Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. has distanced itself from the Catholic Integrated Congregation. For decades he had close ties to the community, which is currently the subject of a church investigation in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
According to a contribution in the “Herder Korrespondenz” which had been distributed in advance on Sunday evening, Benedict XVI stated that he had obviously “not been informed or even deceived” about “some of the inner workings” of the community.
Allegations from former members
According to an interim report by the Munich visitators, which became public in October 2019, allegations by former members show “largely the character of spiritual abuse” and a system of psychological and financial dependence. Among other things, it says: “Relationships and marriages were established and separated, depending on whether this appeared to the community meeting to be beneficial for community life. The community meeting decided whether and when a married couple could or should have children.” The paper describes a system of psychological and financial dependence in which contradiction was presented as a sin against the Holy Spirit, sanctions were extended to family members, and private income was claimed for church purposes.
In the “Herder Korrespondenz”, Benedict XVI stated that he had ecclesiastically recognized the group during his time as Archbishop of Munich and Freising because he wanted to accompany them to orthodoxy. “At first I did not realize that in the attempt to shape things of daily life integrally from faith, terrible distortions of faith were possible,” said the former Pope. “I deeply regret that this gave the impression that all the activities of the community were approved by the archbishop.”
Community plans work “in a new legal guise”
According to the “Herder Korrespondenz”, representatives of the community declined to comment and said that it had been decided to “cease all activities as a church association”. As the article goes on to say, the group should plan to continue their work “in a new legal guise”.
The community founded in 1948 by the couple Traudl and Herbert Wallbrecher was at times considered to be one of the most promising new beginnings in the Catholic Church. According to her own account she wanted to be “a place for an enlightened and unabridged Christianity”.
In 1978 the Integrated Congregation was recognized by the archbishops in Paderborn and Munich – Johannes Degenhardt and Joseph Ratzinger – and was established in 1985 as a public association under Catholic church law. It also attracted well-known theologians such as the Ratzinger student Ludwig Weimer and the New Testament scholars Gerhard Lohfink and Rudolf Pesch (1936-2011) as members.
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