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For German Catholics:
A departure and a new start?
May 16, 2012
The German Church is holding its bi-annual meeting, more commonly known as Katholikentag, in Mannheim, with over 30,000 participants and guests assembled to discuss, to worship, to celebrate and to share the current state of the Church in Pope Benedict XVI’s homeland. Father Bernd Hagenkord, S.J., director of Vatican Radio's German service reports from Mannheim:
The book containing all the events of this Katholikentag [entitled with this year's motto, 'Einen neuen Aufbruch wagen' (Committing to a new start)] is nearly 600 pages long [I can't imagine anyone other than Germans going to such literal lengths!], with 1200 events listed covering all possible topics relating to the Church in Germany, its relations with other religions, and its work in international charity.
There are lectures and discussions, presentations and new initiatives, and as during every Katholikentag the city is strewn with white tents, every one of them containing an initiative, parish, diocese, association, or other catholic organization. Ecumenism, mission, parish organization, moral theology, music, social responsibility: There seems to be no topic not represented here. The whole four-day meeting is framed by liturgies and prayer-services.
A particular focus this year is local churches (parishes). For lack of money, of priests many parishes have had to be merged with other parishes, creating administrative units rather than living communities. So the focus is on how to make this work and how to bring to life this changing structure with new initiatives or ideas.
This meeting of Catholics shows the signs of the times. Alois Gluck, president of the German Catholics lay council ZDK [Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken] which organizes the Katholikentag, said during a press conference said it also shows the contribution the Church can make to society today. The event is supposed to be inspirational for all those coming here.
After the sex-abuse scandals and the loss of significant numbers of Catholics in Germany, many perceive the church as being stale or numb, without answers to today’s crisis or challenges. Therefore the title of the meeting is „Aufbruch“ - meaning departure as well as new start.
The Church hierarchy and laity in Germany want to find a way out of what Alois Gluck called the inner blockade in many questions. The price to pay is to give up a lot of much-loved customs or structures. However, this is necessary to move the Church forward. How to do this is what this Katholikentag is for.
Too bad Fr. Hagenkord fails to mention the big white elephant in the room, this being the first Katholikentag since then: Benedict XVI's ringing call to the German Church when he addressed the Katholikentag organizers, the ZDK, in Freiburg last September, telling them, among other things:
In order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God...
This does not, of course, mean withdrawing from the world: quite the contrary. A Church relieved of the burden of worldliness is in a position, not least through her charitable activities, to mediate the life-giving strength of the Christian faith to those in need, to sufferers and to their caregivers...
Openness to the concerns of the world means, then, for the Church that is detached from worldliness, bearing witness to the primacy of God’s love according to the Gospel through word and deed, here and now, a task which at the same time points beyond the present world because this present life is also bound up with eternal life.
Hagenkord also fails to describe the general tone of the Katholikentag in its recent history, even while taking place under the supposedly vigilant watch of the German Church hierarchy, when non-Catholic views on social issues were often given more prominence than orthodox Catholicism, nor the fact that ZDK represents liberal Catholicism's tendency to detach the question of God from their breastbeating do-goodism.
I don't have the time to go over the 600-page program online to get an idea just how much the current Katholikentag is taking heed of the Pope's admonitions, but we must all pray that this represents indeed 'a new start' for that troubled Church that seems to have derived little spiritual advantage from having one of their own as the Supreme Pontiff.
P.S. The Vatican Press Office has just posted the message sent by the Holy Father for this year's Katholikentag. Here is a translation..
To my Venerated Brother
Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg,
to the Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Religious,
aand all the Participants in the Katholientag in Mannheim,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
'To commit to a new start'. Under these words many believers are gathering these days for the 98th German Katholikentag in Mannheim. In union with you, I greet you all who have come together for the celebratory opening on the Markplatz in the heart of the city.
I greet most especially the Archbishop of Freiburg and President of teh German Bishops' Conference, Dr. Robert Zollitsch, all the cardinals and bishops present, as well as the Central Committee of German Catholics, with along with the Archdiocese of Freiburg is hosting this event.
I likewise greet the representatives of of other Christian churches and of public authorities, and everyone who are joining you through the carious communications media.
The occasion brings back to me with pleasure and with great gratitude my pastoral visit last year to our homeland and on the many enriching meetings I had with people from all sectors of society in a great celebration of faith.
Your meeting in Mannheim is taking place under the motto, 'Committing to a new start". What does this really say to us? A new start means to set forth, to get under way. Many times, it means at the same time making a choice for change and renewal.
Only he who is ready to leave the old behind and commit himself to the new can really set out on a new beginning. What then does this mean for the ecclesial community, which, according to the Apostle Paul, is the mystical Body of Christ?
Christ is the Leader, and we are the members. We must not manipulate the Church around its Leader, but we ourselves are called to renew ourselves continually as members, and to reach out as 'leaders and perfecters' of our faith (cfr Heb 12,2).
Renewal can only bring fruit when it arises from the true novelty of Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14,6). Thus, a new start concerns every believer in his innermost.
Through Baptism, we became 'new' in Christ. The Lord redeemed our humanity from the slavery of sin and opened us for a life-giving relationship with God. This God-given new start must always be a personal going forth to God.
Each one must strive to live his faith concretely and to seek to develop it. But in our faith, we are not alone, isolated from others. We believe with and within the community of the Church. A new start for each baptized person is also a new start in and with the Church.
At all times there have been persons who have dared to make a new start and in whom the presence of God has been clearly manifested. The witness of faith of the saints and the great ranks of Christians who have announced the message of the Gospel freely and fearlessly, can encourage us today to make this new start, spur us on to new courage in our faith.
Sacred Scripture and the history of the Church tell of many men for whom the customary in their time did not suffice, could not suffice. With uneasy but open hearts they were capable, in their life and in the challenges of daily living, to undertake God's call for them to set forth. It was not human vicissitude that prompted them to do so, but the yearning for truth and to listen to God's Word.
The true departure, as they have shown us, is obedience and trust in God's behest and call. He who knows how to speak to God and shapes his life according to his dialog with God will overcome constraints and difficulties and be ready to "to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope" (cfr 1Pt 3.15).
A son of Mannheim, the Jesuit priest and later martyr Alfred Delp, describes to us in a meditation written a few weeks before his death, those who have responded to God's call and set forth to their mission: "These are the persons who have infinite vision. They truly hunger and thirst for the ultimate things. They are capable of making the necessary choices, ordering their lives according to the ultimate things. They are seeking, travelling men since they believe more in that interior call and external signs - that they would miss without their interior hunger and watchful vigilance - rather than in certainties and comfortable settledness" (Im Angesicht des Todes, 97f).
Dear brothers and sisters, the Katholikentag is taking place in a city where there is an obvious diversity of ideas and opinions, of lifestyles and religions. Wagering on a new start, in such an environment, means getting to know its opportunities and its hazards, and to make room for a genuine exchange of ideas.
Only men ruled by 'the civilization of love' can edify true and enduring peace. As a Church, we have the task to announce the message of the Gospel openly and clearly. The contribution of every baptized person to the New Evangelization is essential. Even our country needs a new missionary and apostolic start.
I wish to say a special word to young people and young adults. Last year, I met many of you at World Youth Day in Madrid, and a few weeks later, at the prayer vigil in Freiburg. Those who like you still have much of your life before you are always challenged to make decisions, and even when disappointed, to get up and continue building a strong future.
Have the courage to orient yourselves to Jesus Christ. Strengthen each other in the faith. Among your friends, in school and at work, bring the message of the Gospel. As Christ loves the Church (cfr Eph 5.25), so must we love the Church.
Yes, identify yourself with the Church, because Christ identified himself with the Church, because Christ identified himself with us! Draw from the life and the truth that Christ has given us in the Church. We all want to bring this treasure of God's love to our land. Following his Word, we wish to set off to a new start (cfr Lk 5,5), reciprocating God's coming to us.
The 98th Katholikentag constitutes in a way a prelude to the Year of Faith which we shall begin shortly on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Therefore, may these days in Mannheim be a feast of faith, helping to rediscover the faith of the Church in its beauty and freshness, to reclaim it in an ever deeper way and to announce it anew.
With this wish, I commend the Katholikentag to God's hands and from the heart, I impart to you the Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican
May 14, 2012
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/05/2012 10:14] |