Religion

Interviewer: What do you think of Grohe's criticism?

Winkler: I still find the criticism of the party conference's decision understandable. But I can only reject the expression. This is not about double talk. It is simply shortly before midnight at the party conference a motion passed, which gives expression to the displeasure of the base: with the fact that you can be terminated in many church institutions if you are homosexual and confess to it, or if you have the wrong religion or none at all. However, I do not know how to translate into concrete law what the party has decided here. I can't imagine that this would have been decided at a time of day when all delegates were still sitting at the table. And it will also certainly not be included in the election program.
Interviewer: Grohe says the Greens put church friends like Winfried Kretschmann and Katrin Goring-Eckhardt in the shop window, but in the program workshop, bitter opponents of the church set the tone.

60 years ago, the Federation of German Catholic Youth was founded in East Westphalia. The time of major confrontations may be over, but the BDKJ is still considered rebellious and reform-oriented – and some wish it would act more piously. Because the youth still wants more than the adults are willing to give.

Founded in 1947 in Hardehausen in eastern Westphalia, Germany The umbrella body of currently 15 Catholic youth associations with a total of around 650.The BDKJ, which has a membership of more than 000, has become a spearhead for a greater say in society and the church, and insists on changes in areas such as ecumenism, sexuality and the position of women. The association was founded 60 years ago and celebrates its anniversary at the general meeting in Altenberg, Germany.Social influence was already at stake when the association was founded in 1947 in Hardehausen, East Westphalia. At that time, however, the founders were clearly leaning toward the "C" parties. After the Godesberg Program of 1959, with which the SPD also approached churches and Catholics, the BDKJ also opened up to the left spectrum. Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik and the Warsaw Treaty in particular met with a positive response. Provocation: Consecration of women priests The BDKJ reached a critical limit in 1994, when it provoked the church leadership with its petition against the papal no to the ordination of women priests. The former organizational unity of the BDKJ and the bishops' office for youth pastoral care (afj) was subsequently disentangled. The dust has long since settled, and there has even been a closing of ranks with the bishops, as in the case of the commitment to combating youth unemployment. Within the BDKJ, there is also a growing awareness that the association does not represent all Catholic young people. There are numerous groups in the parishes that are not affiliated with the association, and nearly 400.000 altar boys.The BDKJ, which has its headquarters in Dusseldorf and a lobby office in Berlin, sees itself as a youth-political interest group that is committed, among other things, to fair trade, lowering the voting age and fighting child poverty. This is accompanied by projects such as the carol singing campaign for children in developing countries or the voluntary social year.

KNA (Catholic News Agency): Prelate Neher, next month Caritas is launching a campaign for the Bundestag elections with "Vote for Humanity". Have we lost our humanity two years after the high increase in the number of refugees??

Prelate Dr. Peter Neher (President of the German Caritas Association)No, fortunately that did not happen, on the contrary. But we have to take note of the fact that there are political forces in our society that are massively opposed to integration policy, and indeed to refugees in general, and that in doing so they also refer to Christian values.

Following the resignation of Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, the Belgian church's abuse unit has received dozens of new complaints of child abuse by church employees, according to media reports.

Over the weekend alone, 30 to 40 new reports of abuse were received, the commission chairman Peter Adriaenssens told the daily newspaper "De Morgen" (Monday). Since the beginning of the year, however, only about 20 reports had been made by Friday. Adriaenssens justified the onslaught by saying that the new archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Andre-Joseph Leonard, made an explicit call for clarification Friday when he announced Vangheluwe's resignation. This, he said, apparently gave victims confidence that their reports would indeed be taken seriously and have consequences. However, so far he was not aware of cases that were not yet barred by the statute of limitations under criminal law. Meanwhile, the Nieuwsblad newspaper reported that Vangheluwe ordained a religion teacher convicted of sexual abuse as a deacon in 1995. The victim's parents would have tried to prevent the consecration in talks with the bishop. Vangheluwe had rejected her request. The deacon had continued in office.

The study found a marked difference between the countries of Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Poland and Switzerland, it added. According to the survey, faith and religion are most deeply rooted in Italy (89 percent) and Poland (87 percent), and weakest in France (54 percent). "The Catholic faith is noticeably more deeply rooted than the Protestant faith in the European countries surveyed," the authors also conclude. Of Catholics, 33 percent can be classified as highly religious, while only 18 percent of Protestants are.According to the Bertelsmann Stiftung, religiosity has the least influence on the areas of politics and sexuality. Overall, 58 percent of Europeans claimed that they are not at all or only slightly guided by religious convictions in their political outlook. 48 percent said they were reluctant to let faith and religion influence their sexuality.Faith nevertheless plays a major role in the everyday lives of people in Europe. More than half (57 percent) practice their faith and regularly attend religious services, according to the study, and 61 percent profess personal prayer. According to the Religion Monitor, the proportion of those who visit places of worship weekly or regularly is highest in Poland. In Italy, too, attendance at religious services is normal for the vast majority of people. Germany and France bring up the rear.Young adults do not believe less in God or in something divine and in life after death than the population as a whole, the foundation added. Of 18- to 29-year-olds, 41 percent said they were strongly convinced and 30 percent said they were convinced with moderate intensity. In the population as a whole, these percentages are 42 and 27 percent, respectively. As in the population as a whole, 26 percent of the youngest age group surveyed have little or nothing to gain from these ideas.The core of the Religion Monitor is reportedly a quantitative survey conducted in 2007, in which 21.000 people from all continents and world religions were surveyed in a representative way.

This had made the religious foreskin removal of a boy a punishable assault. With the demonstration, the participating groups also want to stand up for the enforcement of the rights of all children to physical and sexual self-determination, announced the association "Mogis – A voice for those concerned. In addition to the rally in Cologne, events have been announced in New York, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Sydney and London to mark the "Worldwide Day of Genital Autonomy".

Interviewer: Are you also involved with St. Mary's Church??

Jacobus Middelanis (student): Yes, of course. I grew up here in Wiedenbruck, went to communion here – not here in St. Mary's Church, but in the Aegidius Church – I went to confirmation here and was active here for a long time with the altar servers.

Surprising confession of a man who for a long time made a name for himself mainly as a "scandal rocker": God led him on the right path, says Alice Cooper. He is not the first musician to publicly profess his faith. our site with a selection.

Alice Cooper Attributes his salvation from alcohol addiction to the very highest assistance. "It's a miracle, God helped me get dry," the 62-year-old told Cologne's "Express" on the weekend. By his own admission, he has "not touched a drink" in 29 years. Cooper paraphrased what going to church regularly on Sundays means to him as follows: "If you're a Christian, it's a one-to-one relationship between you and Jesus." Also Ringo Sta , former drummer of the band that claimed to be "bigger than Jesus" (the Vatican has since forgiven), the Beatles, recently confessed that faith had made a big impact on his life. Like Cooper, he claims to have turned his life around thanks to his faith when he nearly sank into the alcohol and drug swamp in the seventies. "For me, God is in my life. I do not hide from it. I have been searching for him since the 1960s.

CBA: With your proposal for a headscarf ban for Muslim girls, you have caused a great stir? The SPD, for example, accuses you of stigmatizing the religion of Islam and further dividing our society.

Serap Guler (State Secretary for Integration at the Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration / CDU): Our only concern in the debate is the welfare of the child. That should be the focus for everyone.

The main topics

Cardinal Woelki: I must first arrive and get to know the diocese anew. What will certainly be important things are the refugee problem and the situation as it presents itself to us in NRW. I'll try to address one or two things tomorrow when I swear in Minister President Kraft and also make it clear that it's not enough just to say that the Interior Ministers' Conference will take over the accommodation and medical costs, but that the conditions will then really be created so that family reunions are possible here. The question is how we can succeed in integrating the refugees here with us. I will also talk about this with our Caritas.