German

Cardinal Müller becomes cardinal priest – promotion after ten years

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch)

German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller has been promoted from cardinal deacon to cardinal priest. On Monday, the consistory led by Pope Francis decided to elevate Müller to the class of cardinal priest upon his request, the Vatican announced . Müller’s titular deaconry, Sant’Agnese in Agone, will be temporarily elevated to a titular church during his term of office (“pro hac vice”). After ten years in office, cardinal deacons have the right to ask the Pope for elevating them to cardinal priest and for a titular church (“optatio”). Müller was admitted to the College of Cardinals on February 22, 2014. Following his retirement as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Müller is now a judge at the Apostolic Signatura , the Church’s highest court.

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Cardinal Marx warns: European Union could fall apart again

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch)

Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx is concerned about the European Union (EU). This peace project is threatened by “ethnic nationalism,” warned the Archbishop of Munich and Freising on Sunday evening during a service in Munich’s St. Boniface Basilica. The service was held in memory of the journalist Fritz Gerlich (1883-1934), who was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp 90 years ago.

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Deutsche Kirchenstatistik 2023: 20 Mill. ‘Katholiken’, aber nur 1,26 Mill. besuchen die Hl. Messe

Posted on by Catholic Radar Is

(Kath.net. Staff)

Deutschlandweit gab es nur 38 Priesterweihen im Jahr 2023. In Frankreich gibt es 2024 über 100, im kleinen Österreich 20. In Deutschland wurde heute die sogenannte “Kirchenstatistik 2023” veröffentlicht, aus der hervorgeht, dass im Vergleich zum Jahr 2022 die Taufen deutlich zurückgingen. So gab es 2023 131.245 Taufen, im Jahr davor 155.173. Die Zahl der kirchlichen Trauungen ging von 35.467 auf 27.565 zurück. In der Aussendung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz wird dies als “leicht rückläufig” bezeichnet.  Zur Erstkommunion kam nur mehr 151.835 statt 162.506 Kinder. Ähnlich sieht es bei den Firmungen aus (105.942 statt 110.942). Einen leichten Zuwachs gab es beim Gottesdienstbesuch (6,2 statt 5,7 %). Allerdings besuchen weiterhin mit 6,2 % der Katholiken nur eine kleine Minderheit an einem Sonntag eine Hl. Messe. Im Bistum Regensburg ist die Zahl der Gottesdienstbesuche mit 9,9 % deutlich höher als in anderen Diözesen, in Passau sind die Gottesdienstbesucherzahlen bei 7 %, in Köln nur bei 5 %. Das Bistum Limburg hat das Thema “Messbesuch” in der heutigen Presseaussendungen nicht einmal erwähnt.

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Bishop Voderholzer prohibits ordinations of Pius Brothers in Zaitzkofen

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch).

Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer has banned the ordinations of deacons and priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX) announced for Saturday in their seminary in Zaitzkofen, Bavaria. As the Diocese of Regensburg announced on Wednesday, Voderholzer stressed in a letter to the rector Pascal Schreiber that the ordinations were being administered without permission. The Pius Brotherhood is ignoring the necessary legal conditions of the Roman Catholic Church for the ordination. “Due to this behavior, I once again feel compelled to protect the order of the Church and, as Ordinarius loci (local bishop, editor’s note), to prohibit the unauthorized ordinations for the area of ​​the Diocese of Regensburg, as I have done in previous years,” Voderholzer said in his letter.

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Victims of abuse renew calls for Bishop Meister to resign

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch).

Those affected by abuse have reiterated their call for the resignation of Hanover’s regional bishop Ralf Meister and rejected an offer of talks from the Protestant bishop. “We will not accept the invitation,” the initiative declared in an open letter in Hanover on Friday. “We have not asked Bishop Meister for an audience.” From the perspective of those affected, resignation is more than ever “the only responsible option.” The initiative had already called for the 62-year-old’s resignation at the beginning of June, before the Synod’s deliberations. He must accept the consequences of the church’s inadequate handling of cases of abuse, it said at the time

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Turning point at kath.ch: debate yes, confrontation no

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Léa Burger. SRF).

Dispute over the direction of Kath.ch: To what extent should the Catholic Church report on itself critically? After years of disputes over how critically the online portal kath.ch should and can report on the Roman Catholic Church, A new Catholic Media Center Association board of directors was elected Thursday, after all members of the previous board resigned or were no longer in place.

For this reason, some media outlets have already spoken of a kind of coup d’état by ecclesiastical leaders against critical voices. Among other things because the media bishop, Josef Stübi, recently prevented a new co-publishing direction.

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INTERVIEW Church+Life interview two months after the scandal in the Permanent CouncilBishops rejected them: This is what Viola Kohlberger thinks about it today

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(kirche-und-leben).

This bombshell still resonates today: two months ago, the bishops rejected Viola Kohlberger as the DPSG candidate for the office of Federal Curator. In the big Kirche+Leben interview, the young theologian openly explains how she felt about it – and what she plans to do.

Ms. Kohlberger, around two months have passed since it became known that the bishops had rejected you as a candidate for the office of Federal Curator at the DPSG. How do you feel about this decision today?

I still cannot understand the decision. Especially because I know that I met all the qualifications. The bishops have still not given any reasons. But the feeling of helplessness has subsided somewhat. I no longer feel as helpless as I did two months ago, when the ground was pulled out from under me. I still have no career prospects, but I feel better about it than I did eight weeks ago.

How did you find out about the bishops’ decision?

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The Synod does not please me: response from a bishop on the equality of men and women in the Church

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Kath).

Synodalin after the bishop’s appearance: “I just don’t understand it”
Monika Zimmerli, a member of the Zurich Synod, wanted to know from Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain what equality between men and women was in the Church. Her detailed response did not satisfy all members of the synod.

The bishop was called, came and again clearly rejected the ordination of women on Thursday morning in Zurich City Hall. And this despite the fact that he was convinced that equality and the teaching of the Church can and should work in harmony.

“Not negociable”
The fact that ordination positions are reserved for men is, on the one hand, non-negotiable, but on the other hand it does not hinder equal rights per se, explained Bishop Joseph Maria Bonnemain at the beginning of the fourth session of the Catholic Synod. Roman in the current mandate. However, it is right and good that senior leadership positions in the church are increasingly filled by women.

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For true ecumenism, the Pope must also clean up his church

Posted on by Catholic Radar Is

(Katholisch.de. FELIX NEUMANN)

Even popes have realistically assessed what the papacy means for ecumenism. Paul VI described his office as the “greatest obstacle” on the path to church unity. With the primacy of jurisdiction and infallibility, the First Vatican Council drove in stakes that are almost impossible to circumvent, and whose status as dogma cemented what was already pretty entrenched. Even below this highest level of formally proclaimed dogma, however, it is not just the papacy in general that is an obstacle to ecumenism, but also many of the decisions of the incumbent pope – despite all the signs, from the cordial dialogue with Orthodox and Anglicans to the inclusion of Coptic martyrs in the Catholic calendar of saints to the reinstatement of the title of Patriarch of the West. The Anglican Ordinariates are still committed to the return to ecumenism, which has long since been overcome with regard to the Eastern Churches. Recognition of Anglican ordinations is not up for debate. The reason for declaring them null and void in the 19th century was questions about the ordination rite – today the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith makes the wording of sacraments so strong that the validity of the sacraments in separate churches is called into question.

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Breakthrough seems to be here – Years-long liturgical dispute likely to be settled

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch).

A liturgical dispute that has lasted for years in the Syro-Malabar Church, which is linked to Rome, could now possibly be ended after concessions from both sides. “Subject to the approval of the Vatican, the conflict has been resolved,” an unnamed bishop told the Asian news portal “Ucanews” (Thursday). An official announcement will be made in a day or two. The compromise states that priests in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly can continue to celebrate Mass as traditional, said the clergyman, who wished to remain anonymous. “But they must celebrate a uniform Mass in their parishes on Sundays, as approved by the Synod.”

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Söding to absent bishops: Door to Synodal Committee is open

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch).

The Vice President of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Thomas Söding, has appealed to the bishops of Eichstätt, Cologne, Regensburg and Passau to still take part in the Synodal Committee. “The door is still open, but they have to go through it,” said Söding on Monday in an interview with domradio.de . The absence of the four bishops creates an unpleasant situation. However, he hopes that through the “further constructive work of the Synodal Committee and through coordination with the World Synod” this gap in the Bishops’ Conference can ultimately be bridged.

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Media: UND human rights complaint against Vatican judiciary

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Katholisch).

Late last year, ten defendants were tried in the Vatican for financial crimes. Nine of them were convicted, among them Cardinal Becciu. Now the former director of the facilities of the Secretariat of State has filed a complaint against the Vatican.

Investment manager Raffaele Mincione, at the center of the London property scandal and the Vatican trial against him, has filed a formal complaint with the United Nations. According to media reports, Mincione claims that he has been denied his rights in the ongoing proceedings against the Vatican. Mincione also criticizes alleged procedural violations during the investigation, which lasted more than three years.

The Italian worked as an investment manager for the Vatican Secretariat of State from 2014 to 2018. According to the Internet portal “El Pilar”, the complaint to the office of the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers also contains a repetition of previous legal criticism of the search warrants approved by Pope Francis in 2019 that were used to conduct the investigation. These included four executive acts, the so-called rescripts, which allowed the electronic surveillance of certain suspects by the Gendarmerie Corps for a limited but renewable period. This was intended to guarantee the protection of the research results.

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Vatican financial oversight finds few irregularities

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Kath).

Internal supervisory authority ASIF has been monitoring the financial activities of the Vatican Bank and other institutions since 2010 =

The Vatican financial supervisory authority ASIF published its annual report for 2023 online on Monday. According to the report, 123 “suspicious activities” were checked in the reporting year, 118 of which were handled via the Vatican Bank IOR. In only 11 cases did the ASIF inform the Vatican public prosecutor’s office, compared to 19 cases in the previous year.

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Tension between state and church: prayer becomes “sidewalk nuisance”

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Von Martin Grünewald. CNA).

The current federal government is deviating from social consensus – for the first time in history – introducing high fines and wanting to interfere with freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

Self-determination law
In future, every citizen will be allowed to determine their own gender – supposedly a social construct. All they have to do is go to the registry office and have the entry changed there. Anyone who calls a so-called trans person by their original first name and thereby “intentionally harms” them can incur a hefty fine. It is completely new and constitutionally controversial that mentioning biological facts is punishable by a high fine of up to 10,000 euros. This is because the name change does not have to involve any medically effective changes. It is still unclear what is meant by “harm” – it may not even mean material damage.

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The non-existent Synodal Committee met in Mainz. Even in its second session, the bishops and laity ignored the irregular state of their fantasy club. Peter Winnemöller’s Monday Kick

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Kath).

To say it right away: No Catholic has to be interested in and/or follow anything that some of the German bishops and the controversial “ZdK” decide in their fantasy club “Synodal Committee”. Several canon lawyers have now made it very clear that everything that happens there takes place in a legal vacuum or is even illegal. The German Bishops’ Conference cannot be the sponsor of such an event because it lacks legal capacity. The legal entity of the DBK, the VDD, cannot be the legal entity of the Synodal Committee because there is no legally valid resolution for this. So now some bishops have founded an association, the name of which is not known, in order to be able to pay for the joint church destruction club, which is run by lay officials. It would be interesting to find out whether church tax money is used for this and how church tax payers can defend themselves against it. The DBK secretariat and the “ZdK” press office continue to carry out press work for the Synodal Committee. It is worth questioning whether the costs will be refinanced by the bishops’ association and whether such an advance payment is even legally permissible. Nothing is clear here. Transparency can be achieved in other ways.

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Einstiger Chef of the Vatikanbank is the new President of the German Malteser

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(CNA).

Ernst Freiherr von Freyberg, einst Chef of the Vatikanbank IOR, ist new Präsident of the Deutschen Assoziation des Souveränen Malteser-Ritterordens. Damit folgt er auf Erich Prinz von Lobkowicz, der 18 Jahre lang für den deutschen Teil des berühmten Ordens zuständig war.

Freyberg ist Volljurist und seit 1994 bei den Maltesern, wo er innerhalb der Deutschen Assoziation zuletzt das Amt des Schatzmeisters innehate. From 2013 to 2014 read the Vatikanbank. Nach seiner Wahl of him am Samstag in Regensburg rief der 65-Jährige in Erinnerung: „Die vor über über 900 Jahren in Jerusalem gegründeten Malteser sind der älteste Krankenpflegeorden der Christenheit. Die Malteser sind Träger bedeutender katholischer Werke in einem säkularen Umfeld – das ist Präsenz der Kirche inmitten der Gesellschaft.“

„Es geht darum, Nächstenliebe in Wort und Tat zu leben – Jesus Christus und persönlicher Einsatz sind das Fundament unserer täglichen Arbeit für den Nächsten“, erläuterte er. „Die Malteser stehen für Engagement, für soziale Arbeit, Zivilschutz und gelebten gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt. Wir sind den staatlichen Institutionen ein verlässlicher Partner. Wir stellen uns den Herausforderungen im Bereich des Gesundheitswesens und humanitärer Hilfeleistungen.“

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Cardinal Koch: In principle there is already a consensus on papal primacy

Posted on by Catholic Radar Al

(Katholisch).

For centuries, the Pope claimed clear primacy for all Christian churches. Now new sounds are coming from Rome that might also be acceptable to other church leaders. Curia Cardinal Kurt Koch comments in an interview.

The Vatican has presented a document with proposals for an ecumenical honorary primacy for the Pope. In an interview, Curia Cardinal Kurt Koch of the Dicastery for Christian Unity explains what could happen next.

Question: Cardinal Koch, the Anglican representative in Rome, Archbishop Ian Ernest, called the document a great success. What is this success due to?

Koch: The papal office, which has long been seen as the greatest obstacle to Christian unity, is now becoming an important opportunity to promote this unity and make it more visible.

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Every third primary school student in Vienna is Muslim

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Kath).

Around a third of Viennese primary school students at public schools are Muslims, according to a survey by the Education Directorate.

Vienna (kath.net) One in three primary school students in Vienna is Muslim. This was the result of a survey by the Education Directorate at public primary schools, reported by OE24. This does not include the approximately ten percent of private schools.

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Abuse investigation into German Franciscan Minorites presented

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Katholisch).

On Monday, the Franciscan Minorites were the first order in Germany to present an externally supervised, independent investigation into sexual violence . In it, two lawyers document and evaluate 152 pages of allegations against nine known members of the order since the 1960s. One brother describes assaults on 20 different people.

“One special feature was that a number of those affected had joined the order or had already been there, and there are still affected brothers,” say the authors Petra Ladenburger and Martina Lörsch. Many of those affected reported serious consequences, some of which still affect them today. Some of the accused brothers were charismatic personalities and highly respected. One had built up real “power enclaves” where he was “little or not at all controlled.”

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Vatican wants to propose new type of papal office

Posted on by Catholic Radar FM

(Kath).

 The Vatican wants to present a document on Thursday that could have far-reaching consequences for relations between the Christian churches. The text was prepared by the Pope’s ecumenical authority, the Vatican press office announced.

The paper is entitled “The Bishop of Rome – Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Discussions and the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint”. It takes up an encyclical from 1995 by Pope John Paul II. The doctrinal text, which was groundbreaking for Christian unity at the time, had promised a new self-understanding and a different way of exercising the papal office, especially with regard to the churches of the East.

At the time, the Pope had invited the other Christian churches to seek, in a “brotherly, patient dialogue” with Rome, ways in which the papal office could be understood as a “service of mercy” to all churches. The Vatican’s ecumenical department then set up its own dialogue forums with several churches, which consulted for decades. The results are now available.

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