Speyer Vicar General Andreas Sturm resigns

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Speyer Cathedral: Vicar General Andreas Sturm has resigned in frustration

Photo: Richard Wareham / imago images/Richard Wareham

Andreas Sturm is someone who asks uncomfortable questions.

On television he took a position on abuse in the Catholic Church and campaigned for a reappraisal.

Within the Catholic Church he represented liberal positions.

He blessed homosexuals, campaigned for an end to celibacy and brought women into leadership positions.

The 47-year-old priest also made a career in Speyer and headed the administration of the diocese for four years.

Now the Vicar General has resigned from his office, apparently frustrated – and is also leaving the church.

"I've lost hope and confidence over the years that the Roman Catholic Church can truly transform," Sturm said.

Despite ongoing reform processes such as the synodal path, he no longer sees himself in a position to proclaim this hope and to honestly and sincerely support it - "because I simply don't have it anymore".

Bishop expresses great regret

Sturm announced that he intends to work as a priest in the Old Catholic Church from now on.

Unlike in the Roman Catholic Church, clergy can marry and start a family, among other things, and women can be ordained priests.

It was created in the 1870s as a reaction to the first Vatican Council, which certified the infallibility of the pope.

"I just didn't have the strength anymore"

He is sorry if he is now disappointing believers, writes Sturm.

And: "I just didn't have the strength anymore." The deputy bishop of Speyer had already announced in an interview with SWR in February that he wanted to draw personal consequences if the Catholic Church failed to implement far-reaching reforms.

For the Catholic Church in Germany, which has been mired in scandal for years, Sturm's resignation is likely to be another blow.

Especially because of his younger and liberal generation of priests, many Catholics had hope for change within the Church.

According to a statement, Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer accepted Sturm's resignation "with great regret".

As head of the diocese administration, Sturm gave the diocese "important and trend-setting impulses," according to a statement.

With regard to the abuse scandal, for example, he did his utmost to ensure that “injustice committed is comprehensively dealt with”.

He respects the reasons for Sturm's resignation, but does not share them, said Wiesemann - and referred to the ongoing reform processes.

The bishop appointed Markus Magin as the new vicar general with immediate effect.

The 57-year-old has been a priest in the Speyer diocese since 1994 and has been regent of the St. German seminary since 2009.

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