{"id":16838,"date":"2012-11-13T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T19:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=16838"},"modified":"2012-11-13T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T19:58:10","slug":"swiss-benedictine-abbot-calls-for-church-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/13\/swiss-benedictine-abbot-calls-for-church-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Benedictine Abbot Speaks of Church Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Benedictine abbot of Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Abbot Martin Werlen, penned a brochure<\/a> which has caused a bit of uproar: \u201cDiscover Together the Embers under the Ashes.\u201d The abbot of Einsiedeln is a member of the Swiss Catholic bishops’ conference.<\/p>\n

All the baptized and confirmed of a diocese, he suggests,\u00a0should be involved appropriately in the naming of their bishop. Maybe cardinals could have term limits \u2013 \u201cFor example, people from the whole world, women and men, young and not so young, could be called for five years into the college of cardinals,\u201d wrote the abbot. Further: \u201cIf, for example, these people could meet every three months with the Pope, it could bring a new dynamism into the leadership of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abbot isn\u2019t making demands; he intends rather to offer some starting points for a broad discussion within the Church. He said, \u201cFire is missing. We have to face the situation and see what\u2019s behind it.\u201d And this: \u201cThe problems are known. But little is happening by way of solution for the problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The title of the brochure hearkens to Cardinal Martini’s last interviewi<\/a> in which he said, “I see in the Church today so many ashes above the enbers that I\u2019m often assailed by a sense of powerlessness.”<\/p>\n

The abbot speaks of \u201cdisasters of our own making<\/a>\u201d (selbstverschuldete Schlamassel)<\/em> in the Catholic Church today. Some church officials complain that the same problems keep being brought up since 40 years, to which the abbot remarks, \u201cWhen problems are not taken up, or one is not permitted to speak about them, such behavior puts at risk the credibility of the church and even the very content of the faith.\u201d Playing off the \u201cAppeal to Disobedience<\/a>\u201d (Pfarrer-Initiative) <\/em>of the rebel Austrian priests, the abbot states that it is an \u201cact of disobedience\u201d when people and realities are not taken seriously.\u201d (The word \u201cobedience\u201d has as its stem the Latin word for \u201clistening.\u201d) \u201cBecause officials do not do their duty and thus are disobedient, initiatives are begun as emergency measures and cries for help. This is understandable, but can also lead to schism and abandoning the institution.\u201d Although he has understanding for such initiatives, he wishes to go down another path: together, discovering embers in the ashes.<\/p>\n

European media are reporting great interest<\/a>\u00a0in the abbot’s provocative statement. The brochure sold out in the abbey gift shop on the third day and is now in its second printing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abbot Werlen speaks of \u201cdisasters of our own making\u201d in the Catholic Church today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1081],"tags":[2179],"class_list":["post-16838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-reform","tag-einsiedeln"],"yoast_head":"\nSwiss Benedictine Abbot Speaks of Church Reform - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/13\/swiss-benedictine-abbot-calls-for-church-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swiss Benedictine Abbot Speaks of Church Reform - 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