Catholic laity call on German Bishops to stop co-operating with abortion supporter
"End the co-operation with Dr Stetter-Karp!"
OPEN LETTER FROM THE MARIA 1.0 INITIATIVE TO BISHOP GEORG BÄTZING
In an open letter, the Maria 1.0 Initiative calls on the President of the German Bishops' Conference to end his
co-operation with the Chairperson of the Central Committee of German Catholics.
The latter had previously sided with the
abortion lobby.
The Maria 1.0 initiative has
written an explosive open letter to the Chairman of the German Bishops'
Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing. It
denounces the move of the chairperson of the Central Committee of German
Catholics into the camp of the abortion lobby and also the fact that the German
Bishops' Conference remains silent on the matter.
On Wednesday, 3 August, a letter
was sent "in great concern" to Bishop Bätzing, "as many
Catholics in our country were horrified and confused by recent statements made
by Dr Stetter-Karp". The chairperson of the ominous Central Committee of
German Catholics (ZdK) demanded "that the medical intervention of an
abortion should be made possible across the board", thus placing herself
in the camp of the abortion lobby.
Stetter-Karp is commited alongside the majority faction of the German Bishops' Conference not only for
the dubious "Synodal Path", but recently also for the killing of
innocent unborn children. Stetter-Karp
is committed to the killing of unborn children and thus risks having herself
excommunicated in accordance with church law. If she does not back down from her stance
advocating the killing of innocent people, she runs the risk of having excluded
herself from the communion of the Church and no longer being admitted to the Sacraments.
Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the offence
of excommunication in 2007 with regard to Mexican members of parliament who
voted for the legalisation of abortion. In
Stetter-Karp's case, it is not a matter of direct responsibility for an abortion
law, which she obviously agrees with, but instead, as chairperson of the ZdK,
she is in a prominent public position in which her stance has a negative effect
on Catholics and others, as well as causing damage to the Church. According to Canon Law, the killing of an
unborn child is one of the most serious crimes. Approval of such a crime, which in the Federal
Republic of Germany alone has reached the two-digit million range since the
exemption of abortion from criminal punishment, is to be assessed accordingly. So much for the facts. The Maria 1.0 initiative writes:
"Since this topic is of such
importance and can by no means be ignored, we announced in this letter to
Bishop Bätzing that we reserve the right to formulate and publicise an open
letter; in the letter we invited him to attach a statement on his part to our
text. Since we have not received a reply
to date (11 August) and Bishop Bätzing apparently continues to adhere to co-operation
with Dr Stetter-Karp, we are publishing the following open letter. We were able to win over Catholic initial signatories
for the open letter; they come from different regions, are of different ages,
men as well as women and combine the most diverse professions."
The first signatory of the Maria 1.0 open letter is Clara Steinbrecher. The student from Eichstätt leads the association of Catholics who are "committed to the unity of the universal Church and fidelity to the Papal Magisterium". Throughout Germany, especially young women are involved in Maria 1.0 and give the initiative a face. In addition to an apostolate of prayer and information, Maria 1.0 wants to help shape the discourse around the Catholic Church through its media presence. In the future, the initiative also plans theological conferences and a networking opportunity for Catholics.
The open letter to Bishop Bätzing
reads as follows:
German Bishops' Conference
Chairman
H. E. Bishop Dr Georg Bätzing
Kaiserstrasse 161
53113 Bonn
Excellency
Dear Bishop Dr Bätzing,
"CONGREGA IN UNUM - Lead
together" is your episcopal motto. We, the signatories of this open letter, are
writing to you today out of concern for the unity of the Catholic Church within
Germany and the unity of the Catholic Church in Germany with Rome and the
universal Church; there are many reasons for this!
In the meantime, you receive
almost regular mail from bishops and cardinals from Germany and abroad who are
concerned about the state of the Catholic Church in Germany, even from entire Bishops'
Conferences and there is also no lack of repeated (admonishing) words from
Rome. A Holy Father who is visibly frustrated and annoyed by German conditions
openly asks in interviews why his "Letter to the Pilgrim People of God in
Germany" of 29 June 2019, for which he personally took several weeks and
which he wrote as a shepherd, brother, father and believer of a Church that is
trying to find its way forward, receives so little attention in this country. We wonder about this with him, Excellency!
In his letter, Pope Francis calls
us to a pastoral conversion, reminding us "that evangelisation must be our
guiding criterion par excellence, by which we can discern all the steps we are
called to set in motion as an ecclesial community; evangelisation constitutes
the proper and essential mission of the Church." And what does the Synodal
Path, of which you are co-president, think about this? The establishment of a separate forum
dedicated to evangelisation was rejected. Instead, it was agreed that in the course of
the Synodal Path's further deliberations, it would even deal with the question
of whether the office of Catholic priest is still needed at all! Even under your leadership, Excellency, the
Synodal Path is in danger of falling into the offside trap which, according to
Pope Francis, consists in "believing that one of the first and greatest
temptations in the ecclesial sphere is to believe that solutions to present and
future problems can be achieved exclusively by reforming structures,
organisations and administration, but that these ultimately do not touch in any
way the vital points which actually need attention".
We believe that it urgently needs
your attention, for example, that according to a survey by the Erfurt-based
market and social research institute. INSA-Consulere commissioned by the Protestant
news agency "idea" and quoted on 18.04.2019 by katholisch.de, only
28% of Roman Catholics still believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. According to a survey by
the Pew Research Center also cited by katholisch.de on 06.08.2019, almost 70%
of US Catholics no longer believe in the presence of Jesus Christ in the
Eucharist. In our country, the numbers
are unlikely to be any better. And under
these auspices of evaporating faith in your own ranks, are you holding talks
with the churches of the Reformation about mutual participation in the
Eucharist or the Lord's Supper? No,
Excellency, we are well on the way to that 'modernised', woke-liberal,
politically correct ecclesiastical organism that Pope Francis warns would
remain without soul and without the freshness of the Gospel!
We have been silent about all
this for a long time, rubbing our eyes in bewilderment at how the MHG study and
the abuse of innocent children and young people - which we condemn and want to
see cleared up just as much as you do (!) - is being used as an opportunity to
try to restructure our Church in such a way that we, as Roman Catholics, would
no longer recognise ourselves in it, were it not for Rome and the universal
Church. The whole thing is orchestrated by the same handful of German theology
professors who seem to be preparing to replace the episcopal teaching authority
in our country. And please do not
believe that we did not notice the many deliberate violations (also by
individual bishops), both small and large, of explicit Roman guidelines or the
teachings of the Church. That does not
unite, Excellency, that divides!
Now, however, your Co-President
of the Synodal Way and President of the ZdK, Dr Irme Stetter-Karp, has crossed
a red line that makes us no longer silent but seek publicity: The incident is
well known: Dr Stetter-Karp, in her guest article for "Christ &
Welt" in the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" of 17.07.2022, under
the programmatic heading "Right to life, right to
self-determination", demanded that it should be "ensured that the
medical intervention of an abortion is made possible throughout the
country." "A reflection on how the offer can be ensured is pending -
which also includes the training of doctors," Stetter-Karp continued. The fact that the co-founder of Donum Vitae is
abusing her office as the highest lay representative of the Catholic Church and
as Co-President of the Synodal Path in order to promote a personal
socio-political concern, namely the alleged equivalence of the woman's right to
self-determination and the right to life of the unborn child propagated by
Donum Vitae, is a monstrosity for every believing Catholic! Not only that, Dr Stetter-Karp even goes
further in response to the immediate criticism, stating that a (state) law must
ultimately be enforced. She thus clearly shows that she finds herself in an
irresolvable role conflict, which she herself obviously does not even recognise
and which places her in clear opposition to the applicable church doctrine. Her
press spokesman, Mr Matthias Kopp, then reacted with the necessary clarity and
made it clear that the position of the ZdK President is in contradiction to the
German Bishops' Conference. Your
confrere in the episcopate, His Excellency Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Maria Renz,
adds at CNA: "Whoever wants to be and remain Catholic will therefore
naturally demand a nationwide offer of diverse help for pregnant women in
conflict situations but not a nationwide provision of possibilities to get rid
of one's own offspring."
And now, Excellency? From you personally, who otherwise never asks
for a statement on persons such as the Archbishops His Excellency Dr Stefan
Heße and His Excellency Dr Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki, we hear only loud
silence about the case of your Co-President Stetter-Karp! Instead, as early as 21.07.2022, you publish
another joint statement with Dr Stetter-Karp on the latest admonitions from the
Vatican Secretariat of State. Is our
impression correct that in view of the German permanent conflict with Rome you
want to avoid at all costs that the outrageous statements of Dr Stetter-Karp
become a wedge between DBK and ZdK and thus weaken the Synodal Path? Do you want to go back to business as usual
and continue to work with a Co-President who - because she continues to be
intransigent - according to the words of your confrere His Excellency Auxiliary
Bishop Renz, cannot actually remain a credible Catholic? It is true that you only have a certain
influence on who is President of the ZdK, but it is up to you as President of
the German Bishops' Conference to decide whether you are willing to continue
working with Dr Stetter-Karp under these circumstances!
We, the signatories of this
letter, would find it unbearable to think that one day you might travel to Rome
side by side with Dr Stetter-Karp as a representative of the German Catholic
Church or, if that were to happen, that she might even join you as co-chair in
the planned Synodal Council to decide on the fate of the "German Catholic
Church". Your Excellency, we ask
you and your confreres in the episcopate, who all promised at their
consecration that they would render pure and unabridged the Church's deposit of
Faith handed down by the apostles, to end your co-operation with Dr
Stetter-Karp unless she is willing to publicly revise her position and return
to the Church's teaching on the protection of unborn life.
Yours sincerely
Clara Steinbrecher, Director of
the Maria 1.0 Initiative
Dr Michael F. Feldkamp, historian
and publicist, Berlin
Dr Beate Beckmann-Zöller,
freelance philosopher of religion
Professor Dr Christoph Binninger,
Director of the Episcopal Studium Rudolphinum, Regensburg
Dr Christian Schmidt, Herder Institute, Marburg
Mathias von Gersdorff, publicist
and author
Gisela Geirhos, Publishing
Director Media Maria
Dr Hinrich E. Bues, publicist and
lecturer on Christian spirituality and evangelism
Kristian Aufiero, CEO 1000plus/Pro Femina e. V.
Professor Dr Manfred Spieker,
emeritus professor for Christian social sciences, University of Osnabrück
Timothy Flanders, publisher of
OnePeterFive (1P5)
Professor Dr Matthias Amen, Professor
for Business Administration, Bielefeld University
Professor Dr Christian Müller,
economist
Felizitas Küble, Director Komm-Mit-Verlag and
Christoferuswerk
Professor Dr Berthold Wald,
emeritus Professor for Systematic Philosophy, Paderborn Faculty of Theology
Sister M. Margreth, St.
Peter-Ording
Professor Dr Dr Elmar Nass, Professor
for Social Sciences, KHKT Cologne
St. Boniface Institute
Sister Veronika Reincke OCD
(Carmelite), Prioress of the Carmel St. Josef, Aufkirchen
Ursula Maria Fehlner, Federal
Chairperson of the Association of Catholic German Women Teachers (VkdL e. V.)
Professor Dr Wolfgang Klausnitzer, emeritus
professor of fundamental theology
Professor Dr Dieter J. Weiß, historian, Munich
Peter Esser, graduate designer
Dr Ludger Hölscher, parish vicar
St. Peter-Ording
Christof T. Zeller-Zellenberg, investor and
publicist, Vienna
Dr Margarete Strauss, journalism
with focus on internet apostolate
PD Dr Stefan Luft, political scientist, Bremen
Professor Dr med. Angelo Dell'Aquila,
Clinic for Heart Surgery, Münster
Dr Joachim Krebs, former
ambassador, Düren
"A nation that kills its
unborn children has no future."
Pope John Paul II
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