Enlarge image
Cardinal Reinhard Marx
Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
The news is likely to cause a tremor in the Catholic Church in Germany: In a three-page letter, Cardinal Marx offered the Pope to renounce the office of Archbishop of Munich and Freising.
The letter says: "In essence, for me it is about sharing responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse by officials of the Church in the past few decades." Marx wants to explain himself personally at a press conference during the day.
The first reactions at a glance:
The Jesuit priest and member of the Pontifical Child Protection Commission,
Hans Zollner
, considers Marx's offer to be an "extremely important sign".
Zollner told the German press agency dpa "Cardinal Marx shows that the message and the credibility of the church and its officials are more important than the personal position." This deserves great respect.
Thomas Sternberg
, chairman of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said he was met.
“I am deeply shaken.
There goes the wrong one, "said the 69-year-old of the" Rheinische Post ".
He held the Munich Cardinal in high regard.
"What Marx achieved in ecumenism, the Synodal Way and also in dealing with abuse was very important." Sternberg also recalled that the Munich cardinal had put almost his own private fortune into a foundation for victims of abuse.
In his estimation, Marx was deeply affected by the massive criticism of the planned award of the Federal Cross of Merit.
"This also shows that in the current scandal of the Catholic Church everyone is falling into an overall disrepute, no matter how seriously they approach these issues or not."
The canon lawyer
Thomas Schüller
considers the cardinal's decision to be a sovereign step by which other bishops would now have to be measured. "With this sensational step, Cardinal Marx is taking personal responsibility for his personal failures as Bishop of Trier and as Archbishop of Munich-Freising when it comes to coming to terms with sexual abuse," said Schüller. “On the other hand, he attests to the German Church and its episcopal confreres that they have reached a dead end. He wishes to take responsibility, to turn around and to have the courage to undertake real reforms. He directly attacks Cardinal Woelki head-on when he speaks of those who hide behind legal reports and are not prepared to tackle the systemic causes of sexual violence in the church with courageous reforms. "
Woelki was acquitted of breaches of duty by an independent expert, but has nevertheless lost a lot of trust in the Cologne archbishopric.
But Marx's message also goes directly to Pope Francis, said Schüller: “If you, Francis, want reforms, then no stone remains unturned when it comes to sexual violence in the church.
Be as brave as I am and finally initiate reforms «- this is how Schüller interprets Marx's message to the Pope.
jpz / dpa
