Berlin (kath.net/KNA) In the controversial renovation of Berlin's St. Hedwig's Cathedral, the new Archbishop Heiner Koch seeks (Photo) an amicable solution. "To renew a building so that it destroys the community, does not make sense," he said on Wednesday in his first press conference in Berlin. "Then the renovation is a fiasco," said Koch, who was appointed by Pope Francis to succeed Cardinal Rainer Woelki.
For the renovation and remodeling of the cathedral there is a design that took first place in an architectural competition a year ago. At issue is especially the plan to close the large bottom opening applied 50 years ago in the center of the cathedral with staircase to the lower church. The new Archbishop has to decide on the implementation.
Koch has already said he has received many "menacing, sharp" emails on the renovation design. "If you agree to this approach, you will not have many friends," he quoted from it. Koch takes office on 19 September. The designated Archbishop announced that he would "look again exactly" at the plans. At the same time, he stressed, there was a stress on "urgent action". Moreover, the competition had been completed, and there were already "factual decisions" made. Moreover, there are different liturgical requirements for the Cathedral today than 30 years ago.
Even with the also controversial structural reform of the Archdiocese, Koch signaled his willingness to talk. The criticism is particularly the plan, which is to currently combine 105 parishes in Berlin, Brandenburg and Pomerania to around 30 large parishes by 2020. Koch also has received his own words already from letters that clearly made a "tremendous fear of anonymity and homelessness".
The future archbishop promised "to familiarize himself with the local communities on the way." He defended the foundations initiated by his predecessor for reform: "I can not see that it is factually incorrect." The question of the best structures should, however, "not be answered uniformly," he conceded at the same time. "Since the archdiocese is too different." But he also warned that he was to reform the structures. They are only the means to an end. The principal issues were "how the Church can fulfill its responsibilities in a changing society." [Get ready for more modernism in Berlin.] (C) 2015 Catholic News Agency KNA GmbH. All rights reserved. Photo Bishop Koch (c) Diocese of Dresden / M. Kasiske
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Photo: Wiki
From Wiki:
After the Kristallnacht pogroms that took place over the night of 9–10 November 1938, Bernhard Lichtenberg, a canon of the cathedral chapter of St Hedwig since 1931, prayed publicly for Jews in the evening prayer following. Lichtenberg was later jailed by the Nazis and died on the way to the concentration camp at Dachau. In 1965 Lichtenberg's remains were transferred to the crypt at St. Hedwig's.
AMDG
From Wiki:
After the Kristallnacht pogroms that took place over the night of 9–10 November 1938, Bernhard Lichtenberg, a canon of the cathedral chapter of St Hedwig since 1931, prayed publicly for Jews in the evening prayer following. Lichtenberg was later jailed by the Nazis and died on the way to the concentration camp at Dachau. In 1965 Lichtenberg's remains were transferred to the crypt at St. Hedwig's.
AMDG
