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Opening service of the autumn plenary assembly of the German Bishops' Conference: "After 2000 years of church history, double standards are still being measured"
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
The Catholic Women's Community of Germany (kfd) campaigned for equal rights for women in the Catholic Church at the autumn plenary meeting of the German Bishops' Conference.
The kfd federal chairwoman Mechthild Heil presented symbolic "power meters" in the form of purple folding rules to DBK chairman Georg Bätzing, as well as to Bishop Franz-Josef Bode from Osnabrück and Bishop Michael Gerber from Fulda.
"After 2000 years of church history, double standards are still being measured," said Heil about the action on Tuesday in Fulda.
"We have covered many meters, but we women are still far from where we belong."
Like other women's movements, the kfd calls for women to have access to all services and offices of the Catholic Church.
Angelika Fromm from the "Lila Stola" campaign, a working group of the reform movement "We are Church", had said: "This is a vision that we will stick to".
The Vice President of the Central Council of German Catholics (ZdK), Claudia Lücking-Michel, also called for women to have full access to all offices in the Catholic Church.
"It is about equal access for all baptized and confirmed people to all offices that the Catholic Church has to offer," said the CDU politician on Tuesday in the SWR.
"It's not about kindly accommodating the women and giving them a few crumbs from the Lord's table, but rather about finally recognizing that women are equal and equal members of our church, with all rights and duties such as others too, "said Lücking-Michel.
Progress is that the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, wants to work at least for women as deacons.
But that alone is not enough.
Bätzing said he valued the women who wanted to protest in Fulda and sought a conversation with them.
With regard to the question of equality, he feels pressure - "on the other hand, I say to myself: We can only do what we can do," said the Bishop of Limburg.
The Maria 2.0 equality movement had been sharply criticized by conservative bishops.
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