Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland

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Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland
Map Switzerland.png
Basic data
Area : 41,285
Membership : Union of Utrecht
Bishop : Harald Rein
Emeritus Bishop : Fritz-René Müller
Hans Gerny
Episcopal Vicar : Daniel Konrad
Priest : 44
Deacons : 6th
Parishes : 33
Diaspora areas : 8th
Christian Catholics : 13,312 (2000)
Cathedral Church : St. Peter & Paul ( Bern )
Official Website: www.christkatholisch.ch

The Christian Catholic Church is the Old Catholic Church in Switzerland . With the nation's approximately 13,500 members of the Christian Catholic Church in various cantons has the official status of a national church .

Prehistory and origin of the "Christian Catholic" Church

The term "Christian Catholic" goes back to the church reform movement called Josephinism under Empress Maria Theresia and Emperor Joseph , which shaped Fricktal, Austria (part of the diocese of Basel ) in Switzerland until 1801 , where there are several Christian Catholic communities today. Under the influence of Josephinism, Febronianism and his teacher Johann Michael Sailer , the Konstanz Vicar General Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg published a Christian Catholic hymn and devotional book in 1812 , through which he wanted to promote the liturgical service with readings in German and German church hymns.

By adopting this term as a self-designation, the Christian Catholic Church wanted to emphasize that it is convinced that Christ alone and not the Pope is the head of the Catholic Church.

Eduard Herzog around 1859
Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg

The Christian Catholic Church emerged from the protest and resistance to the dogmas of the First Vatican Council of 1870. The term "Christian Catholic" (as Catholic without the pope's universal primacy over all other bishops and his infallibility in matters of faith), which appeared around 1844 The term “German Catholic” thus became common in German-speaking countries around 1870. (The Breslau prince-bishop Heinrich Förster had already used the term “Christian Catholic” as opposed to “Roman Catholic” for excommunicated followers of Johannes Ronges in 1859. ) Professor and National Councilor Walther Munzinger , who had written about the papacy and the national church as early as 1860, was an important resister . He organized the first Swiss Catholic congress in Solothurn on September 18, 1871 , which formed the nucleus of the Christian Catholic Church.

In the course of the Swiss culture war , Pastor Paulin Gschwind , Aargau, Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva founded Christian Catholic parishes independent of Rome in the cantons of Solothurn . At the first session of the National Synod in Olten on June 14, 1875 , they gave themselves a constitution. A year later, at the second session of the National Synod, Pastor Eduard Herzog was elected the first Christian Catholic bishop and consecrated on September 18, 1876 in Rheinfelden by Bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens . The first president of the Christian Catholic Synodal Council, the executive body, was the Aargau politician Augustin Keller .

During his long term in office (until his death in 1924), Herzog made a significant contribution to the theological and organizational consolidation of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland and was committed to relations with Anglican and later also with Orthodox churches. For his successors see the list of Swiss Christian Catholic bishops .

Theological school

Since the canton of Bern wanted to strengthen liberal Catholicism, it set up a Catholic theological faculty at the University of Bern on December 10, 1874. However, since graduates had no prospect of working as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, only Christian Catholic clergy were trained there. From 2001 to 2017, the institute was incorporated as a department, and since then as an Institute for Christian Catholic Theology , which is now a theological faculty of the University of Bern.

Recent developments

In 1999, under Bishop Hans Gerny , ordination of women was introduced in the Christian Catholic Church . Gerny's concern was to discuss this question in the churches of the Union of Utrecht in order to come to a decision without dividing the church. Denise Wyss was ordained the first Christian Catholic priestess in 2000 .

There is no mandatory connection between ordination and celibacy in the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland.

Between 1970 and 1990 the membership of the Christian Catholic Church decreased from 20,268 to only 11,748 members. The data from the last censuses show that the aging of the population is a much greater problem for the Christian Catholic Church than for the other regional churches. Contrary to the trend of leaving the two large regional churches, the Christian Catholic Church has recorded a constant increase in membership since 1990. Between 1990 and 2000 the number of members grew by over 13% from 11,748 to 13,312. According to the company's own information, the number of members in 2016 was around 12,000. The growth is mainly due to transfers from other churches. Nevertheless, the smallest of the three regional churches is still largely unknown to the population.

Ecumenism

In terms of ecumenism, the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland is a member of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Switzerland on a national level , of the Conference of European Churches on an international level and of the Ecumenical Council of Churches . The Discussion Commission of the Christian Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches in Switzerland (CRGK) has existed at the national level since 1966. The Willibrord Society promotes relations with the Anglican Church in Switzerland.

At the international level, within the framework of the ecumenical dialogues of the Union of Utrecht, the Christian Catholic Church was represented in the Orthodox-Old Catholic Dialogue from 1975 to 1987 at all meetings, in the International Roman-Catholic-Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD) the Christian Catholic Bishop practiced from 2004 to 2009 the function of Co-President. The IRAD commission report for this term was published under the title Church and Communion in the Documents of Growing Consensus series.

Christian Catholic theologians are also heavily involved in the current (international) dialogue commissions of the Union of Utrecht for talks with Rome, the Ecumenical Patriarchate , the Church of Sweden , and the Indian Mar Thoma Church .

Geographical distribution

The Christian Catholic Episcopal Church of St. Peter and Paul in Bern

The largest parishes in terms of membership are Zurich , which includes the entire canton, with 1700 members, around a third of them in the city itself, Möhlin with around 1000 members, Bern with around 800 (of which around 230 in the city itself) and the parish of the Olten region with around 630 members (around 390 of them in Olten).

The strongest concentration of Christian Catholics is in Fricktal in Aargau , where a total of around 2,500 Christian Catholics live in the parishes of Kaiseraugst , Magden / Olsberg , Möhlin , Obermumpf / Wallbach , Rheinfelden and Wegenstetten / Hellikon / Zuzgen , and thus almost every fifth member of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland . The political community with the most Christ Catholics is Möhlin (approx. 1,000). On the other hand, proportionately the majority of Christian Catholics live in the community of Hellikon (around 20% of the population).

There are other strong concentrations in the canton of Solothurn and the Basel area .

Associations and Associations

The only youth organization of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland is the Christian Catholic Youth of Switzerland .

Recognition under public law (regional church)

At the federal level, there is no public law recognition of churches (or other religious communities of any kind) in Switzerland. According to Swiss federalism, Article 72 (Church and State) of the Federal Constitution assigns the relationship between State and Church to the cantons . Since the Christian Catholic Church is traditionally recognized by public law wherever it has its own parishes, it represents the Third Regional Church (also known as the Small Regional Church). That is why it also has its place in the public media, so the word is spoken on Sunday at least once a year by a representative of the Christian Catholic Church.

The Christian Catholic Church is recognized as a regional church or public body as follows, although the list does not claim to be complete:

Kanton Aargau

The Christian Catholic Church is recognized as a regional church in accordance with Article 109 of the Constitution of the Canton of Aargau - alongside the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Reformed Churches. The organizational statute of the regional church regulates further details.

Canton of Basel-Stadt

According to Art. 126 of the Constitution of the canton of Basel-Stadt , the Christian Catholic Church is recognized under public law - alongside the Protestant Reformed and Roman Catholic Churches, although other religious communities besides these three churches can only be recognized by constitutional amendment.

Canton of Basel-Land

In accordance with Article 136 of the Constitution of the Canton of Basel-Land , the Christian Catholic Church is recognized as a regional church under public law.

Canton lucerne

In Article 79 of the Constitution of the Canton of Lucerne , the Christian Catholic regional church is recognized under public law.

Canton of Solothurn

Art. 53 of theConstitution of the Canton of Solothurnrecognizes the Christian Catholic Church as well as the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Reformed Church as corporations under public law.

Canton Bern

Art. 121 of the Constitution of the Canton of Bern states that the Christian Catholic Church, the Evangelical Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church are recognized as regional churches. Everything else is regulated by law.

Canton of St. Gallen

Art. 109 para. 1 lit. c of the constitution of the canton of St. Gallen states that the Christian Catholic Church (or the parish concerned) is recognized as a corporation under public law, alongside the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformed Protestant denomination and the Jewish community.

Canton Zurich

The Canton of Zurich recognizes the Christian Catholic Church in Art. 130 Para. 1 lit. c of its constitution . The cantonal church law and the church regulations of the Christian Catholic parish of Zurich regulate further matters .

Church building

Christian Catholic town church Olten

The Episcopal Church of the Christ Catholics has been St. Peter and Paul in Bern since 1875 .

Other Christian Catholic church buildings include:

literature

  • Urs von Arx , Harald Rein : The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland. 4th, modified edition. Christkatholischer Schriftenverlag, Basel 1999.
  • Adrian Suter: Old Catholic Churches. In: Johannes Oeldemann, denominational studies. Handbook of Ecumenism and Denominational Studies. Volume 1. Ed. By the Johann Adam Möhler Institute Paderborn. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Bonifatius 2015, pp. 247–275. ISBN 978-3-374-03803-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 4,128,491 ha ( Federal Statistical Office: Land Use and Land Cover . Table ( Memento from July 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ↑ a b Yearbook of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland. Edition 2009, ISSN  1661-6405 , p. 136 f.
  3. ^ Minutes of the National Synod of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland, 140th session on May 23 and 24, 2008 in Magden, pp. 4–5; also taking into account the merger of the parishes of Olten-Starrkirch, Trimbach and Hägendorf-Thal-Gäu, which took place on January 1, 2009, to form the parish of the Olten region .
  4. ^ Yearbook of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland. Edition 2009, ISSN  1661-6405 , p. 135.
  5. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Religious Landscape in Switzerland. ( Memento of November 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) PDF, p. 12.
  6. ↑ Michael Sachs: "Prince Bishop and Vagabond". The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 242, note 53.
  7. ↑ Invitation ... to get to know the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland. (PDF) In: christkath-zuerich.ch. Retrieved February 9, 2020 .
  8. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Religious Landscape in Switzerland. ( Memento of November 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) PDF, p. 47.
  9. ↑ Federal Statistical Office: 1990 and 2000 census.
  10. ^ Website of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland , accessed on July 5, 2017
  11. ↑ Urs von Arx (ed.): Kurt Stalder: Language and knowledge of the reality of God. Texts on some epistemological and systematic requirements for exegetical and homiletic work . 1st edition. Universitätsverlag Freiburg, Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-7278-1241-9 , p. 483 .
  12. ^ Swiss Willibrord Society
  13. ↑ Urs von Arx (ed.): Koinonia on an early church basis. German complete edition of the common texts of the Orthodox-Old Catholic Dialogue 1975–1987 with French and English translation . Stämpfli, Bern 1989, p. 106-111 .
  14. ↑ Harald Rein: head and stomach and mutual perception. Practical theological considerations on the report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission of 2009 . In: Wolfgang H. Müller (Ed.): Church and Church Fellowship. The catholicity of the Old Catholics (Christ Catholics). Writings of the Ecumenical Institute Lucerne 10 . Theological publishing house Zurich. Zurich. ISBN 978-3-290-20089-3 . P. 49.
  15. ^ Church and church fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission . Bonifatius Lembeck, Paderborn Frankfurt / Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 , p. 50 .
  16. ^ Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission met in December 2012 in Paderborn Homepage of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, accessed on April 27, 2014
  17. ↑ Orthodox Old Catholic Working Group received by Ecumenical Patriarchs Homepage of the Union of Utrecht, accessed on April 27, 2014
  18. ^ Report of the dialogue between the Old Catholic Churches and the Church of Sweden Homepage of the Old Catholic Church in Germany, accessed on April 27, 2014
  19. ^ Third consultation of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht
  20. ↑ Synodal Council of the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland, invoice filing Finanzverwaltung 2008, p. 2