#Bishop Franz-Josef Bode

[cathnews]

Religion is ‘interruption,’ not continuity, says bishop

Religion is ‘interruption,’ not continuity, says bishop

The shortest definition of religion is “interruption,” says Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured). Some forms of continuity people seek from religion are “frankly suspect,” the president of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference asserts. Bätzing made the comments during the bishops’ plenary assembly in a live-streamed Mass on Tuesday. In his homily he said “all too surely asserted continuities, ……

[theologyforthelayman]

German bishop must face Vatican investigation, abuse council demands | Catholic News Agency

An advisory body of sexual abuse survivors on Monday called for canonical procedures against the vice president of the German Bishops’ Conference. Bishop Franz-Josef Bode should be charged under canon law for his handling of abuse cases, the advisory council said in a statement sent to media Dec. 12, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. The […]German bishop must face Vatican…

[iprayunceasingly-blog]

German bishop supports 'Church strike' for women's ordination

New Post has been published on https://pray-unceasingly.com/catholic-living/catholic-news/german-bishop-supports-church-strike-for-womens-ordination/

German bishop supports 'Church strike' for women's ordination

Munich, Germany, May 15, 2019 / 02:15 pm (CNA).- At least one bishop has offered his support for a week-long “Church strike” organized by German Catholic women, during which participants organize their own prayer services rather than attending Mass.

Calling itself "Mary 2.0" the initiative issued an open letter to Pope Francis, which called for the ordination of women, and claimed "men of the Church only tolerate one woman in their midst: Mary."

"We want to take Mary off her pedestal and into our midst, as a sister facing our direction," the letter said.

The website features paintings of Mary and other women with their mouths taped over.

The campaign has met with considerable criticism from German Catholics, some of when even launched of a "Maria 1.0" website, which says that the Mother of God "does not require any updates and should not be instrumentalized.”

But several Church representatives have gone public in support of "Mary 2.0."

The official news portal of the Catholic Church in Germany provided broad coverage of the call for a strike, taking place May 11-18. It also reported that Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück supports the campaign.

Bode, who leads the Commission on Women in the German bishops' conference, told press agency EPD that while he regrets the strikes will not attend Mass, he believes it important to acknowledge the impatience of "many women in the Catholic Church" and their feelings of "deep hurt" for not being adequately appreciated for their contribution.

Bode said that while he does not believe women will be ordained priests in the near future, the Church could soon ordain them as deacons.

Participants in the "Church strike" are refusing to step into a church from the week of May 11 to 18 and will not attend Mass. Instead, services such as a "Liturgy of the Word" are held throughout the week. According to the campaign's Facebook page, these services have garnered between 18 and 155 registered attendees.

Referencing the abuse crisis as a reason for the urgent need for change, the group’s letter to Pope Francis makes a range of demands, from the abolition of "mandatory celibacy" to an "updating" of the Church's teaching on sexual morality and the ordination of women to "all ministries" – including the orders of deacon, priest and bishop.

In an interview published on the official website of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, vicar general Fr. Alfons Hardt praised the organizers of the campaign as women who are "concerned about the sustainability of their church."

Hardt said "this is a motivation that I value highly," even though the campaign might also create division.

Whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is an open question, Hardt asserted, saying, "on the one hand we have a definitive decision by Pope John Paul II on the question of the ordination of women and on the other hand we still do not have a final answer. At least in Germany this question is discussed very openly, especially among theologians. It is clear that there is a need for a global ecclesial consensus for this which currently is not the case."

Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all taught that the sacrament of ordination is reserved to men by divine institution, and that, while the role of female “deacons” in the early Church can be studied, such study does not imply that women can be ordained sacramentally.

Despite its demands and – initially – very small numbers, "Mary 2.0" has not only received support from several German prelates but also sustained coverage in Germany, where many Catholics are turning their back on a church in crisis in the wake of the abuse scandals and other controversies, with a recent prognosis predicting the number of Catholics in the country will halve by 2060, and Church attendance in constant decline, hovering at the 10 percent mark on average according to most recent official figure.

In March, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising announced that the church in Germany would embark on a "binding synodal process" to tackle what he described as the three key issues arising from the clerical abuse crisis: priestly celibacy, the Church's teaching on sexual morality, and a reduction of clerical power.

More recently, another German bishop, Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, voiced similar expectations for the "Pan-Amazonian Synod" in October.

Overbeck, who also leads the influential Catholic Latin America relief organization Adveniat, predicted that "nothing will be as it was before" after that synod.

Speaking to journalists on May 2, he said that the role of women in the Church would be reconsidered at the meeting, and so would sexual morality, the role of the priesthood and the overall hierarchical structure of the Church. The synod will take place from October 6 to 27.  

This story was originally published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

  CNA Daily News – Europe

[global-news-station]

Germany’s Catholic Church was Thursday due to speak about steps and reforms to address its child sex abuse scandal, which mirrors paedophilia revelations in congregations worldwide.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German Bishops’ Conference, was due to give a 1300 GMT press conference at the end of a four-day episcopal conference in the western city of Lingen.

As in Australia, Chile, France, Ireland and the United States, Germany’s Catholic Church has had to admit to abuses by predator priests and clergy and their systematic cover-ups over decades.

Germany’s Church last September released a study that showed 1,670 clergymen had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors, mostly boys, between 1946 and 2014.

The authors said the figure was “the tip of the iceberg” as many Church documents had been “destroyed or manipulated”.

Last month a Vatican meeting addressed the global issue heaping pressure on the Church, and this week Australian Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis’s closest advisors, was jailed for six years for molesting two choirboys in 1996.

The German conference host, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, called on the Church to show greater transparency, saying that “only a Church that is pure of heart… transparent, honest and without double standards, which faces up to reality, will win back trust”.

Victims not invited

The Catholic Church — Germany’s biggest religious community with 23 million followers — has apologised and pledged a series of steps, from owning up to past crimes to compensating victims and preventing abuses in future.

German bishops have also debated possible changes to Catholic dogma and traditions, including the training of priests to the role of women.

The bishop charged with addressing the child abuse crisis, Stephan Ackermann, said the Church was seeking to find an “unbureaucratic” way to compensate victims and to build prevention and monitoring systems.

The Church had so far received 1,900 applications for “benefits in acknowledgement of suffering”, he said Wednesday.

The main victims group, Eckiger Tisch, has urged the Church to bring in independent experts for a more thorough audit, to involve victims in the effort and to take speedy steps to compensate those who have suffered.

“We would gladly have presented our demands to the bishops directly and in person, but we were not invited,” said its head, Matthias Katsch.

‘Turn the lights on’

Some 300 protesters Monday rallied outside the conference, chanting “turn the lights on” and symbolically illuminating the church facade with hand-held torches.

The rally, organised by the Catholic Women’s Community of Germany, handed over a petition with 30,000 signatures calling for far-reaching reforms, including giving women a greater role in the Church.

Germany’s biggest abuse clusters have included a Berlin elite Jesuit school and the world-famous Catholic choir school the Regensburger Domspatzen where more than 500 boys suffered sexual or physical abuse.

Overall, most victims were boys and more than half were 13 years old or younger, the study last year concluded.

Predator priests were often transferred to another parish, which was usually not warned about their criminal history.

Only about one in three were subject to disciplinary hearings by the Church, and most got away with minimal punishment.

  The post German Catholics meeting to address child sex abuse scandal appeared first on ARYNEWS.

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[candlelightsinner]

Bishop Antônio Carlos Cruz Santos of Caicó:

"If it is not a choice, if it is not a disease, in the perspective of faith it can only be a gift,” the bishop of Caicó in the Rio Grande do Norte state said during his homily at a Mass closing feast of Santana de Caicó, always marked on the Sunday following the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

“The gospel par excellence is the gospel of inclusion,” said the bishop. “The gospel is a narrow door, yes, it is a demanding love, but it is a door that is always open.

“When you look at homosexuality, you cannot say it’s an option,” Cruz said, adding that a choice has to be made freely, while sexual orientation is something a person discovers “one day.”

However, he said, a person can chose how to live his or her sexual orientation, “in a dignified, ethical way, or in a promiscuous one. But promiscuity can be lived in any of the orientations.”

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, Germany:

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, the Vice President of the German Bishops' Conference, has called for a discussion about the possibility of blessing homosexual relationships. He believes there to be “much [that is] positive” in such relationships. [...]

Bishop Bode asks, with reference to homosexual couples, “how do we do justice to them?” and adds: “how do we accompany them pastorally and liturgically?” Moreover, the German prelate – who had been one of the representatives of the German bishops at the Synod of Bishops on marriage and the family – proposes to reconsider the Church’s stance on active homosexual relationships which are regarded as gravely sinful. “We have to reflect upon the question as to how to assess in a differentiated manner a relationship between two homosexual persons,” he says. “Is there not so much positive and good and right so that we have to be more just?”

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Austria:

During the 2015 Synod on the Family, the Austrian cardinal gave an interview in which he called for an acknowledgment of the “positive elements” of homosexual unions. He then said: “We can and we must respect the decision to form a union with a person of the same sex, [and] to seek means under civil law to protect their living together with laws to ensure such protection.”

[queeringthechurch]

Frankfurt Church leader supports plan for same-sex blessings

A German bishop’s proposal that the Catholic Church could provide blessing ceremonies for gay couples, as well as divorced and civilly remarried couples, gained support at a Church conference in Frankfurt this weekend.

Earlier this month, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode suggested that the Church develop a ceremony for blessing same-sex unions during an interview with Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung.

“We need…

[cathnews]

German cardinal says blessing gay couples ok

German cardinal says blessing gay couples ok

Cardinal Reinhard Marx says Catholic priests can conduct blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. Marx is the president of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Marx says church leaders in the field of pastoral care work and pastoral care should consider the situation of the individual. This means they must “try harder to accompany them in their circumstances of life”. Gay people are included…

[queeringthechurch]

German bishop urges church debate on blessing same-sex unions | National Catholic Reporter

OSNABRUK, GERMANY — The vice president of the German bishops’ conference has urged a debate on whether Catholic clergy should bless same-sex unions.

“I’m concerned with fundamental questions of how we deal with each other; although ‘marriage for all’ differs clearly from the church’s concept of marriage, it’s now a political reality,” said Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabruck.

“We have to ask…