Stefan Vesper © Julia Steinbrecht (KNA)
Change of baton at the Central Committee of German Catholics: Secretary General Stefan Vesper plans to retire early next year. The successor should have enough time for upcoming tasks.
"One must have in some questions simply a long breath."As Secretary General of the Bonn-based Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Stefan Vesper has experienced a stormy time since 1999: disputes about pregnancy counseling and the role of women in the church, the abuse scandal, church resignations and the debate about the future of Catholic lay work, as well as disputes about the organization and financing of the German Catholic Days.
Juggling with many balls
A juggling act with many balls, which Vesper now wants to end prematurely. On Friday, the ZdK made a surprise announcement that the 62-year-old plans to retire early in September 2019, after exactly 20 years.
According to the ZdK, the reasons for this lie exclusively in long-term personnel planning: the successor should have sufficient time to implement the 3. Ecumenical Kirchentag 2021 and the upcoming Katholikentage to plan, said Vesper at the main committee of the ZdK in Bamberg. It should also be avoided that his retirement at the turn of the year 2021/2022 "coincides with the change in the term of office of the presidium.".
During the German Catholic Day in Munster, Vesper had recently drawn a cautiously positive balance of the development in the Catholic Church in Germany. And demonstrated self-awareness. "The ZdK is a democratically elected body that comes from the middle of the Catholic Church," he said, for example, referring to attacks by conservative Catholics. "There is a legitimate plurality in the Catholic Church. Not all lay people share our views, but we speak for the vast majority of Catholic lay people."
In coming to terms with sexual abuse, the Church in Germany is "very far, further than other countries, and as the Catholic Church also further than some other social groups in Germany," he stressed. Vesper also sees a slow change in awareness when it comes to the women's ie. "There is a clear understanding in our entire church that the charisms of women are currently not being sufficiently brought to bear. The bishops know and say that, too," he recently told. Even in Rome, he said, there are developments and "good theological deliberations on the subject".
Good culture of dialogue between bishops and laity
Vesper also chalks up as a success a new, good culture of discussion between bishops and lay people. The insight behind it: In view of the church's loss of importance in secular society, lay people and church leadership are in the same boat. For Vesper, the fact that even in Munster, which is strongly Catholic, there was great resistance to public funding of the German Catholic Day shows how much times have changed.
Challenged, Vesper sees Catholics in ensuring democracy and fundamental democratic values. "We must do even more to defend certain basic values that spring from human dignity, but also standards of social interaction such as respectful treatment," he recently told the Bonn-based "General-Anzeiger," also with a view to the refugee ie. And quoted Ludwig Windthorst (1812-1891), a centrist and Bismarck's opponent in the Reichstag, with the words: "This is not the time to pull the nightcap over your head."
"Europe is worth every effort"
The theologian, who lives in Bad Honnef, will certainly not do so in the future. "Europe is worth every effort," he recently wrote after a more than 800-kilometer bike ride through seven neighboring European countries. The father of two adult daughters had already gained intensive European experience in 1996 and 1997. At that time, on behalf of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), he organized the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz, which was attended by representatives of all the Christian churches in Europe.
Vesper also has more time for private hobbies: his grandchildren and music, for example. Perhaps it also goes more often to the Alps: in July 2016, the Secretary General has already done something "completely different": he was for several weeks "hut host" on the 2.500-meter-high Hexensee hut above Serfaus, Tyrol.