{"id":296587,"date":"2019-03-18T14:12:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T18:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=296587"},"modified":"2019-03-18T14:12:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T18:12:43","slug":"whats-the-deal-with-germany-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/03\/whats-the-deal-with-germany-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Deal with Germany, Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You have to wonder what\u2019s in the water.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, this news<\/a> <\/strong>popped up:<\/p>\n

The Catholic Church in Germany is at a point where serious debate \u2014 including on priestly celibacy and the role of women \u2014 and openness to doing things in a new way must be encouraged, said the president of the German bishops\u2019 conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cShakeups demand special proceedings,\u201d Cardinal Reinhard Marx, conference president, said March 14 at the end of the bishops\u2019 spring meeting in Lingen.<\/p>\n

The sexual abuse scandal and demands for reform have changed the German church, the cardinal said.<\/p>\n

He said debates on celibacy require further study.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe treasure celibacy as an expression of religious commitment to God. How far it must adhere to the witness of priests in our church, we will find out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marx also said Catholic sexual morality is in need of development. \u201cWe perceive that we are often not versed in questions regarding modern sexual behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, there\u2019s this:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The leader of one of Germany\u2019s most important female religious communities has called into question the Catholic Church\u2019s exclusion of women from the ordained priesthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is surely only natural for women to be priests and I cannot understand the reasons given as to why not,\u201d said Sister Ruth Sch\u00f6nenberger, head of the Benedictine Priory of Tutzing, the Bavarian motherhouse of a worldwide missionary order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am surprised that the presence of Christ has been reduced to the male sex,\u201d she said in a recent interview with\u00a0katholisch.de<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0the official website of the German Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Tutzing, we, too, have excellently qualified women theologians. The only thing they lack is ordination \u2013 nothing else,\u201d said 68-year-old Sch\u00f6nenberger, prioress of Tutzing since 2015.<\/p>\n

Sch\u00f6nenberger, who is responsible for the 70 members at the Tutzing priory and those at two other Benedictine convents, said the criteria for priesthood should not be based on one\u2019s gender.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur present image\/concept of the priesthood urgently needs to be fundamentally revised and I am genuinely surprised that priests themselves don\u2019t protest more against present developments since they involve them,\u201d said the prioress, noting that men and women should be treated as equals.<\/p>\n

\u2026I\u201df we, as a group of women religious, want to celebrate the Eucharist together, we have to arrange for a man to come and celebrate it, every single day. He stands at the altar and leads the celebration. We are not allowed to,\u201d the Tutzing prioress said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to look for forms (of celebrating the Eucharist) which suit us and develop new ones,\u201d she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have to wonder what\u2019s in the water. A few days ago, this news popped up: The Catholic Church in Germany is at a point where serious debate \u2014 including on priestly celibacy and the role of women \u2014 and openness to doing things in a new way must be encouraged, said the president of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":296590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[12373,384],"class_list":["post-296587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","tag-cardinal-marx","tag-germany"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's the Deal with Germany, Anyway?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You have to wonder what's in the water. 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