Scandals

The Holy Father celebrated Mass with the group of Chilean priests who have been staying with him at the Santa Marta guesthouse since Friday, according to Vatican officials.

Building healthy relationship between faithful and shepherds

With the help of the five priests, the pope will seek solutions to address the crisis. "In this way, we could begin to rebuild a healthy relationship between the faithful and their shepherds, if only all of them become aware of their violations," the statement said.

"It is right and important that in the coming months we speak transparently and openly about ies such as sexual morality, the distribution of power, women in the Church or celibacy," Neher told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Freiburg on Tuesday.

"It is not about quotas for the East, but about a competence of lived faith that people should bring into this process in an enriching way," writes Timmerevers in a guest article for the magazine "Herder-Korrespondenz" (December) on the synodal journey that begins this weekend.

Interviewer: They accuse the signatories of this letter of instrumentalizing the abuse scandal for their reform agenda.

Prof. Dr. Helmut Hoping (professor of dogmatics at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau): The reform agenda has been known for a long time. Reforms have been demanded since the 80s. The open letter to Cardinal Marx, president of the German Bishops' Conference, contains the demand to overcome the so-called "pre-modern order" of the church. This is an agenda that has nothing whatsoever to do with the abuse scandal and its scandalous cover-up to begin with.

The Catholic Church in Germany wants to seek "building blocks for a civilization of love," said Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German Bishops' Conference, at the start of the forum. There should be controversy and everything should be addressed. But one should not expect that there will be an answer to all questions at once. The controversial ie of remarried divorcees, for example, will also be discussed, the conference chairman said.

The coverage began exactly two weeks before Christmas Eve with the publication of an interview by Speyer Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann in his church newspaper "Pilgrim. After that, it must be amed that former vicar general and officiant Rudolf Motzenbacker was guilty of sexual abuse. According to the report, three affected people independently make accusations because they were abused for a long time between 1963 and 1975 by the priest, who died in 1998.

Freshly returned from the regional conference of the Synodal Way in Frankfurt, the question arises as to how I felt about the meeting and how I would place it in the overall context of church change processes. The first thing to say is that the smaller group of participants allowed for a different culture of conversation and discussion of content. Thanks to Corona, the more than 200 delegates had been divided into different conferences of 40 people each. It is understandable that at the end of the conference day, the request to work in a similar way, i.e. in smaller groups, at future plenary sessions, met with great approval.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer © Maria Irl (KNA)

He made his comments on Wednesday evening at the service for the Solemnity of the Diocesan Patron Saint Wolfgang in Regensburg. From the beginning it was held in high esteem because of its testimonial character.

It had been lived by monasticism, but also by bishops and priests, long before it had been made obligatory for the Western Church in the Middle Ages.

Dome of St. Peter's Basilica against a dark sky © Cristian Gennari (CBA)

Expectations were high anyway. But since the Vatican threw a brake on the train that the U.S. bishops wanted to put on the track to deal with abuse just under two weeks ago, expectations have risen once again. What can, should, must come out of the 21. to 24. February, the heads of all bishops' conferences, curia heads and top representatives of religious orders will meet at the Vatican to discuss abuse in the church? On coming to terms with such crimes and their possible cover-up, but also on better protection of children and young people in the church.

In 560 cases, the commission had endorsed compensation and had passed on a recommendation to that effect to religious orders and dioceses. It said there were applications where the recommended sum exceeded the original limit of 5.000 euros. The final decision now rests with the respective orders and dioceses, Kopp stressed.