MUNICH LETTER:Many attendees at a recent congress believe the Catholic Church will eventually have to reach out to its Christian siblings
IT WAS easy to spot the Christian cliches in Munich last weekend.
From Wednesday to Sunday the Bavarian capital hosted Germany's second ecumenical Kirchentagor church congress around the city and at the sprawling trade fair grounds.
In one of the halls in the trade grounds, happy-clappy cliched Christians with vacant smiles and tambourines a go-go tried in vain to clap in time with the Christian band on stage.
There is a temptation to turn and leave, but the 700-page programme bulges with some 3,000 events and surely not all of them involve tambourines.
Germany's Kirchentageare huge, bi-annual meetings of Catholics and Protestants that go back 162 and 61 years respectively. They are organised by lay organisations, and this is only the second time they have joined forces in the name of closer religious unity or ecumenism. Some 300,000 people attended an opening candlelit vigil, but the Kirchentag is more than just Masses for the masses.
The trade grounds hosted a lively fair promoting everything from religious books and church organs to monastery wine and T-shirts with slogans such as “Prayboy” and “Jesus Pimped My Life”.
“For me it’s just another way of professing the gospels,” says Dieter Huber, owner of holyshirt.de. “People come up and ask about a T-shirt and humour is so much better a way to get into conversation with people than hitting them over the head with the ‘thou shalt not’ cudgel”.
The shadow of clerical abuse hung over the congress: former abuse victims protested at one of the main events. In a panel discussion Fr Klaus Mertes, the Jesuit headmaster in Berlin who set in motion Germany’s rolling abuse scandal, called for the end to the celibacy rule and for the ordination of women as priests.
Wunibald Müller, a psychologist and theologian, said the Catholic Church had “developed a cult of personality conducive to abuse”.
Proving that personality cults are no Catholic speciality was the uncrowned queen of the Kirchentag, Margot Käßmann. Last February the popular bishop and theologian was stopped for drink driving and, after just four months in the job, resigned as head of the Evangelical Church of Germany, a federation of Protestant churches.
After 80 days in the wilderness, her return in Munich was a frontpage tabloid sensation: “Käßmann greeted like a star!”
She didn't disappoint: her lectures were by far the biggest draw of the Kirchentagand at one she delivered a killer soundbite when she described the contraceptive pill as "a gift from God".
The lecture programme offered plenty of intellectual stimulation, with talks on everything from globalisation and energy security to micro-credit and ageing European societies.
A special “House of Ireland” was organised by German-Irish travel agent Christian Ludwig, where events included a discussion on peace in Northern Ireland with Danny Morrison and Irish Ambassador to Germany Dan Mulhall.
Considering the shock of the ongoing abuse scandal and the extensive media coverage, the overriding atmosphere at events was one of pragmatism rather than defeat, depression or anger.
“People are realising again that Christianity isn’t an institution but a movement of people on a journey together,” said Sr Ulrike Soegtrop from the Burg Dinklage, a convent north of Osnabrück.
“I think the revival in pilgrimages shows that.”
There was another side to that pragmatism, particularly among the many young people present.
“I enjoy the feeling of a community here. There’s a great atmosphere. But, though I’m baptised, I don’t think this’ll bring me back to the church next Sunday,” said Roland (22) from Cologne. “I have other outlets like scouts and social work and I don’t think I need the church to find meaning in my life.”
At the end of the congress, organisers expressed disappointment, if not surprise, that, as expected, the Catholic Church had declined to allow a joint Mass and Communion.
A common view among departing attendees was that declining church attendances and other pressures will eventually force the Catholic Church to reach out to its Christian siblings. At the very least, Germany’s Catholic lay organisation said they would like a rule to cover joint Communion for couples in cross-confessional marriages.
“My feeling talking to Catholic bishops is that they are impatient, that we’d be a lot further on the road to true ecumenism if it weren’t for Rome,” said Herbert Schreiber (60), a Catholic from the western city of Hamm.
Germany’s Catholic bishops have seven years to ponder their next move before the next ecumenical church day in 2017 – 500 years after Martin Luther’s theses caused the rupture with Rome.
The overwhelming sense as Munich’s ecumenical church congress ended was that, on almost every issue, the future of Europe’s Christian churches lie together rather than apart.
As Fr Jack from Father Tedput it: "That would be an ecumenical matter."
