Steinmeier supports the reform process in the Catholic Church

Created: 05/25/2022Updated: 05/25/2022, 19:25

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier takes part in the opening of the 102nd German Catholic Day.

© Marijan Murat/dpa

At the start of the Catholic Day, the reform forces in the church received prominent support.

The fact that something has to be done is also shown by the low level of participation.

Stuttgart - Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke out in favor of church reforms at the start of the Catholic Day in Stuttgart.

Sexual abuse, cover-up and slow clarification would have damaged and destroyed a lot of trust, said Steinmeier on Wednesday evening at the start of the church festival.

"I would like all the more to encourage those who are actively committed to the renewal of the Catholic Church in Germany.

I can tell you that not only I, but many people are looking at the work of the Synodal Path with curiosity and expectation.”

The Synodal Path is a reform process in the Catholic Church in Germany that has been ongoing since 2019.

It deals with four subject areas: Catholic sexual morality, dealing with power, the position of women and the priestly duty to be celibate.

Steinmeier said that the results of the synodal path will largely determine what role the church will play in society in the future.

The Federal President defended the church against the accusation that it had acted too cautiously in the corona pandemic.

This criticism mostly came from those who didn't have much to do with the church anyway "and who can't or don't want to see how much good and comforting things have actually happened in silence".

The opening of the Catholic Day was overshadowed by allegations against the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Georg Bätzing.

"I'm perplexed and surprised," said the bishop of the host diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Gebhard Fürst.

"I don't know the exact scope right now, but I would never do anything like that in my diocese."

The "Zeit" supplement "Christ & Welt" made it known on Tuesday that Bätzing had promoted a pastor in his Limburg diocese despite allegations of sexual harassment.

The priest is said to have verbally and physically sexually harassed a Protestant pastor in training in 2000, and later also a prospective community officer.

A diocese spokesman said that Bätzing had issued a warning against the priest.

Because the priest showed remorse and apologized, Bätzing appointed him district dean.

The President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, pointed out on Wednesday that, to the best of her knowledge, the incidents were not criminally relevant.

"But the question of why Bishop Bätzing then appointed the priest in question as regional dean in this situation is of course a question that I'm probably not the only one asking myself, and in this respect I assume that he may have made a mistake here must also take a stand on the past.”

The Catholic Day, which runs until Sunday, includes 1,500 events and is taking place again in person for the first time in four years, albeit with far fewer participants than last time, around 25,000.

Among them are 7000 contributors alone.

90,000 people came to the 2018 Catholic Day in Münster.

In view of this decline, those responsible had to ask themselves why the much smaller Catholic Day in Stuttgart, at ten million euros, cost the same as the popular one in Münster and whether it was still justified to spend so much public money on it.

The canon lawyer Thomas Schüller criticized the Catholic Days as "expensive flash in the pan without sustainability".

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Stetter-Karp admitted that the number of registrations was not only related to Corona, but also to the fact that the Catholic Church was going through a "crisis situation".

"It is certainly no coincidence that we have more than 30 events on the urgent reform issues in the Catholic Church in our program."

Another overriding issue is the Ukraine war.

The Russian attack poses a challenge, especially for Christians, Stetter-Karp told the German Press Agency.

In principle, following Jesus, Christians are committed to non-violence and peace.

"At the same time, since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, we cannot deny the Ukrainians their right to a sovereign state, to their integrity and to live in freedom.

This leads to massive uncertainties in peace ethics.”

Pope Francis also referred to the war in Ukraine in a message on Catholic Day.

"So our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine these days, and we pray for all people whose lives are threatened and affected," wrote the head of the Catholic world church.

"Especially in the crises of our time, thank God, we can see how willing many people are to make sacrifices for others."