On Friday, Cardinal Reinhard Marx asked the Pope to release him from his office.
The faithful in his diocese are still struggling to regain composure.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen
- Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, has been a guest in the district several times in the past few weeks. More precisely: in Beuerberg. On April 18, he inaugurated the new altar of St. Peter and Paul, and on May 2, he attended the patronage day of the Bavarian Mountain Rifles. These were appointments where you could forget for a moment all the worries that are currently bothering the Church. But last Friday they were back. As reported, the cardinal offered the Pope his resignation, also in order to “share responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse by officials of the Church in the past decades”. The church had reached a "dead point".
Since then, the base has been seething even more than before.
This became noticeable on Saturday, at the previous evening's mass in St. Josef der Arbeiter in Waldram.
Actually a completely normal appointment in the weekly schedule of the City Church Wolfratshausen.
But that Saturday evening everything was different.
Outside there was a violent thunderstorm, inside white paper doves floated over the altar as a sign of Pentecostal peace and enlightenment through the Holy Spirit.
In the intercessions, the congregation stands behind the cardinal
The mass was held by retired pastor Lorenz Poschenrieder. It was very clear by his standards. In the sermon he addressed a marriage in which the mother is addicted to alcohol and the father is violent towards the children. "The bogeyman is often the one who brings the whole thing to the notice, and that mustn't be," said Poschenrieder. The reference to the events of the previous day was formally imposed on the churchgoers. It became even more direct in the intercessions: Here the congregation stood united behind their shepherd, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and vowed to stand faithfully by his side.
The bang on Friday was also a topic after church. Many believers stood together and discussed: What should be made of Marx's surprising approach? Lector Leonhard Hohenadl and parish council chairman Martin Melf agreed that it was a “very courageous and honorable step” to offer his resignation to the Holy Father in Rome. They also agreed that basically the wrong person is ready to retreat. It would be more consistent if Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki. Archbishop of Cologne, resigns from office. Wölki is considered to be the great adversary of Marx. Both are the only cardinals in Germany with 27 dioceses. While the Cologne resident has come under fire for delaying the enlightenment process, the Munich resident is considered to be one who wants to face the responsibility and guilt of the past.
Small groups discuss in front of the church
How does it go on now?
Martin Melf is by no means certain that Pope Francis will comply with the cardinal's request.
That would mean: Marx remains in office.
Hohenadl urged calm: “It is still too early to make decisions, you have to take one step at a time.” Both found it remarkable that the Pope had given permission for Marx's letter to be published.
That proves how big the crisis and how burning the concern is.
Not only in the Vatican, but also among the believers in Loisachstadt.
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Gerhard Beham, dean and pastor in Wolfratshausen
© Private
Opinions are not uniform among the clergy between Isar and Loisach. Dean Gerhard Beham, pastor of the Wolfratshausen City Church, says: “Personally, I regret Cardinal Marx's offer to resign from office. For me, our archbishop is a motor in coming to terms with the abuse crisis. ”An example of this is the training courses that all pastors have now completed in the prevention of abuse, as well as the concepts in the area of church child and youth work. This also includes the commissioning of law firms that act independently of the church and contact persons in suspected cases. Beham: "I keep asking myself, regardless of whether they are political, social or church leaders who are responsible for the omissions, mistakes and guilt of their respective institutions:When is it good for whom to have heads rolling without us end up being more headless than before? "
Pastors are very surprised at the timing
The Eglingen pastor Manfred Wurzer is constrained, at least about the time of the resignation request.
"One would have expected that His Eminence would wait for the publication of the abuse study of the Archdiocese, which he essentially initiated, and then react to it, which in my opinion would make more sense and would also have made the responsibility clear again."
Also read: Why the cardinal washes the feet of a woman from Münsingen
The statement about the “dead point” “honestly shocked” the Eglingen clergy. After all, Cardinal Reinhard Marx is one of the leading figures in the Catholic Church in Germany. “If this is supposed to have reached a dead point, you can therefore not absolve him of co-responsibility.” In a figurative sense, it is strange when a shepherd simply leaves his flock at precisely this moment. Nevertheless, Wurzer finds it “a strong sign that demands all respect from me, that even a cardinal can admit that he is only human and that he has made mistakes”.
Collaboration: Dieter Klug
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