“If someone had told me that a year ago,” says Sandra Schnell, “I wouldn’t have believed it.” The pastoral officer is allowed to baptize – as a woman, quite officially. What is normal for Protestants is still a novelty for the Catholic Church. For a little over a month, lay people have also been allowed to donate baptism in the diocese of Essen, and thus women too. 17 women and one man had applied for the office, and Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck officially appointed them to the service at the beginning of March. The fact that, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, 17 women in Germany are baptizing with a church blessing is pure coincidence and not a political sign, as the diocese assures. They are in action in eleven of the 40 parishes of the Ruhr Diocese. The 52-year-old pastoral officer Sandra Schnell in Altena in Sauerland is one of them.
There is a lot going on in the Catholic Church in Germany. Cardinals are publicly considering celibacy, queer employees no longer have to fear being fired in some places – and women are demanding more equality. After Bishop Overbeck’s initiative, voices were also raised in other dioceses calling for women to be baptized.
According to Catholic teaching, the sacrament of baptism may only be administered by a consecrated man, i.e. a priest or deacon. But Overbeck used a loophole in canon law: Article Can. 861 that the bishop may delegate baptism if there are not enough “ordinary” baptizers. In the Swiss diocese of Basel, women have been allowed to baptize for a long time on this basis, and the former Bishop of Aachen, Heinrich Mussinghoff, had temporarily granted baptismal powers to laypeople because of an unoccupied pastorate in a parish.
Baptism is linked to the right inner attitude
This is based on an idea similar to that of emergency baptism, says liturgy expert Theresa Kohlmeyer, who led the course for lay baptizers in the diocese of Essen. If an unbaptized infant is in acute danger of death after birth, anyone can validly baptize. So baptism is not necessarily linked to the priesthood, not even to the denomination – only to the “right inner attitude” to the act of baptism, according to Kohlmeyer.
Like many other German dioceses, the diocese of Essen suffers from a shortage of priests. Many small parishes have been grouped together in large “pastoral rooms”, which are chronically undersupplied with priests. The parish of St. Matthäus in Altena, where pastoral officer Sandra Schnell works, no longer has its own pastor, only a “moderating” priest.
Pastor Johannes Broxtermann is actually already a retired clergyman and employed as such in Lüdenscheid. But every two weeks, on Sunday, he stops by the Gothic brick church in Altena, celebrates the Eucharist, and to make it worthwhile, twice in a row. In between there are liturgies of the word or other priests come by. Sandra Schnell makes the Eucharistic plan of action. Because she is in charge of the parish – and with that she is also a pioneer in Germany.
The Catholic pastoral officer Sandra Schnell heads the parish in Altena and is now also allowed to baptize children.
(Photo: Michael Schnell)
“I and my pastoral assistant do the pastoral things beyond the Eucharist. I take care of the networking, he takes care of the preparation for First Communion,” says Schnell. In addition to Pastor Broxtermann, Sandra Schnell also organizes funerals. She maintains contact with the day-care centers and schools in the community, designs the parish magazine, takes care of the elderly and organizes the parish office. When she started, she would have expected more resistance, says Schnell: “But I’m amazed at how positively it was received. The vast majority are totally satisfied that I’m here.” And now the baptisms are added – for Schnell it’s just a logical step.
In other dioceses this is still a long way off. But the voices are increasing, calling on bishops to do the same as Essen. In the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, the diocesan council even discussed the possibility of lay baptism in March. Bishop Gebhard Fürst said that this had to be checked thoroughly. It’s about “quality before speed”.
In the diocese of Würzburg, the Frauenkirchenkonferenz called on Bishop Franz Jung in an open letter to do the same as his fellow brother Overbeck. Jung remained non-binding in his reply. Overbeck “triggered a broad discussion in the German Bishops’ Conference,” writes Jung, without going into detail about the question of the baptismal donation for his diocese. At the moment, three episcopal commissions are dealing with the issues raised by this decision, Jung continued: “The aim is to agree on a procedure that is as uniform as possible among the other German dioceses.”
“As laypeople, we don’t just want to be the emergency nail”
Sabine Mehling-Sitter is the head of women’s pastoral care in the Diocese of Würzburg, and she sent the open letter. In Würzburg it is not a problem at the moment to find enough priests and deacons for baptisms, she says. “I think you can still ask whether only one priest can administer all the sacraments and whether you can’t share the tasks,” says Mehling-Sitter. “As laypeople, we don’t just want to be the last resort when there are no priests.”
Agnes Wuckelt from the Catholic Women’s Community in Germany (kfd) can understand this thought. But: “Unfortunately, we have to proceed in such a formal way because our hands are tied by canon law,” says the professor emeritus for Catholic theology at the University of Paderborn. Nevertheless, it is right to use all loopholes in canon law without Rome being able to complain. “When looking at the sacraments, there is unfortunately no leeway at the moment with the Eucharist, the sacrament of penance and the anointing of the sick,” says Wuckelt.
But in addition to baptism, “women could also help with the marriage, for example. Because marriage is a sacrament that the bride and groom offer to each other. The presence of a cleric is therefore not absolutely necessary.” The Synodal Way, the discussion forum of the Catholic Church, is currently working on allowing women to preach at the Eucharistic celebration. A first action text on a change in the sermon order has already received a majority in the first reading.
“In the end, of course, these questions also affect the priest’s self-image,” says Wuckelt. But that can perhaps also be an opportunity for the priesthood. And some priests feel the greater involvement of the laity as a relief, says Theresa Kohlmeyer, who trained the baptismal donors. The bishop just didn’t want to wait “until all the priests in the archdiocese walk on their gums.” For the believers themselves, says Sandra Schnell, the difference between clergy and lay people is often not that important. “They approach it with a great deal of impartiality. Above all, they want to be well supported.”
This is also important to Theresa Kohlmeyer: “It’s not just about the act of baptism itself, but about the entire baptismal ministry,” she says. “Should the baptismal talks be hectic and under stress or in peace? Can I also accompany the family after the baptism? Do we want to make the baptisms particularly individual for the families or do we want group baptisms? It’s all about the question: How people-oriented we want to be we are.”