Church
Catholic reformers want a counterweight to traditionalists
Christian Weisner from the federal team of the church reform group “We are Church”. photo
© Armin Weigel/dpa
Reform groups like “We are Church” and Maria 2.0 have been pushing for a greater opening of the Catholic Church for a long time. Now they want to coordinate even better at a conference in Cologne.
Catholic reform groups, initiatives for those affected and associations want to network better in the future in order to create a counterbalance to conservative groups and traditionalists. That became clear on Saturday on the first day of a “People’s Church Conference” in Cologne. “We want to build lifeboats together, while the water level of the credibility of the constituted Catholic Church keeps sinking and sinking, not only in Cologne, not only in the Rhine,” said Christian Weisner from “Wir sind Kirche”.
Maria Mesrian from Maria 2.0 said that Cologne had become synonymous with the Catholic Church’s failure to deal with sexualized violence. “We are plagued by new scandals every week.”
In the synodal path reform process, the same bishops who would have covered up perpetrators and covered up crimes are currently trying to prevent urgently needed reforms to eliminate the systemic causes of sexual abuse. “That’s absurd. It’s all about power, which these gentlemen like to disguise as service. Let’s not let that blind us any longer,” Mesrian demanded.
Pressing for a larger opening
The motto of the conference, which lasts until Sunday, is “We’re going ahead – for a synodal church of the future.” The 39 organizations involved include the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ), the Catholic Women’s Community of Germany (kfd), the Catholic German Women’s Federation (KDFB), OutInChurch and Pax Christi. There are also observers from Austria, England and Ireland. The reform groups are pushing for the Catholic Church to open up more, for example when it comes to allowing women to hold offices or when it comes to attitudes towards homosexuality.
Weisner emphasized that it is not planned that the organizations involved should only speak with one voice in the future. However, they are already working together on campaigns and events and have spoken up “related to the occasion and region”, such as at the general assemblies of the German Bishops’ Conference, at synodal assemblies and at Catholic days. This should be strengthened in the future.
program of the conference