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“Church has to be creative”: New parish administrator Stephan Rauscher “builds” the city church of Freising

2021-01-26T14:04:30.815Z


A tremendous upheaval is imminent in Freising's church landscape: Parish administrator Stephan Rauscher founds a so-called city church. He says: "The Catholic Church has to get creative."


A tremendous upheaval is imminent in Freising's church landscape: Parish administrator Stephan Rauscher founds a so-called city church.

He says: "The Catholic Church has to get creative."

Freising

- Not only the churchgoers tend to be less and less, but also the priests and pastors.

Freising is not spared from this development either.

That is why the cathedral city now wants to dare to change with a large city church.

The administrator, freshly installed by the ordinariate, Pastor Stephan Rauscher, already has experience with associations through the relatively new Holledau parish association and knows: "The Catholic Church must be creative."

The city church

Rauscher makes it clear right away: no parish will be dissolved, but rather they will be merged administratively.

Also because the clergyman knows exactly that this is the greatest fear many people have.

According to Rauscher, the usual place of worship is also a piece of home.

Nevertheless, there will of course be changes: Due to the lack of priests, currently four in Freising, a service cannot be held everywhere on Sundays, especially not in the smaller outer congregations.

In the parish association Holledau, which includes the parish of Nandlstadt and Attenkirchen, however, according to Rauscher, it has been shown that this model can work.

In his opinion, the Catholic Church must be more creative anyway in order to continue to reach the people.

Since the New Year, Rauscher has been given the task of founding a so-called city church in Freising - also because the pastor Peter Lederer, who has been responsible to date, is still on sick leave.

The goals

The new parish administrator wants to put the main focus on the pastoral care team anyway, so that it remains able to act in a concentrated manner - just over ten people who diligently take care of confirmations, care for old people's homes, liturgical services and much more.

Rauscher is also very happy about the “retirees”, i.e. the retired priests, who are also helpful to him.

But he also had to “look over” the church administration in Freising - overall, however, Rauscher had to “oschaug” a lot due to the short training period.

Important for him: the church must remain solid as a rock.

But the Lord, according to Rauscher, is not tied to a specific location - many people would now often go to their favorite pastor anyway, regardless of where the mass is taking place.

It is time to set impulses - in Freising with a city church.

Rauscher cannot yet estimate how long this merger will take.

In addition to his new management position, he has also been elected dean for the Moosburg dean's office since December last year and was confirmed by Cardinal Marx.

New ways

Rauscher, so praised the parish vicar Patrick Körbs from the parish association St. Korbinian, is a distinguished leader with a good eye for the whole.

Körbs is currently still acting as a substitute for the new Rauscher, but not for long.

As of summer, Körbs will be leaving the cathedral city.

However, he does not want to reveal where it is going yet.

Support

Körbs, who started as a chaplain at the time, has been in Freising since 2017, and has now passed his second official examination.

Until then, however, the parish vicar wants to give the new city church commissioner a helping hand and has a positive feeling about it: "Pastor Rauscher just has a good feel for the matter!"

The workload

The new parish administrator is currently active in the cathedral city at least once a week - holding discussions with employees and looking after the pastoral care team.

In exchange with Körbs, Rauscher also regularly holds church services in Freising, while Körbs in the Hallertau.

The parish vicar thinks the idea of ​​a town church is very good, also because he grew up with the town church in Germering himself.

For Freising, says Körbs, this is both an asset and an opportunity.

Richard Lorenz

In order to reach the believers, Pastor Stephan Rauscher comes up with a few ideas during the Corona crisis: In the interview, he talks about online church services, Instagram messages and what the response from the congregation is.

You can always read all the latest news from Freising and the region here.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-01-26

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