Cardinal Lehmann hopes for ecumenical stimulus
From the Reform Congress of the German Protestant Church. (EKD)
The organizations, the Catholic Caritas and the Protestant, Diakonie could work together more closely.
26.1.07 Wittenberg
The Mainz Cardinal Karl Lehmann expects from the “future-orientated congress” of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) a stimulus specifically for ecumenism. Caritas and Diakonie, should above all work more closely together. This was stated by the Chairman of the German Catholic Bishops Conference in Wittenberg.
10 years after this post was published Cardinal Lehmann got a Luther Medal from the EKD
The congress which continues until Saturday is discussing the structural reform of the Protestant Church on the basis of a paper by the Synod of the German Protestant Church. This paper envisages amongst other things, the reduction of Regional Churches from 23 to a maximum of 12. Lehmann said that in the Catholic Church, there would be in future stronger cooperation between the Dioceses. A fusion of Dioceses was however excluded by the Bishop of Mainz.
Lehmann welcomed the fact that the German Catholic Bishops Conference was also invited to take part in the Congress. He gave a speech at the beginning of the Conference and the Secretary, Pater Hans Langendörfer is representing the Catholic Church during the Conference. The Cardinal rejects any criticism that the proposals do not specifically examine ecumenism. He says that with such basic questions of reform, it is necessary to examine your own back yard first.
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The reform document of the EKD is called "The Church of Freedom in the 21st Century" They clearly have taken to worshiping freedom rather than Jesus Christ- giving any ecumenism a very shaky basis. The Congress is taking place in Wittenberg, known in Germany as the Luther City. There too he proclaimed his freedom - his freedom to destroy all the Catholic Church stood for.
Cardinal Lehmann always try to do something for the Carnival season which has just begun. Sadly he is living out in the 21st Century, the life of the Joint Synods of the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Germany which took place between 1971 and 1975. Much paper (almost 1000 pages)- and without fruit. The present Pope even published in 1970 a book "Democracy in the Church" in preparation.
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Lehmann said in the future there will also be more cooperation between dioceses in the catholic church. However, the bishop of Mainz rejected the possibility of merging historically established dioceses
Of course that would be impossible! We can't have bishops losing their chair. Let's just close a bunch of churches to save money instead.