Catholic Day

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Visitors to the German Catholic Day Mannheim

The Katholikentag is a multi-day gathering of primarily Roman Catholic Christians from the respective country in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which takes place every several years (in Germany usually every two years). Its origins lie in union Catholicism and the lay movements of the 19th century. More and more it has developed into "a religious festival that is important for the identity of Catholics".

The Katholikentag has existed in Germany since 1848, in Austria since 1877 and in Switzerland since 1903.

German Catholic Day

historical development

Participation card for the German Catholic Day 1907, in Würzburg, with the Franconian Apostles Kilian, Kolonat and Totnan; designed by Matthäus Schiestl

The first German Catholic Day took place from October 3 to October 6, 1848 in Mainz as the first general assembly of the Catholic associations in Germany , inspired by the demonstration of faith in 1844, during which a million pilgrims from all over Germany came to Trier for the exhibition of the holy skirt , enthusiastic about the bourgeois-democratic revolution from March 1848 and as a counter-reaction to the oppression of the Catholic population by the Protestant governments since the Congress of Vienna 1814-1815, which later culminated in the Kulturkampf . At that time, the Katholikentag was a pure delegate meeting of Pius associations , to which 87 members of the association and around 100 more clergy and lay participants came and from which the Catholic Association of Germany emerged . From then on there was a Catholic Day almost every year, in 1849 even two were held in a year. In 1907 in Würzburg , where a Catholic assembly was called on November 20, 1848, which had decided to found the Catholic Association , Emy Gordon was the first woman to speak. The Catholic Days in Strasbourg in 1905 and in Metz in 1913 were bilingual (German and French). Strasbourg and Metz were in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine from 1871 to 1918 . In the years 1914 to 1920 and 1933 to 1947 there were no German Catholic Days, but on February 1, 1920, a so-called "Little Catholic Day" took place in Stuttgart. This event has been held every two years since 1950.

At the 1966 Katholikentag in Bamberg, discussions about the implementation of the resolutions of the Second Vatican Council were held for the first time .

The 82nd German Katholikentag in Essen in 1968 is considered to be a turning point : it was under the motto “In the middle of this world”; Under the impression of the 1968 movement , open resistance against the official church arose here for the first time .

In the past few decades, the Catholic Day has developed into a major event organized by laypeople - in the style of a congress , combined with public events and encounters. Numerous church groups present themselves on exhibition stands and offer information material. During the mostly five-day event, numerous religious, cultural, scientific, socio-political and spiritual events take place. The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) has sponsored the Catholic Day since 1970.

In June 1990, four months before the reunification of the two German states , the Katholikentag took place in Berlin.

In 1992 the first Catholic Day after German reunification took place in Karlsruhe. The 100th Catholic Day took place from May 25th to 29th, 2016 in Leipzig. The last Catholic Day was held in Münster from May 9th to 13th, 2018 .

See also: List of the German Catholic Days

Similar events

The Protestant equivalent of the German Katholikentag is the German Evangelical Kirchentag , which is always held in a different year than the Katholikentag. Another major ecclesiastical event is the Ecumenical Church Congress , which took place in Berlin in 2003 and in Munich in 2010 and is planned to take place in Frankfurt again in 2021 . The organizers of these events are the Central Committee of German Catholics and the German Evangelical Church Congress.

Central elements

The five-day event has been following a fixed rhythm for a long time. It takes place from Wednesday to Sunday, usually over Corpus Christi or Ascension Day . A central opening rally on Wednesday evening and a large general closing service on Sunday morning frame the event, on Thursday several central services will be celebrated. During the Katholikentag in Osnabrück in 2008, a central ecumenical service was on the program for the first time on Friday evening (instead of the main rally that had been the norm up to then).

From Thursday lunchtime to Saturday evening there is a general Catholic day: representatives from church, politics and science exchange ideas in panel discussions on current social, church, cultural and political issues; in addition, various church associations and groups organize workshops and hands-on activities. In the last few years there has been an increasing differentiation into different, spatially separated areas, the “centers”. Depending on personal situation and interests, people meet in the family center, in the women's and men's center ( gender issues ), in the youth center (in Osnabrück with its own youth church for the first time), in the spiritual center, in the one world center, in the ecumenical center or in the centers for Christian-Jewish and Christian-Islamic dialogue.

Another permanent establishment since the 1990s has been the “Church Mile”, on which Catholic and other associations, institutions, media, religious orders, dioceses, aid organizations and others present themselves at stands. A special feature is the breadth of the ecclesiastical and ideological orientations, which can otherwise be found in hardly any other religious event in Germany: Conservative groups such as the Legio Mariae are just as naturally represented as critical organizations such as the Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and the Church .

In addition, other high-profile events within the framework of the Katholikentag have established themselves in recent years: on the first evening an “evening of encounters”, on which the host diocese introduces itself with its regional specialties and culinary specialties on stages and at stands; a one world rock concert by BDKJ and Misereor on Friday evening ; sometimes an evening of intercultural encounters (Hamburg, Osnabrück), the program of which is organized by the local foreign cultural associations.

Postage stamps

Command vehicle at the 2006 Catholic Day in Saarbrücken

Swiss Catholic Day

The first Catholic Day in Switzerland took place from September 27 to 29, 1903 in Lucerne. In the following period, ten Catholic days were held at irregular intervals, mostly in Catholic-dominated places. The last Catholic Day so far took place in 1954.

  1. 1903: Lucerne
  2. 1906: Freiburg
  3. 1909: train
  4. 1913: St. Gallen
  5. 1921: Freiburg
  6. 1924: Basel
  7. 1929: Lucerne
  8. 1935: Freiburg
  9. 1949: Lucerne
  10. 1954: Freiburg

Austrian Catholic Day

Austrian Catholic Days have been held since 1877. However, even before that there were Catholic Days in Austrian cities (1850 and 1856 in Linz an der Donau, 1853 in Vienna, 1857 in Salzburg and 1867 in Innsbruck), but these are counted among the German Catholic Days.

  1. 1877: Vienna
  2. 1889: Vienna
  3. 1892: Linz
  4. 1896: Salzburg
  5. 1905: Vienna
  6. 1907: Vienna
  7. 1910: Innsbruck
  8. 1913: Linz
  9. 1923: Vienna
  10. 1933: Vienna "Numquam retrorsum" (Never go back)
  11. 1952: Vienna "Freedom and Dignity of Man"
  12. 1962: Salzburg "Do not extinguish the spirit!"
  13. 1974: Vienna "Reconciliation"
  14. 1983: Vienna "Living Hope - Giving Hope" ( Visit of Pope John Paul II in Austria)

Central European Catholic Day

At the end of the Central European Catholic Day with the motto "Christ - Hope of Europe" as part of the "Pilgrimage of the Nations" (May 21-23, 2004) in Mariazell , almost 80,000 pilgrims came from the eight participating countries, namely Poland , the Czech Republic , Slovakia , Hungary , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina and Austria . The highlight was the two-hour Eucharistic celebration on Saturday at 11:00 am on the field of the sports airfield in St. Sebastian with the motto "Do what He tells you". At the end of the celebrations, which took place under the direction of Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano on behalf of Pope John Paul II , a “Message from Mariazell” was adopted.

See also

literature

  • Holger Arning: Women on the Catholic Days , in: Andreas Linsenmann / Markus Raasch (eds.): Women and political Catholicism. Actors, topics, strategies , pp. 111–150, Paderborn u. a., 2018.
  • Christoph Kösters / Hans Maier / Frank Kleinehagenbrock (eds.): Profile and imprint. Historical perspectives on 100 German Catholic Days , Paderborn, 2017.
  • Karlies Abmeier / Petra Bahr (ed.): Catholicism - a political force , Sankt Augustin / Berlin, 2016.
  • Holger Arning / Hubert Wolf: One Hundred Catholic Days. From Mainz 1848 to Leipzig 2016 , Darmstadt, 2016.
  • Hajo Goertz: Building bridges. Work and impact of the Katholikentage , Kevelaer, 2006.
  • Marie-Emmanuelle Reytier, Les catholiques allemands et la République du Weimar. Les Katholikentage 1919–1932 , dissertation, 2 volumes, Lyon, 2004.
  • Ulrich von Hehl / Friedrich Kronenberg (ed.): Zeitzeichen. 150 years of the German Catholic Days 1848-1998 . With a picture section “150 Years of the Catholic Days in Pictures”, Paderborn, 1999.
  • Heinz Hürten: Mirror of the Church - Mirror of Society? Catholic days in the changing world . Four essays on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the “First Assembly of the Catholic Association of Germany” from 3. – 6. October 1848 in Mainz, Paderborn a. a., 1998.
  • Thomas Großmann: Between Church and Society. The Central Committee of German Catholics 1945-1970 (publications of the Commission for Contemporary History B 56), Mainz, 1991.
  • Rudolf Morsey: Streiflichter on the history of the German Catholic Days 1848-1932 , in: Yearbook for Christian Social Sciences 26 , 1985.
  • Baldur H. Hermans: The problem of social policy and social reform on the German Catholic days from 1848 to 1891 . A contribution to the history of the Catholic social movement, Bonn, 1972.
  • Ephrem Filthaut: German Catholic Days 1848-1958 and Social Issues , Essen, 1960.
  • Alfred Celerin: The Austrian Catholic Days of the 19th Century . Dissertation. University of Vienna, Vienna 1955.

Web links

Commons : Katholikentag  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Katholikentag  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Gert Pickel, Yvonne Jaeckel, Alexander Yendell: Celebrating faith, having fun and discussing politics - The Catholic Day and its facets. A study of the sociology of religion on the visit to the Katholikentag in Regensburg. Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3-95645-820-0 , p. 77.
  2. Wolfgang Weiss : The Catholic Church in the 19th Century. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 430-449 and 1303, here: pp. 437-439.
  3. Wolfgang Weiß (2007), p. 438.
  4. ^ Christof Beckmann: Katholikentag in Metz 1913: On the eve of the catastrophe . In: unitas 3/2013, p. 170f.
  5. Jump up ↑ Church, War and Catholics: History and Memory in the 20th Century by Karl-Joseph Hummel (Ed .: Christoph Kösters), p. 21.
  6. Joachim Köhler (Ed.): Catholics in Stuttgart and their history. Schwabenverlag, Ostfildern 1990, ISBN 3-7966-0646-6 , pp. 60-63.
  7. a b Ferdinand Oertel: Uprising of the Laity (PDF). In: The Political Opinion No. 378 (May 2001), pp. 39–44.
  8. Catholic Day . Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), archived from the original on February 6, 2015 ; Retrieved June 9, 2015 .
  9. zeit.de / Hansjakob Stehle June 1, 1990: Big words, small consolations
  10. Homepage Diocese of Münster - German Catholics Day 2018 invited to Münster. In: www.bistum-muenster.de. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  11. See the program  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Catholic Day in Osnabrück 2008@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.katholikentag.de