Innsbruck (OTS) – The Catholic Church, like many other institutions, is suffering from a crisis of trust. The World Synod must therefore be a courageous attempt to establish a church in keeping with the times. With gender equality and participation.
The Catholic Church today is in the same situation as the shrunken popular parties. She is in a sustained crisis of trust. This finding is statistically supported by the negative record of people leaving the church. In Austria, 91,000 Catholics turned their backs on their religious community last year, and 520,000 in Germany. You don’t have to put it as drastically as the German canon lawyer Thomas Schüller that the church is dying a painful death in front of the public eye, but the process of erosion can hardly be stopped in Central Europe. There is no sense of malice, because the church and faith continue to provide support and a home for many.
It would be too easy to explain the dwindling acceptance with slogans such as too little modern, too conservative, too rigid or too hierarchical. However, the church as an institution and society form an ever-shrinking intersection. Because from Pope Francis downwards, the clergy are still clinging desperately to the long-shattered monopoly position of the sole truth. In doing so, the church leaders have not only lost sight of the realities of their members’ lives, but they are simply locking them out of the house of God. Because those who are not welcome in the long term will stay away, like remarried divorcees who are not even allowed to receive communion.
The hopes and expectations of young people for the Synod of Bishops that begins today in Rome cannot be better summarized than by the Episcopal Vicar of the Diocese of Innsbruck, Jakob Bürgler. They want a sexual ethic that is close to life and oriented towards people’s personal responsibility, as well as concrete participation in decision-making processes and in power in the church. These include the participation of laypeople, gender equality such as the recognized role of women (diaconate of women), rainbow competence in dealing with homosexuality and the end of celibacy.
The cardinals and bishops must finally seriously address these pressing issues, which are undoubtedly challenging for an inhomogeneous universal church. Nevertheless: unity in diversity must be possible – instead of trying to ride out the current state of slow infirmity. In many dioceses, this has failed miserably in solving the abuse scandals and has only exacerbated the crisis of trust.
The transformation process towards plural participation may be painful for some dignitaries. But if Christianity does not want to become a discontinued model, it needs a church that is up to date.
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