Hideous Art in Innsbruck Followed by Dissident Theologian's Lecture

 At the Innsbruck Basilica of Wilten there are concerns about an offensive sculpture for the agitation of the faithful -- accompanying this is a course by Roman Siebenrock, a signator of the anti-Roman Theological Memorandum.


Innsbruck (kath.net)  After the outrage surrounding the photo exhibition in the Innsbruck Cathedral, the Faithful are reporting now another noteworthy scuplture in the Basilica of Wilten,  which has aroused the displeasure of some of the faithful.  The exhibition "Ecce homo" by the south Tirol artist Lois Anvidalfarei was displayed at the beginning of Lent in the Wiltener Basilica.  Accompanying the sculpture is a religion course taught by theologian Roman Siebenrock. Siebenrock received his doctorate studying under Peter Hunermann in the Theological Faculty of Tübingen and is a signator of the anti-Roman Theological Memorandum.

Link to video...

German Theologian Says Schism Has Been Reality a Long Time

 Edit: This Heidelberg theologian has no illusions about the situation in Germany. The article was cited on Germany's SSPX website. Perhaps it's not the SSPX the Pope should worry about, but his disobedient Bishops and theologians?  Pay close attention to how these "reformers" arguments don't hold a lot of water and how they appeal to the child sexual abuse as a justification for their sinful disobedience.

The Vatican Magazine published a disturbing analysis of the situation of the Church in Germany in its September edition. It came from the feather of the exegete  and theologian Klaus Berger.

Berger came to the conclusion that there are a large sum of anti-Church initiatives (which are voiced especially in Germany) "which are indeed already practiced up and down the land".   He means here the remarried divorced, women in ecclesiastical offices etc...

He has come to the conclusion: "The overwhelming majority of the German Catholic professors for theology, along with their Bishops, have come to embody a split in the Catholic Church in Germany for a long time."

Church of the Germans -- Church of Scandals

Between the stalled reforms and division, Pope Benedict and the 'gravamina nationis germanicae" is an oration of the Heidelberg Theologian Klaus Berge.

The stalled reforms,  under which the German Church is alleged to have suffered, are not completely new and fresh.

They are long standing, wooden propsoals:  same sex partnerships, remarried divorced, married priests, women "in ecclesiastical offices" (what is meant is probably ordination) and the participation of the people in the election of Bishops.

These demands and proposals are familiar to me as a historian of the Conciliarism of the 4th century, and partly from the Kulturkampf under Bismarck, and partly from the books of my Great Grandfather, who had boasted to have been a party member in 1923.

The whole is therefore neither revolutionary, nor in any way comprehensive.  It is a mere collection of scandals, like the „gravamina nationis germanicae“ of 1522.  In German:  "The affliction of the German Nation."

It is interesting that here the concept "German Nation" occurs, because the singers of the Memorandum of those 150 theologians earlier this year were of German national back ground.  It is striking:  not one of those demands is substantiated, and clearly had been enforced.

No one can convince me that the diagnosis of gridlock is because of this supposed collegial assistance for the rest of the reign of Pope Benedict.  Because there isn't the slightest glimmer of a possibility that any of these will be realized in the future.  And who authorized these pretended reformers to speak for my faith? [WOW]

In German Universities, these acts will not only be undertaken by 150 professors, or about one third of the colleagues who follow these enthusiasts, but in reality it should be about two thirds.   But the dream of these colleagues and what they propose is always novel, but it's not the future, it's already practiced all over the country already.


For in truth, it is at the its base in Germany,  maintaining comprehensive inter-celebration and inter-communion. The Corpus Christi procession with the ecumenical female Protestant pastor took care to read the Gospel at all four altars. Thus missing in the catalog of all relevant claims, especially these: We demand the immediate and unconditional acceptance of all Protestant church structures. By the way: as far as the creed of any religious truths which has been interesting for some, for time anyway, no more.
 
The overwhelming majority of German Catholic professors of theology embody, therefore, along with some bishops, have long been split from the Catholic Church in Germany. This church is deliberately insisted upon and it is a thoroughly German national church. For the special required by Rome, including celibacy rules, are indeed already practiced.  Still, it makes no sense to themselves and others to throw sand in the eye here. [u]But hypocrisy and cowardice[/u] are complementary to the present chapter of this new schism.
 
When the Pope comes to us now, he will present a good face to an insidious game. This much is clear to me: the Church renewed by these "reformers" I do not belong - and the large number of those not still in the Catholic Church of my youth and formed as the people of God, have fled long ago in the internal or external emigration from the faith of my fathers and my beloved mother, dying Church.
 
Without wanting to give these uncritical critics of the Church too much credit, I would like to make a philological note on their pamphlets and statements.  This text from recent Church history is not known to me, where the word "freedom" is arbitrary, aloof and also completely transgressed in an  unbiblical way.
 
In a similar way, is the latest revision of Luther,  where Luther is supposed to be the representative of civil liberties (including participation). Freedom is always according to the liberation of the biblical revelation  instead of that which threatens the eternal life of man. It was also central in Luther to experience of liberation from sin, death and the devil. Luther did not mean lay preaching and the participation of a businessman in the next election of a bishop.
 
Gerhard Schröder, had but so many excellent opportunities for us, that Mrs. Kaessmann [A protestant Bishopess who lost her job because of a dui conviction]  with her immense popularity would become the next Archbishopess and successor of Cardinal Meisner. This is not at all what I mean, when I speak as a theologian of freedom, but freedom in terms of the new anti-Roman and anti-papal "German Christians" would read: "We do what we want"; the only measure is the zeitgeist. The fact that God's commandments  are thrown overboard will hardly be noticed by the reader (divorce ban, ban the practice of homosexuality, ban on public preaching of women in worship, in 1 Corinthians 14:37, expressly referred to as the Lord's command, prohibition of self-determination in ethical issues according to Romans 6.15-17 - "but now you obeyed from the heart of the apostolic teaching").
 
From one of my  colleagues I have even heard that since celibacy lacks theological grounding, it is "not necessary". Now there is, in fact, a German understanding of Christianity brought to a head. And they always repeated a declaration that when something is not necessary, it is what is meant by Catholic, light years away. For even the cathedral is "not necessary" for there is no scripture passage standing against against its demolition and you could easily invest instead, and with the consent of the masses, an ecumenical Parking lot.
 
It also means to the average Catholic in Germany: since then some clever professor found out, not to go to church on Sundays is not a more serious sin, so the rest goes, because it was not necessary. In short: Nothing but the baptism is necessary, and actually not even that.

Grace is not necessary, and you can't preach the sign of the cross to anyone either. No praise is necessary, no surrender. One should not make such a fuss, no commitment, no great love for the Church as needed. The craving of the new intra-Catholic reformers is missing this above all: the name of Jesus and that a change of heart is sorely needed.

I won't talk any more of the crisis of faith (about which, speaks any text of the New Testament already) to describe the demands of the German professional mourners, even as an example of this crisis.
 
In my home, Easter is still a highly visible luminous sign of a victorious faith and great love. One came to the fires, marveled at the embers, and warming himself at them, he swore eternal fidelity to the girlfriend at his side. For the in the Bible,  faith, loyalty and identity  are all of the same.
(Source: Vatican magazine , Sept. 2011)


Link to Germany's Society webpage...

Empty Rhetoric: Cardinal Meisner Complains About Theology Memorandum

Editor : The same sorts of problems occur over here, although our Bishops tend to avoid responsibility for the Theology faculties altogether by saying that they have little power to effect what happens in their Universities.

The Cardinal of Cologne complains about the theologians, whom he himself had named, and about the situation with religious instruction where he has unleashed church haters and homosexually disturbed persons upon the children.

Six weeks late the neo-Conservative Cardinal of Cologne has criticized the Old Liberal theologians' pamphlet against celibacy.

The Cardinal's statement was published in the Newsletter of the Archdiocese of Cologne.  The pamphlet being criticized appeared in the beginning of February.

"In my episcopal service -- in any case almost thirty six years -- there has seldom been an announcement from the theological side made known to me which was so shocking and saddening as this Memorandum"  -- the Cardinal emotionally explained at the beginning of his address. 

The specifications and suggestions of the pamphlet must be contradicted "almost in every point".

Then followed the obscure verbiage.

For example, this:  "That I have to take it on myself to express there is already a disagreement:  for the first and foremost belongs foremost thing is the service of the office in the Church: to spread the truth of Christ, 'if one will hear it or not'. 

Or, directly after:  "This proclamation is in no way a "message of biblical freedom", rather in the power of the Holy Ghost in the passing down and continuation of the word and grace of the Son of God made man."


Wishy-washy in place of clear words

One can not bring concerns and criticism in such a way as if the Church were just "any human institution" -- said Cardinal Meisner.

A fruitful discussion within the Church can only succeed if one affirms the Church in its "deepest natures".

These "deepest natures" the Cardinal defines with a wishy-washy term used in the Church Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, "universal sacrament of salvation".

All Are Guilty, Just Not the Bishops

  He locates the problems particularly -- where the blame should fall squarely on the Bishops  -- on deficits in the faith knowledge and in a widespread lack in living the faith.

These should bring the theologians "to thinking to what extent this actually casts their bad influence in their ranks upon their brothers and sisters in the faith-- and just look at what is taught in religious education!"

The Bishops are responsible for the quality of religious instruction -- not the theologians.


The teachers were appointed by the Bishops


The the Cardinal turns a melodramatic pirouette.

"I can not conceal my greatest concern"  - he sighs:

"How can I entrust the Church to future priests, deacons, religious instructors and pastoral caregivers whose lives are a deficit to the life of the Church."

The Cardinal is not one to cry over this like a woman, what he won't defend like a man.

The following active Cologne theologians have signed the pamphlet:

-The lay theologian Michel, Andreas, since 2006 at the University of Cologne

- The lay theologian Saskia Wendel, since 2008 at the University of Cologne

- The lay theologian Hans-Joachim Hohn, since 1991, at the University of Cologne

Cardinal Meisner has been in office as Archbishop of Cologne since February of  1989.

He appointed these theologians and should do justice by them.



Original, kreuz.net, here...

Theology Professors Are Completely Irrelevant: Celibacy Memorandum

Manfred Lutz about the Theology-Memorandum: The great intellectual debate in German takes place without Theology professors in place.

Rome (kath.net) The famous psychiatrist and Catholic theologian Manfred Lutz rejected the suggestion in an interview with "Radio Vatican", that he had encouraged the authors of the controversial Theology Memorandum to leave the Church and become protestants. "That really didn't happen. What I -- psychologically actually -- found very interesting: I wrote an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung in the beginning of February which was intentionally unpolemical in an admittedly polemical debate and finally made the impression, that really wasn't the case. The people understood even an unpolemical article in a polemical debate, polemically."

Lutz insisted during the interview that the Theological Memorandum is about power and powerlessness. "I believe that theology professors in Germany have a lot of power -- if they really are at once professors, they could actually do, what they want, and teach, what they want. They don't know anything else. On the other said there is the problem that these professors, that theology professors are not taken seriously an more. They are completely irrelevant. The great intellectual debate in Germany is taking place without theologians present. They are not being cited in the big papers and in talk shows either, the talk shows want Catholic positions and so they invite the Bishops."

For the theologians, it is certain that themes in the Church do not appeal to young people, but here we have an entire generation always bringing up the same concern. Lutz said of this: "I think this is the conservatism of the progressives in the Catholic Church". For the psychiatrists there are two conservative milieus in the Church. The one conserves that which they call "the Catholic". "And the other is always against, but always has proposals which the people well know they won't eke through. Then one can be hardened in
conservatively in a complaining ritual, and nothing changes."

For Lutz it is clear that everyone who has signed, actually knew that celibacy won't be overthrown by the debate. "And thus that we are now thoroughly angry about this, that which can't be overthrown, things aren't going to get better. Everyone knows that. One can hardly hardly exchange more arguments in the hope that the other side will take that as a real argument and not an attack. If they looked through the Memorandum once, psychologically: then the discussion would be worked out and pummeled into the Church, which isn't very fun, then to speak with such aggression." A dialog always begins on one side. Always begins with one speaking to another person, and the more meaningfully he does it, the more respectful he does it, the more the other will have the desire to answer. So begins the dialog", concluded Lutz with certainty.

Related Articles:

Link to kath.net...

Rome calls thinking behind Theological Memorandum, "provincial"

[Catholic Vulture] German Bishops Respond to Memorandum.

Theological Memorandum: Kasper - "Students" Contradict Cardinal Kasper

Editor: Rome is just as disappointed with the Memorandum as Cardinal Kasper, calling it, "provincial".  Really, it seems really infantile and moribund, like the ranks of Old Liberals themselves.

Theologian Hans Kessler, Eberhard Schockenhoff and Peter Walter insist: Cardinal Kasper's "Gotteskrise" serves "not only in society, rather also in the center of the Church itself".

Berlin (kath.net/KAP) In the debate surrounding the provacative Theology paper three students of the Curial Cardinal Walter Kasper have offered sharp criticisms of their former mentor.   The Casper generated "Gotteskrise" serves "not only in society but also in the center of the Church itself", it was explained by theologians Hans Kessler, Eberhard Schockendoff and Peter Walter, who published a common statement for the "Frankfurter Rundschau" on Friday.

In the Catholic Church there is a "large brewing problem, which is not solved by non-engagement and progressive silence",  so say the three Theologians. It may be hardly challenged "that the Church is in no way defined by a culture of freedom, like other social systems at least present themselves in the ideal".  From "trust in the freedom of the individual" t is only apparent so long , "as it doesn't pull out all the stops".

Kessler is an emeritus Professor for systematic Theology at the Goethe-University Frankfurt:  Schockenhoff [Moraltheologie] and Walter [Dogmatic] are professors at the University of Freiburg.

Kasper was "disappointed" by the Memorandum.

Kasper had turned against the "Mememorandum" of Catholic theologians in the middle of February, in which a list of reforms were proposed.  The Curial Cardinal had explained that the call for another inner-ecclesiastical legal culture is surely right, the past church circle is however in consequence of the divine circle does not arise in the first line of Church law.  The various questions are "the conviction of the Faith in the world of today":  in place of "superficial adjusting parameters of celibacy", requires a "radical renewal" of this belief.

In total Kasper had explained two weeks ago that he was "overly disappointed" in the Memorandum of the Theologians.  He missed in that a substantial contribation of theologians where he'd "expected more".  No sensible person seriously contests that it "makes an acerbic break necessary with the Catholic Church".

Read original, kath.net...

Cardinal Kasper Severely Criticizes Theological Dissidents

Editor: We got earlier statements from the good Cardinal at Enlace Catolico. Here he is again, this time for Vatican Radio and kath.net, saying his piece against these theologians.  It's certainly one of the most striking statements from a Curial official so far, and one of the most surprising.  Here are some excerpts from his interview as translated at kath.net.

As we pointed out last year in September, the Cardinal had admonished Germans to obey the Holy Father.  


"Churches, which have opted for woman's ordination and the recognition of same-sex partnerships, have put themselves for that reason in a very deep crisis"

Rome (kath.net) The Roman Curial Cardinal, Walter Kasper has made a clear denunciation for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" against the Munster "Theological Referendum".  Kath.net has documented the main statements from "Radio Vatikan"  from FAZ-Report on the theme of "We're Coming to the Point".

"No sensible man, no follower of Christ will contend that the Catholic Church in Germany has had an acerbic and necessary break.  No one can seriously contend that the teachers and teacheresses of Theology are accorded any especial responsibility.  As one who has been in service for more than thirty years in academia,  I must say clearly, that the Memorandum has disturbed me greatly... because I would have expected more from Theologians, namely, a substantial theological contribution.

I ask myself, how a theologian can speak of the past situation and their difficulties, without mentioning the crisis of faith. Instead of this, the Memorandum remains stuck in a justifiable self-criticism.  Do the undersigned seriously believe that the Church's constitution today is an existential question for people? Is it not the reverse: that the crisis in the Church follows from a crisis of faith?  That is also valid for the horrible cases of sexual abuse.

What the undersigners of the Memorandum want to bring to the Dialog, has already been long known and expressed by other groups ad nauseum.  For that reason I have paid attention as the initial words of the message of freedom in the Gospel demand.  I thought: Yes, that's it.

I asked myself, how can it be that German Catholic theologians are so clearly  closed, that  churches, which are decided for women's ordination and for the recogniztion of same sex partnerships, have for that reason put themselves in a much deeper crisis than the Catholic Church in Germany.

The Celibacy is not just for today a hot iron in the fire.  Actually, I have been preoccupied with it for over forty years with other theologians that Pope and Episcopal College have the duty to assure the unmarried state of the diocesan priesthood.  Clearly, the fact is little known that this assessment has been for a long time in place.  The question has been discussed internationally, exegetically as well as historically some exceptions, that it can't be seriously allowed to review the old arguments.  Not less than three World Conferences of bishops have voted in the meantime with overpowering majorities for the continuance of the unmarried priesthood.  If anyone had wanted another internal Church legal structure, then it would have been appended, that decisions would also have been recognized, that he had preferred another solution himself.

Only a hopeless and futureless and therefore false conservatism can be living, what pastoral structures have previously been  identified artificially with 'viri probati' [married men of good character].  In any event those superficial German priestly communities in the Diocese are also not the final word.

More imagination and a view  beyond one's own teacup could help out tremendously.

The crisis of faith is not only a celibacy crisis, rather it has also led to a crisis of the faithful and the community.  When in Germany the number of regular churchgoers since 1950 has dropped more than two thirds, then that is a sign that has been long nudging and pushing to the real ground, what the priest shortage really means.  I can only propose a radical solution which is set on this "radix", on this root, in place of superficially turning on the parameters of celibacy."

From kath.net...