Challenges the Pope will encounter in Germany

Pope Benedict plans to travel to his homeland, Germany, this coming September 22-25. Today’s news has a few challenges for him.

First, there are markedly fewer priesthood students in Germany. In 2010, 126 men began priesthood studies, which is 20% fewer than 2009 and 40% fewer than 10 years ago. In all, 792 men in Germany are studying for the priesthood, which is 7% less than last year and 27% less than 10 years go. In Germany in 2010, 80 were ordained to the priesthood for dioceses, and 16 for orders, which is about half the numbers 10 years ago. The Center for Pastoral Work for Vocations (“Zentrum für Berufungspastoral” – any suggestions on how to translate this?!) believes that the sexual abuse scandal is playing a role in these declines. Potential candidates are “confronted with accusations about their psychosexual maturity” more than in the past. Also important is the question of how large an area a future priest will be responsible for with declining numbers of priests.

Second, the president of the Protestant Church in Hessen and Nassau, Volker Jung, has called for the admission of all baptized Christians to a common celebration of the Lord’s Supper. He is hoping for “clear ecumenical signs” in this direction from the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Germany. He upheld baptism as the “foundational bond of unity.” Current discipline in the Catholic Church does not allow for such open admission of the baptized to Communion.

Source: Kipa.

Editor

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

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Comments

12 responses to “Challenges the Pope will encounter in Germany”

  1. Joe O'Leary

    These are challenges only for churchy fusspots.

    Real challenges will come from those who want a renewal of faith and churchhood from the ground up — but their voices have been ruthlessly suppressed. Benedict will not leave his cocoon during his trip, needless to say.

    Reply
  2. Martin Badenhorst OP

    Vocation Ministry Centre

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      Yes, that’s better – thank you.
      Except the spelling of Center. 🙂
      awr

      Reply
      1. George Lynch

        Centre = English; Center = American.

  3. Jeffrey Herbert

    Just a comment…

    It states that the CPWV believes that the sexual abuse scandal plays a role in the declining numbers. Not that I would doubt that this might be the case, but is there any “hard data” about the actual reasons for decline? Vocation numbers are down in many places, but they are also up in some others…. and the sexual abuse scandal was a somewhat “universal” issue in the church, so clearly it is not a reason for decline in all places. There are so many reasons why vocations might be declining… it seems speculative to pick out a single issue, even if it is a strong contender.

    Joe;

    You are certainly right about the “challenges” from the grassroots reformers, but are those the Pope’s challenges, or the reformers challenges? What challenge does the Pope actually face from those who call for reforms that are quite out of the realm of possibility? Is the Pope going to have to labor over the decision of whether to allow married or female Priests? Fight an interecene battle to permit divorced Catholics to freely remarry in the church? Is he going to spend large amounts of intellectual energy agonizing over the idea of allowing the laity to select their own Bishops? I just don’t see where these “reformers” pose any actual challenges save for their being darlings of the media and so can cause some PR headaches.

    Reply
    1. Joe O'Leary

      I don’t see how these changes are utopian — communion for divorcess, married priests, a voice for the laity in choice of bishops have already been enacted in the past or in the present or are discussed at the hightest episcopal level. Women priests are impossible only because of that artificial obstacle set by JP2. None of them are particularly newsworthy. Indeed they are merely a matter of rearranging ecclesiastical deckchairs.

      Reply
      1. Jeffrey Herbert

        Joe;

        They’re not Utopian, but honestly…. can you see any of these issues being considered seriously by the Catholic Church… and I don’t mean by some think-tank of theologians at a meeting in Belgium or something… I mean by the Pope and the relevant offices of the curia… those who could actually make changes, not just “call for them”.

        And Rita (further down)…. you make it sound as though Pope Benedict is somehow shielded from the cruel realities of the world around him by his handlers. You and I both know that is quite untrue (well, perhaps you don’t know that it seems). To assume that he is simply “unaware” of the desires of the faithful and thus doesn’t act upon them is an odd way to frame the issue. And be real… if there is anybody who is intimately familiar with the situation of the Catholic Church in Germany, I think Pope Benedict might be that person. The “He’s a bumbling fool sheltered by his handlers” critique doesn’t really work here. He simply disagrees (strongly) with what these individuals are calling for.

      2. Todd Flowerday

        Not only is the celebrity-pope (speaking generally) shielded from discomfort, but Pope Benedict is spectacularly shielded from the realities on the ground. Especially Masses with less than, say, a dozen priests and a solid handful of seminarians.

        Of less interest to me are the artificial roadblocks to women’s ordination and more the decline of a sacramental Church in regions–Christian regions!–where he doesn’t have enough neo-orthodox males to provide the sacraments, especially, say, in dioceses the size of large European nations where there are more kangaroos than believers.

        His disagreement speaks more of ignorance of authentic pastoral realities than a firm traditional mindset.

        But nobody’s going to tell him that.

        Plus, he’s too busy firing people who want to talk about possible answers. It seems he’d rather dawdle on due process for setting the pedophile pimps free.

  4. Michael Root

    A niggling point – the Evangelical Church of Hessen-Nassau is a United (i.e., mixed Lutheran and Reformed) rather than a straightforwardly Lutheran church. The United churches in Germany are a bit more “Protestant” than the Lutheran churches.

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      This is more than niggling – it’s important. I mistakenly translated “Evangelisch” as “Lutheran.” “Protestant” would be closer in this case, so I’ll change the post. Thanks.
      awr

      Reply
  5. Rita Ferrone

    Would that these issues and problems, real pastoral data, might make any impression at all on the pope. They won’t. He lives in a bubble, surrounded by yes-men. Papal visits are feel-good events, stage-managed so that the pope is spared seeing or hearing anything that does not flatter him or that might put the host country in an unflattering light. Unless someone stands up and interrupts the regularly scheduled program (in which case they will probably be carried out by the police), I am certain that no uncomfortable facts will be allowed to intervene.

    Reply
  6. Joe O'Leary

    Yes! JP2’s endless series of papal visits meant he never had to deal with curial business in Rome. He could flee to his comfort zone, the warm bath of acclaim from adoring crowds, every few weeks. The traveling bubble continues under B16, who at first said he would not be travel and gave some hope that he might clean up the Curia. The papacy has become a hostage of superstar-dynamics, which are actually quite easy to sustain. Structural reform of the Church is a much more onerous matter. The superstar can go it alone, if people are willing to pay for the show, but church reform cannot be done by one man, it involves collaboration, collegiality, consultation — things long dead in Rome.

    Reply

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