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PDF versionBenedict in Germany
by Maureen Fiedler on Sep. 23, 2011
According to The New York Times, Pope Benedict's third visit to his native Germany this week drew a crowd of 60,000 for his celebration of Mass.
But it also drew at least 9,000 protestors, according to police estimates. Many of the protestors were no doubt members of Wir sind Kirche (We Are Church), a church reform organization very much like the Call to Action group in the United States.
They called for church reforms that lay Catholics all over the world would like to see: an end to mandatory clerical celibacy, the ordination of women, gay rights, more open policies on family planning and much more transparency in the handling of sex abuse cases.
The Pope addressed the German Bundestag (Parliament), but his speech was boycotted by dozens of legislators because, as one legislator put it, "I thought we had separation of church and state here in our country."
We need to examine this visit in a larger context: the current state of the church in the contemporary world.
Clearly, Benedict is not able to command the crowds that the more charismatic John Paul II drew. But these developments in Germany are not simply a matter of personal qualities. When Benedict was first elected, Germans celebrated that event.
No, this journey of Benedict to Germany is rather a barometer of the lowered status of the church in the world, and the growing dissonance between church policies and the lives of ordinary Catholics the world over.
It is surely a positive development that the pope is not greeted as some type of medieval monarch. But Germany and the world are not merely shedding medieval customs. The depth of the sex abuse scandal has cut deeply, and the results have yet to be dealt with properly.
Witness Ireland in recent weeks, and the United States, as well as Germany. In addition, this refusal of the hierarchy to even consider reform in ways that lay Catholics the world over desire -- in ways that would make the church a relevant force in the modern world -- is moving the institutional church toward irrelevance.
This is the message of German Catholics. Let those who have ears. …
I'm waiting to hear what
I'm waiting to hear what Benedict had to say about relevant topics for his hosts: the mayor of Berlin is openly homosexual and another prominent politician is in a remarriage after divorce, yet both are "practicing Catholics". I'm sure some of our bishops with similar problems are wondering too!
It is not the mission of the
It is not the mission of the Church to make worldly people more comfortable in their worldly ways. It is the mission of the Church to call sinful wordly people to repentance for their sins which will allow them to enter into eternal glory.
I'd like to disagree with you
I'd like to disagree with you Maureen, but I can not. As long as church "leaders" turn a blind eye to the church's most basic problems and fight against even the most common sense reforms, they will have less ans less influence in among the faithful, let alone the unconverted. Benedict XVI is an improvement over John Paul II and his sorry record on child sex abuse by priests, but that isn't saying much.
Maureen needs to read
Maureen needs to read Archbishop Dolan's lastest blog (God forbid that she would}. He quotes a recent survey that shows some Catholics leave the Church for a more liberal religion, but many more leave for a more consservative church Does Maureen forget her ill fated petition to Rome? She even paid children to obtain signatures. It was a dismal failure. The future of the Church was evident in the almost two million youth who went to Madrid to profess their faith and to cheer for Benedict.
What is irrelevant is an
What is irrelevant is an elderly lady still mired in the seventies. You did watch the youth in Spain profess their faith? I doubt they believe the Church is irrelevant.
Dear Anonymous: Millions of
Dear Anonymous:
Millions of young people, around the world, go to McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut, with heavy damage to their own health. The difference bethween Madrid, where there were powerful fascist franchisings from Opus, Communion and Liberation and Kiko Agnello's fascist militias, and Berlin, is just that: there were not fascist militias in Germany, the nazy-stalinist country, and the Pope's homeland. Can you see the difference? Fast religion is worse than fast food!
The consnsus is that
The consnsus is that Benedict's trip to Germany, to the surprise of many, was a huge success, and the media reported that the protests were much smaller than predicted.
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