Jesuit: I will not participate in bishop bashing

High resignation numbers are not alone to the Woelki case of a lack of reform

Jesuit Mertes: I will not participate in "bishop bashing".

"It's a milkmaid's calculation: if the Cologne Cardinal abdicates and Pope Francis approves the German reform wishes, then no one will leave?! I don't believe that," says the Jesuit Klaus Mertes.

After a new record number of people leaving the Catholic Church in Germany, the Jesuit Klaus Mertes is currently moved by the anger and disappointment of those who have left. And "more than the silence of the bishops," said Mertes of "Zeit" (Thursday). "It's terrible: some run away because they have to protect themselves. They can't take any more chattering sermons, the banalization of the gospel, the rigor." However, he does not want to take part in "bishop bashing".

It is too cheap to identify the events surrounding Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki or Pope Francis as reasons. Because the crisis goes deeper. It gets worse the more blame is assigned, said Mertes. "It's a milkmaid's calculation: If the Cologne cardinal abdicates and Pope Francis approves the German reform wishes, then no one will leave? I don't think so."

According to the Jesuit, what helps now is staying put: "Strengthen your back. Endure the storm. Don't shy away from confrontations. Take people's fears seriously in world crises and life crises. Overcome your own fears. Protect those who think differently from hate and hate speech." Mertes added: "Not even more and even more expensive public relations work - but answer when I'm asked. Don't say what everyone wants to hear, but what I really think."

"We still have the wrong self-image"

At the end of June, the number of people leaving the Catholic Church was published. Accordingly, more than half a million people turned their backs on the church shaken by the abuse scandal. Overall membership is now around 20.9 million Catholics.

In 2018, Mertes and other Jesuits founded the "HumanismPlus" initiative at the Center for Ignatian Education for a social debate about the purpose and orientation of school education. In January 2010 he made it public that there was sexualised violence and abuse at his former school in Berlin and that the cases had been covered up for a long time. The scandal unleashed a wave of revelations in the church and other institutions.

Mertes now said in an interview: "The abuse crisis shows the life lies of the church in their relationship to modernity like under a magnifying glass. We still have the wrong self-image: if the church shrinks, then the people have a deficit. Not us. The problem is the others. In truth, we ourselves are the problem.

Source

Father Mertes is a "House of the One" Project Ambassador