848 to 1933, the Bavarian episcopate, which was concerned about its independence, did not belong to it. After the building of the wall in 1961, the East German bishops were not allowed to participate in the plenary assemblies for almost three decades. When, at the instigation of the GDR and the Vatican, the Berlin Bishops' Conference was established in 1976, it met with the most serious misgivings on the part of the West German bishops. They also wanted to hold on to German unity in terms of church law. Only after reunification did the two conferences grow together again.It took a long time for the conference to be recognized by Rome. The Vatican followed the founding efforts in 1848 with suspicion. He distrusted the revolutionary mood, from which German Catholics were not exempt. Pope Pius IX. refused to agree to a desired national council and rejected further assemblies of bishops. After an initial meeting in Wurzburg, 19 years passed before the new edition was held. The reservations from Rome stemmed from the fact that the bishops had also dealt with reforms in cult and rite as well as the use of the national language.

Today, the German Bishops' Conference is one of 113 in the world Annual meetings have existed since 1869, but without institutional anchoring. This changed only with the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), which emphasized the role of the bishops and their collegiality. Its statute, approved by the Apostolic See in 1966, gave the German Bishops' Conference, until then called the Fulda Bishops' Conference after its meeting place, a weight corresponding to the new understanding of the Church. Today, the German one of 113 bishops' conferences worldwide.Its success story includes the aid organizations founded in its midst, today internationally renowned and state-supported instruments of development cooperation. The conference paved the way for new ecclesiastical ministries such as pastoral counseling. In the media society, its chairman is the "face of the Catholic Church in Germany". A secretariat in Bonn, which was well equipped by international standards, ensured organizational strength and continuity.

Stress test pregnancy conflict counseling The Bishops' Conference had to endure its greatest test in the recent past in the 1990s. At the end of the long dispute over church involvement in pregnancy conflict counseling, Pope John Paul II. against the conference majority by. Since then, church counseling centers no longer ie the certificate that opens the way for an abortion without punishment.The question of competences is still a subject of discussion among the bishops and with Rome. In some areas, such as priestly education, the bishops' conference acts as a kind of legislator at the national level. But their decisions do not always bind the individual bishop. Thus, common guidelines, such as the 2002 "on how to proceed in cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the area of the German Bishops' Conference," are an orientation framework, but not valid law.Theologically, the question of the extent to which the Bishops' Conference participates in the Magisterium has not yet been answered. While some are concerned that for some years the Vatican has wanted to push back the influence of the bishops' conferences, others find the independent life that has unfolded in these bodies too much already.By Christoph Renzikowski (KNA)

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Christina Cherry
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