We are church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
We are Church e. V.
legal form Registered association
founding 1996
Seat Boeblingen
main emphasis Promote reform in the Roman Catholic Church
Action space Germany
Chair Christian Lauer
Website wir-sind-kirche.de
Platform We are Church - Association for the Promotion of Reforms in the Roman Catholic Church
founding March 24, 1996
Seat Vienna
main emphasis Promote reform in the Roman Catholic Church
Action space Austria
Chair Martha Heizer
Website wir-sind-kirche.at

With We are Church to refer to a number of regional and national groups and their umbrella organization, "We Are Church - We are Church International" (WAC-I).

The “International Movement We are Church ” is active in all five continents and is represented in more than 40 countries. In Germany, there is the Church and People's Movement We are Church and its sponsoring association We are Church e. V. In Austria the movement is organized as a platform “We are Church” - an association for the promotion of reforms in the Roman Catholic Church . Regional groups exist in all Austrian and German dioceses .

Emergence

We are Church in Austria goes back to the initiators of the church people's desire , which took place from June 3rd to 25th, 1995. In Germany, the demands of the church people's desire were adopted unchanged by both the Church from Below Initiative and the Publik-Forum magazine . As a result, the German Church and People Movement came into being in February 1996 and the “International Movement We Are Church ” in November 1996.

The first signatories of the church people's request in Germany included: Sr. Lea Ackermann , Franz Alt , Roland Breitenbach , Magdalene Bußmann , Eugen Drewermann , Peter Eicher , Norbert Greinacher , Bernhard Häring , Gotthold Hasenhüttl , Friedhelm Hengsbach , Hanns Dieter Hüsch , Hans Küng , Dieter Kürten , Norbert Mette , Christa Nickels , Norbert Piechotta , Wolfgang Seibel SJ, Rita Süssmuth , Erwin Teufel and Wolfgang Thierse . In Austria the psychotherapist Richard Picker is a well-known representative.

Goals and Positions

The aim of the movement is to bring about fundamental reforms in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church . According to its own statement, the concrete goals of We Are Church include a fraternal life of the Roman Catholic Church, the dismantling of clericalism and the strengthening of the community between lay people and clergy as the people of God , the participation of all believers concerned in decision-making processes in the Roman Catholic Church Church, the equality of women in the offices of the church (see ordination of women ) and an equal treatment of the laity with the clergy . Further demands are the abolition of compulsory celibacy , the proclamation of the faith as good news and not as a “threatening message” as well as progress in ecumenism .

In November 2006, Christian Weisner, a member of the federal team, adopted the statements made by We Are Church : Jesus himself did not found a church. He had therefore [...] not given it an institutional structure; a hierarchical principle has nothing to do with the nature of the Church and denotes the statements of Pope Benedict XVI. about priests and laypeople as "unrealistic".

On the Pauline year , We are Church stated that “ there was no 'church ministry' for Paul , but only a series of ministries also open to women” that related to teaching and leadership tasks.

With regard to the apostolic letter Summorum pontificum Pope Benedict XVI. We are Church expressed in celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite , steps to this end represented “a one-sided preference for retrograde tendencies”. The speakers urged the believers “not to attend Latin masses”.

In order to "support the Second Vatican Council", we are Church and after the lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops of the Pius Brotherhood, together with theologians, started the international, multilingual petition Vaticanum 2 . This speaks out in favor of an unconditional recognition of the Second Vatican Council (in the interpretation of the same as you understand it), against all anti-Judaism and against the lifting of Richard Williamson's excommunication . The petition was criticized, among other things, by the Fördergemeinschaft Theologisches as “contradictory”, “theologically insufficient” and rejected because of “untenable allegations” against Pope Benedict XVI. Above all, it is doubted that the signatories of the petition themselves actually fully support the decisions of the council on abortion , contraception , liturgy, etc. Three of the signatories, who are theologians from Regensburg, were reprimanded by Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller and ultimately asked to distance themselves from this petition because the text contained serious allegations against the Pope.

In May 2011 Wir sind Kirche protested against the dismissal of the theologian David Berger . Berger's permission to teach in the church had previously been withdrawn. He had recently published the book The Holy Ticket . In 2017, We Are Church called for guidelines for the blessing of same-sex couples to be developed by the Catholic Church.

Episcopal statements

The initiative is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, as the demands “partly contradict Christian teaching and are in open opposition to the church order” ( Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger , 1997). According to the decree of the Roman Apostolic Signature "the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as well as the Conference of Bishops of Bavaria have publicly stated [...] that some of the statements published by the 'We are Church' movement cannot be reconciled with Catholic teaching". The movement, on the other hand, sees neither its goals nor its demands against fidelity to the gospel or against the ecumenical creeds, not even against the ex cathedra decisions of the Pope or against council resolutions. In the opinion of We Are Church , most of the demands made by the people of the Church were formulated long before that in many synods, starting with the Würzburg synod , the Dresden and the Swiss synod up to the Austrian diocesan synods, almost identically.

In 2003, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn , sharply criticized the approach taken by We Are Church to delete Article 51 of the EU draft constitution , which would have restricted strict ideological and religious neutrality in the use of state violence nationally and at EU level. The article should stipulate that the EU should respect “the status enjoyed by churches and religious associations or communities in the Member States under their legislation”, and not interfere with it, thereby imposing legal restrictions, e.g. B. would continue to exist in companies with a tendency in Germany. "We are Church" - so Schönborn - have joined forces with Freemasons and the " European Humanist Federation " to prevent this article.

In May 2014, the Bishop of Innsbruck, Manfred Scheuer , determined the excommunication of the chairwoman of the initiative, Martha Heizer, and her husband Gerd for the "serious offense of repeated simulated masses" as the result of a canonical procedure following a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith . A commission of inquiry formed in 2011 at the instigation of the diocesan bishop had previously been active.

As a result of Heizer's excommunication, Hans Peter Hurka, chairman of “Wir sind Kirche” from 2004, announced his resignation from the association in March 2015 and the establishment of the reform group “Network: contemporary belief”. In September 2014, an extraordinary plenary meeting of the “We are Church” platform confirmed Martha Heizer as chairwoman and at the same time made the demand for “Eucharistic celebrations in a private setting, without a priest, but with the commission of the local bishop”.

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing , said in an interview with Publik Forum in May 2020 about the movement We are Church and the Maria 2.0 campaign : “You are part of the Church. These are our people! "

Honourings and prices

literature

  • Andreas Laun : Reform or new division? The desire of the people of the church in the light of the Catholic faith - an analysis , 1996
  • Martha Wegan: "We are Church". A church-people movement for the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council. In: Meier, Platen, Reinhardt, Sanders (eds.): Reception of the Second Vatican Council in Theology and Canon Law today. (Supplements to Münster Commentary 55), Münster 2008, pp. 645–665.
  • Richard Picker : Holy balancing act. A manual for the people who desire the Church . Va Bene, Vienna a. Klosterneuburg 2001, ISBN 3-85167-108-2
  • We are church - are we church? An inventory from Austria, ed. by Dolores Bauer / Franz Horner / Peter Krön . Salzburg: Otto Müller Verlag 1989, ISBN 3701307482

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ we-are-church.org
  2. ↑ a b wir-sind-kirche.de We about us ( Memento from January 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ We are the Church: The Archdiocese reacts to a shortage of priests
  4. ^ Disappointing interim results of the Ad limina visits to Rome, press release Munich, November 12, 2006
  5. ↑ "We are Church" railed against Benedict XVI. on kath.net, November 12, 2006
  6. ↑ We are Church website: On the Pauline Year June 28, 2008 - June 29, 2009
  7. ^ Petition Vaticanum2 in full and (first) signatories
  8. ^ Theologians defy Bishop Müller ( Memento from October 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. February 18, 2009
  9. ↑ THEOLOGICAL ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Diocese of Regensburg, Episcopal Press Office, February 17, 2009: Bishop also calls for theology professors to recognize Vatican II ( Memento of May 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ zeit.de May 5, 2011: Cardinal Meisner withdraws the permission to teach gay theologians. - David Berger is no longer allowed to teach religion - officially because of his criticism of the Catholic Church. The teacher suspects his homosexuality to be the true motive.
  12. ↑ Zeit.de: And how do the churches react?
  13. ↑ Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature: Decree of the Apostolic Signature of January 12, 2007 ( Memento of July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  14. ↑ We are Church: Frequently Asked Questions ( Memento of November 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Schönborn criticizes the UN cloning decision and “We are Church” on kath.net, November 7, 2003
  16. ↑ https://kath.net/news/46028
  17. ↑ http://mobileapps.tt.com/home/8422344-91/rom-sperr-heizer-aus-kirche-aus.csp
  18. ↑ Split with church reformers. In: DiePresse.com. March 22, 2015, accessed January 14, 2018 .
  19. ↑ We are church: "Yes" to excommunicated chairman (ORF)
  20. ↑ Britta Baas, Alexander Schwabe: “Time is running out”. A conversation about the reform push in the corona pandemic with Georg Bätzing, the new chairman of the Catholic bishops in Germany. In: Publik Forum 10/2020, May 29, 2020, pp. 28–32.