Christ community
Christ Community is the name of a special religious community that is particularly active in the area of the Catholic Diocese of Osnabrück . The Christ Community was founded in the early 1980s by the then Thuin nun Stephanie Bensmann and Pastor Gerhard Stenzaly.
According to its own statements, the main concern of the Christ community is to strengthen the community with Christ in everyday life. The focus is on promoting Eucharistic adoration . This includes, for example, the “Sacred Heart Catechesis”, which take place once a month. These events run from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. The opportunity for confession is given during the silent adoration on Friday afternoon. In the evening there is a catechesis followed by a discussion and a holy mass. The next morning they meet to exchange ideas about catechesis in small groups and to receive further suggestions for spiritual life. The day ends in nightly adoration until Sunday morning with a concluding Holy Mass. The community also meets every Wednesday evening for Eucharistic adoration. Spiritual weekends or vacation courses are also offered. The community has its own repertoire of worship and worship songs , which are published as a songbook.
The community of Christ can be counted as part of the charismatic scene or comes from it.
The community is controversial. In 2005 70 women religious left the Thuin Franciscan Sisters , who had apparently come to the Congregation of Sisters through the Christ Community , but had not found the contemplative way of life they were looking for. Former members reported in letters to the editor of the Osnabrück diocese newspaper Kirchenbote of an "extremely conservative, if not fundamentalist religious community", which for some has become "a shock experience". Personal freedom was not accepted, and decisions, including those from the private sphere, had to be discussed with the spiritual leader of the community in the respective community. The taz reported in 2005 that the mostly young members were advised against contact with their family because it was not good for their spiritual development.
These were the reasons for the then Osnabrück Bishop Ludwig Averkamp to convene a commission in the early 1990s, in which all those affected could express their views on the problems surrounding the Christ community. A real clarification did not take place during this time, nor during the subsequent efforts of today's Osnabrück bishop Franz-Josef Bode , who tried to intensify the dialogue again. Only the accusation of sectarianism could be refuted. However, the commission formulated demands on the group: among other things, a change of name, a disclosure of the activities and structures as well as a clear commitment to tolerance towards other spiritual paths of the young people when they tread the Christ community. In addition, the commission expressed "great concern" about polarization and tension in the clergy and in some parishes in this context. In this dialogue with the diocese, the Christ Community seems to have neglected to openly clarify the problems raised. The Diocese of Osnabrück refused to recognize the community under canon law.
In March 2010, the then pastor of Spelle , who was considered the leading head of the Christ Community, was removed from his office by Bishop Bode, as the charge was made against him, in May / June 1990 a 14-year-old altar boy as chaplain in Haren (Ems) having raped. After the rape, a three-year "sexual and violent" relationship with the victim is said to have developed. The priest admitted a sexual relationship but denied the rape allegation. The Osnabrück Regional Court decided in September 2011 not to admit the indictment to the main hearing. It was said that the woman's statements were too vague to prove that the priest had used violence and thus rape. A conviction for sexual abuse of wards was also out of the question, as such an act would already be statute-barred. In May 2010, a 23-year-old woman described herself as another victim of the priest. However, she withdrew her allegations in September 2011. In 2013 the official office of the diocese of Münster, commissioned by the Vatican, decided that the priest was no longer allowed to assume leadership positions and was no longer allowed to work in the pastoral care of children and young people. It also withdrew his authority to confess . The priest should present a psychological report on the basis of which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wants to decide where and how the priest can work in the future. In 2014, the diocese decreed that the 54-year-old would be assigned the task of preparing and researching material on the resistance of priests and other church workers during the Nazi era as an assistant over the next three years.
The fellowship of Christ has become silent since these events.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Nuns on the run
- ^ A b Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Pastor accused of rape. August 24, 2010 ( child abuse - minister charged with rape )
- ↑ a b daily newspaper: question of violence unresolved, act barred, 29 September 2010 ( allegations against priests question of violence unresolved, act barred )
- ↑ Norddeutscher Rundfunk: Sex priest gets away again. September 29, 2011 ( sex priest gets away again ( memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ))
- ^ Diocese of Osnabrück: Church court condemns former pastor. July 4, 2013 ( Church court convicts former pastor )
- ↑ http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/481984/verendungter-iester-aus-spelle-soll-ns-akten-aufarbeiten