Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck Criticizes Pope Benedict's Concept of Family

(Essen) In January 2012, Pope Benedict XVI defended the family at the new year's reception for the Diplomatic Corp in the Vatican.  This questioning poses a threat "for human worth and the future of humanity", said the Pope.

The special protection of marriage and family was also the Leitmotiv of the papal visit to Spain (From the 8th of July to the 9th 2009) of the 5th World Meeting of Families there.  In Valencia the Pope said, the defense of family values is "the best way, in order to go against widely spread hedonism, who reduces the relationship between people to banality, and robs their authentic virtues and beauty."

In an interview with KNA, Ruhr Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, criticized those who defend the traditional family yesterday:  "The earlier roles , where the husband is employed and the woman principally cares for the children doesn't exist any more.  To want to hold onto it, would be in fact social romanticism.  The educational possibilities of women and their involvement in the work process have fundamentally altered the family picture." In the interview the Bishop adopted the anti-family and anti-child positions of the business lobby, according to which the woman must be employed around the clock as a force for the economy.  Msgr Overbeck promotes the complete care of children out of house.  He did not plead only for the building of nurseries for under three year olds, but he requiests nurseries, which could also receive children at night.

Bishop Overbeck expressed himself as an economic lobbyist and also adopted the typical scheme of argument which attacks the family out of interests in profit:  "Surely there are certain areas for a labort shortage, which can be avoided by the building of more nurseries.  But on the other side it is good for a political answer to new challenges for the family.  Many women want both, to be mothers and pursue a job. I understand that."  In one statement Overbeck conveyed himself so far such as only economic lobbyists and those in public policy say, that to one a woman is in view of the "labor shortage" buttoned down,  further that mother, not only bears her children, but would like to care for them and raise them herself, is not realizable any longer.  Finally,  man will be reduced to a mere consumer, who lives to work, in order to consume.

Link to katholisches...

Germany: The End of a Monastery Church

Edit: what was painstakingly rebuilt with much sacrifice after the war will disappear in a short while.  The Diocese looks like a beneficiary of the end of a century of religious life in this locale.  Spiritual capital frittered away...


What took generations to build will now be destroyed.  The last thing the Pastoral Council implements is the bulldozer.

A Case for the Bull Dozer?

(kreuz.net)  For the people of Bochum it is gruesome to see, how a work, which has stood for a century will be destroyed.

It is the monastery church of the Redemptorists at Imbuschplatz in the town of Bochum.

It was erected in the years between 1868 to 1870.

Destroyed in the War


The Cloister church was completely  burned in the confusion of war through the bombing of the Anglo-American air forces in 1943.

Immediately after the end of the war the rebuilding began immediately with greatest sacrifices of the remaining parishioners.

Dr. Ing Huber Vieth was foremost in the effort then.

In a blameless situation


Initially, 18 years ago the eastern front of the giant nave was completely sheathed in copper.

The windows were double paned.

The was in a intact condition and had no structural deficiencies.

Under the laws regarding monuments in the city of Bochum there was no inducement to put the newly completed construction under protection.

Consequently things took their course.

The Demolition Work Has Begun

The last eight Redemptorists under the leadership of Father Wolfgang Gerhards (71) have given up the cloister already in January of 2011.

The youngest of them was 60, and the eldest 91.

The order has suffered the loss of much of its dynamism since the Pastoral Council.

Bishop Franz Josef Overbeck of Essen clearly had no interest or possibility to hold the cloister.

Thus, the demolition work has begun.

The Lazy Fruits of the Council

Who knows, who hides behind the new bearer --- perhaps the Aachen Residential Building Association, that the Diocese of Essen has a 61 percent share in?

It was the case with other church demolitions in the Diocese of Essen.

In the Diocese of Essen more than 130 churches have been simply locked up already by the order of the Bishop.

Link to kreuz.net....

The Bishop of Essen warns Perverse of Eternal Damnation

Bishop Overbeck is friendly with the traditional Society of St. Peter, and doesn't intend on backing down when it comes to the teaching the traditional Catholic Faith given to us by Christ and passed down to the Apostles.

Whoever dies as an unrepentant homosexual, goes to Hell. The Bishop of Essen can not abolish the 10 Commandments: homosexual perversion is a mortal sin.

[kreuz.net, Essen,June 10, 2010] Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen had delineated his diagnosis of homosexual perversion in a talk show on an evening in April, and yesterday during a town-hall meeting in his Cathedral

In April the Bishop had said "the first" on television: "Homosexuality is a sin, we know this very clearly and precisely, that it is that. It contradicts nature. The nature of man is applied in the unity of man and woman."

The Gruesome Homosexual Perversion is a Mortal Sin.

Msgr Overbeck specified then, that it would have been better to say, that "expressed" homosexuality is a sin.

That's how it is written in the "Catechism of the Catholic Church."

The Bishop continued, that he holds the Church's traditional Faith, which holds that the married unity of partnership and love is between a man and a woman.

He sees also "an opposition" between Catholic moral and degenerate western society.

The Church must, therefore, specify how a happy life could led.

It occurs not as a life-style choice and freedom from all norms. It must come from Christ within God-given norms in order to life a fulfilling life.

Anti-Democratic Homosexuals Rioted in the Cathedral

While the Bishop spoke about Sodomy, some unnatural homosexual storm troopers attempted to rob the Bishop of freedom of speech in his own Cathedral.

The Homosexuals shouted and heckled during the Bishop's explanation.

The moderator attempted to explain to the sodomites the limitations. A talk with the public was not planned impossible because of the acoustics in the Cathedral make it impossible.

The naive Bishop offered the anti-democratic homosexual hecklers, to meet at another time.

Link to original...

A German Bishop has Good Relations with the Fraternity of Saint Peter

A German Bishop has said what few will admit: there is today in comparison with the number of practicing faithful, no fewer priests than in earlier times.


[Kreuznet, Essen] "In the our diocese those faithful who want to celebrate the Tridentine Rite should find room."

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck (45) of Essen said this in an interview with the German newspaper, 'Tagespost'.

To the question, if the old-believing Society of Saint Peter would get a parish he said, "I think its smart to proceed as previously."

Clearly the Bishop meant the integration of the Old Mass in the modern parishes.

The Bishop has good relations to the priests through Fr. Berhard Gerstle of the Society of Saint Peter.

Father Gerstle regularly hears confessions in Essen Cathedral and ministers clearly in unity with the Bishop.

Absence of Faith

In the interview Bishop Overbeck discussed a "sober view of the Priest shortage":

"One sees it at once in the viewpoint of the regular church attendees, where there's an approaching close relation as in the past between young priests and young consistent Mass goers.

"Won't jostle Celibacy"

Msgr Overbeck has directed "countless discussions" with his priests.

He wants to strengthen self-knowledge and spiritual.

The parishes in the Ruhr district are "unusually large". This doesn't make the life of the priest easier:

"I speak very clearly as Bishop: 'I will not jostle celibacy". It is the priet's proper way of life".

Upon learning that other Bishops jostle with the unmarried state of Priests, Msgr Overbeck said:

"That may be the opinion regarding my colleagues -- I have never participated nor will I participate in that."

The Young Priests are Traditional

Bishop Overbeck assessed in the Clergy also a difference between the generations:

"The generation of the Council and those that shortly before found their priestly vocation, often wonder critically, if they have found the right way.

"And not infrequently the older men are astonished at what the younger men are doing."

The younger in the meantime live a Tradition bound form of the priestly life. That is not actually valid for them all, but it is really true for a large part."

Had the younger priests today a completely different biographical and interior point of departure than their older colleagues in their 50s and 60s.

Today the younger priests must inure themselves to "prevail over many others".

Msgr Overbeck has made his mission known, "to encourage and strengthen priests."

Additionally the "vocabulary of the Eucharist" must be put back more in the middle.

To Defend the Teachings of the Church

He still absolves his appearance on a German talk show last April.

It belongs to his duty to publicly and substantially discuss.

The Bishop's statements enraged then the anger of shameless homosexuals. The Bishop bore it with equanimity:

"We learn to live with the reality that the Church and her teachings are not accepted any more.

And it is often then, when we directly step in the sense of moral theology, with these often bulky expressions of doctrine to the public, which not many agree with any more:

Even then we must stand for them.

It would have surely been more clear, if I had said in the broadcast with Anne Will: Homosexuality is not a sin in the sense of disposition, rather in the sense of an expressed homosexuality.

That is also in the Catechism -- but that can in a broadcast of this sort in any case, not so fast."

The Church must "defend the value of man in the will of God, there where he is on the ground."

The basic mission of the Church must remain clear: Sexuality, Partnership and love belong together.

Link to original...

Correction: error was made about Father Gerstle's membership in the SSPX. He actually belongs to the FSSP, thanks.