«Jung & Alt» column
Why I didn’t want to become a bishop after all
In the “Jung & Alt” column, our author Ludwig Hasler, 78, alternates with Samantha Zaugg, journalist, 28. This week Hasler explains why he advocates inspiration instead of admonition.
Not our author’s dream job: bishop.
dear samantha
That you wanted to be pope as a protestant girl amuses me. When I was a boy, I just wanted to become an archbishop – until I was told that Switzerland only had bishops, not archbishops. I didn’t want to be a bishop. Because as a little boy I stood with the entire population in the town of Beromünster, we were expecting the bishop of Solothurn to have children. I imagined the most magnificent attire, sweeping limousine, liveried chauffeur, magnificent robes…
Until a municipal VW Beetle drove up, the chauffeur got out – and no one else. The bishop himself was behind the wheel, in the gray of an everyday clergyman. And as if to dismantle himself completely, he took two sticks out of the car, screwed them together – to the crosier! There was a murmur of approval, oh, a bishop like you and me… I’ve had enough. If that’s how it goes, I thought, I’d better do something really worldly right away.
A long time ago, a full seventy years. What has stayed with me is the aversion to the sober. Catholic Mortgage. This church never trusted reason, preferring to impress the eyes and ears, likes to make people small, oh yes, but also raised them up with sensual art and music, with ceremonies, with an aesthetic so beautiful that it might not have come from this world.
That might even have something to do with our current topic, bullying, etc. For taming the insidious ingredients of human existence. There is little that can be done with a reasonable warning, we agree on that. The horror cabinet within us doesn’t succumb to moral appeals. But maybe it can be charmed, enchanted, seduced? At that time, the world was typically Catholic, populated with saints, St. George, who takes on every dragon, St. Catherine, who does not leave anyone suffering from the plague alone, St. Martin, who shares the cloak with the beggar, figures everywhere who lived in an exemplary manner; their little pictures were handed out to us children, and their stories were diligently told. Inspire, not admonish. perception instead of instruction. Tales of bravery, mercy, character.
In retrospect, I think it’s pretty clever – according to Wilhelm Busch’s maxim: “Virtue needs to be encouraged, malice is something you can do on your own.” And what do we do? Constantly beating up on wickedness. Daily a jumble of accusations, exposures, accusations.
The world, an Augean stable for idiots, puke, greedy, old white men. The faction of the correct busy with cleaning out.
How about encouraging instead of crap in between? Doesn’t have to be Catholic, Wilhelm Busch is enough. Instead of permanent crap in the stable – show how attractive it is to leave it.
Ludwig
