Pastoral consultants in an interview: what needs to change in the church

Created: 07/27/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Sebastian Grauvogl

Seeing the need for reform in the church: (from left) Harald Petersen, Kathrin Baumann and Hans Fellner.

It is not a loss of power for a pastor if he spreads tasks over several shoulders.

Hans Fellner © Stefan Schweihofer

The job description of the pastoral consultant has existed for 50 years.

In an interview, three representatives from the district of Miesbach explain what needs to change in the church.

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- They were created to compensate for the emerging shortage of priests.

When Cardinal Julius Döpfner sent out the first seven "pastoral assistants" in Munich on July 3, 1971, many in the church leadership considered these new posts for ministers who did not want to be ordained only to be temporary.

50 years later, pastoral officers (women have also been admitted since 1976) are active in many parishes or in specialist pastoral care.

On the occasion of the 50th birthday of this theological profession, we asked three representatives from the Miesbach district for an interview: the Miesbach pastoral officer Kathrin Baumann (52), Harald Petersen (43) from Holzkirch, who works in senior pastoral care at the dean's office, and Hans Fellner (77 ) from Holzkirchen, who from 1979 was significantly involved in setting up his own training center for pastoral consultants at the Archbishop's Ordinariate in Munich.

Ms. Baumann, Mr. Petersen, Mr. Fellner, pastoral officers carry out tasks that used to be the sole responsibility of priests.

Does it happen that they are sometimes mistaken for that too?

Petersen:

It has actually happened to me, and not just once.

It happens again and again that people address me as “Mr. Pastor”.

Does that honor you?

Petersen:

It shows me that what ultimately matters to people is not the office, but the way you carry out your work on site.

But that also means that you are sometimes confronted with excessive expectations.

Unlike an ordained priest, I have a family myself and therefore more personal commitments.

This cannot be reconciled with the high demands that the pastor's job entails.

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But aren't you also saying that only ordained priests should continue to be able to lead a parish association?

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Petersen:

No.

I think it is important that men and women in the ministry of the church should be able to make their own decisions about the path they want to take.

There are already pastoral officers who decide to take on a leadership position, not only in senior, youth or sick pastoral care, but also in the ordinariate and, more recently, in the parish associations.

What urgently needs to change are church structures that exclude people from certain offices and positions.

Baumann:

There really is a great need for reform here.

Even theologically, it is no longer justifiable why a woman cannot proclaim the message of Jesus.

Fellner:

Fortunately, the pressure from the base is increasing.

Thanks to the work of the pastoral consultants, more and more people are realizing: "They can do it too."

A realization that has already arrived in the church?

Fellner: Definitely

in certain areas.

More and more pastors are experiencing that pastoral advisors and especially women do not endanger the pastoral work, but rather enrich it.

Ultimately, however, a lot still depends on the people on site in the parish associations, how much the team spirit is lived.

Baumann:

As long as the pastors have the sole decision-making authority, they also define how many design options the pastoral officers have.

We here at the Dean's Office in Miesbach are in the fortunate position of being able to draw on plenty.

But that's not the case everywhere.

Fellner:

It just has to be made clear to everyone that there is no loss of power when tasks are spread over several shoulders.

On the contrary: This is the only way to create diversity and thus the opportunity to reach more people with pastoral care.

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However, this also requires sufficient staff.

Can the pastoral officers make up for the shortage of priests?

Bauman:

No.

Because there is not only a shortage of priests, but rather a shortage of pastors.

That is exactly why it is so important to make the profession so attractive with the reforms mentioned that more young people decide to study theology again.

The recent revelations about the abuse scandal shouldn't necessarily make this any easier, should it?

Who would want to defend an institution that deals with serious mistakes from the past in this way?

Baumann:

It's not about defending these things.

On the contrary: it is the job of the pastor on site to answer people's questions.

Sometimes just the honest statement that you are speechless and overwhelmed helps.

That is precisely one of the strengths of the pastoral consultants.

They are perceived as particularly credible because, in the eyes of the people, they lead a completely normal life.

A chance for the church to come out of the deep crisis?

Fellner:

The Holy Spirit has always given the church the vocations it needed.

It is important that you open yourself to it and do not cling to traditional, rigid structures that have long since lost any justification - not even in the faith itself.

so called