“Now is the time, now is the hour”
In Cologne, protesters have called for changes in the Catholic Church. Their protest was directed primarily against the abuses in the archdiocese. The special thing about it: the demo took place, so to speak, under the noses of papal visitors.
By Anita Hirschbeck (KNA) | Cologne – 12.06.2021
With applause, singing and brass music, the protesters received the Dormagener pastor Klaus Koltermann and his around 60 companions on the Börsenplatz in downtown Cologne. The clergyman and his group walked 40 kilometers to Cologne to set an example for changes in the church. Koltermann apologized that he had misjudged himself by ten kilometers – because the around 250 protesters on the square had to wait around an hour and a half for the Dormagener. They passed the time with hymns. “Now is the time, now is the hour” they sang – with distance and masks.
The song seemed almost programmatic for that Saturday afternoon. Because only a few meters from the Börsenplatz is the conference center of the Archdiocese of Cologne, and there are currently two papal envoys. Because of the never-ending debate about the abuse investigation, Pope Francis sent the two visitors to the Rhine. The Stockholm Cardinal Anders Arborelius and the Rotterdam Bishop Hans van den Hende have been holding talks behind closed doors since Tuesday. Apart from the first meeting with those affected by abuse, hardly anything gets out through the encounters.
Catholics demonstrate in front of the visitors’ noses
Many people on the stock exchange hope that their protest will get inside. That Arborelius and van den Hende take note of their demands and thus find a hearing in Rome. After all, the Catholics demonstrated in front of the noses of the visitors, who were invited to the stock exchange by the organizers – a broad alliance of various associations and initiatives in the archbishopric.
“Our plea is: the churches must give the education and the reappraisal outside,” said the spokeswoman for the reform initiative “Maria 2.0 Rhineland”, Maria Mesrian, the Catholic News Agency (KNA). The former spokesman for the Advisory Council for Affected Persons of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Karl Haucke, called for changes in the training of priests. “Anyone who comes to a leadership position at the church should understand something about leadership, communication and of course empathy and morality,” he said. “We can see from the Cologne diocese leadership that there are at least four areas that do not exist here.”
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A total of around 300 demonstrators met on Saturday near the Maternushaus and the Archbishop’s House on Börsenplatz in downtown Cologne. Her concern: a different way of dealing with cases of abuse in the archdiocese.
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Like Haucke, many accused Woelki of moral failure in dealing with cases of abuse. An appraisal report, the so-called Gercke Report, relieves the cardinal legally. Nevertheless, Germany’s diocese with the largest number of members is in a crisis of confidence. The posters of the protesters also testified to this. “One report is not enough” it read and: “Take responsibility! Resign!”
So far, Pastor Koltermann has been the only priest of the archdiocese to publicly demand Woelki’s resignation. He thanked his companions on the stock exchange. Part of change is to set out on your own. “Even if it hurts and the strength slackens. Nobody can stop us, no bishop, whoever.” On the way the group noticed “that we are church”.
Woelki leaves the question of personal responsibility “outside”
There were a few other clergymen among the protesters, such as Pastor Christoph Bernards from Bergisch-Gladbach. “The processing of sexual abuse must proceed quickly,” he told the KNA. “Our bishop does a lot there, but he leaves out the question of personal responsibility.”
Arborelius and van den Hende will have a decisive say in the question of whether Woelki has to take on “personal responsibility” – and what exactly that can look like. The protesters waited in vain for the ambassadors on the stock exchange. At the end they formed a human chain from the conference center to the bishop’s house to the Börsenplatz. They sang again: “Now is the time, now is the hour.”
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By Anita Hirschbeck (KNA)
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