Bishop Franz-Josef Bode speaks during a press conference on Sept. 22, 2022, following the release of a report that said he mishandled abuse cases in the Diocese of Osnabrück, in northwestern Germany, which he has led since 1995. / Screenshot of YouTube video
Rome Newsroom, Sep 22, 2022 / 06:22 am (CNA).
The vice president of the German bishops’ conference said Thursday he had thought about resigning after the publication of a report claiming he mishandled abuse cases, but that he had ultimately decided against it.
A report published Sept. 20 said Bishop Franz-Josef Bode mishandled abuse cases in the Diocese of Osnabrück, in northwestern Germany, which he has led since 1995.
The 600-page interim report is titled “Sexual violence against minors and vulnerable by clergy in the Diocese of Osnabrück since 1945.”
The report said in the first decades of his term, Bode “repeatedly” kept people accused of abuse in office or appointed them to other positions, including management tasks in youth pastoral care.
“I bear responsibility for this, also for the system in the diocese,” Bode said in a statement Tuesday
“I had wanted this interim report so that the truth would also come to light as quickly as possible,” he said. “Now I am very concerned about how blind we have actually been and how blind I have been for the suffering and the perspectives of those affected.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Bode said he consulted with those he works with and, rather than resign, “decided to do my best for the rest of my term of office and to take on the tasks and duties to follow up, which the interim report already shows, and also to face the results of the final report,” CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported.
The 71-year-old bishop has been vice president of the German bishops’ conference since 2017. He is also vice president of the German Synodal Way.
He has publicly supported women deacons and the development of a Church ceremony for blessing same-sex unions.
The final report of the abuse study, which is being conducted by the University of Osnabrück on behalf of the diocese, is expected to be made public in September 2024.
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Denver Newsroom, Nov 13, 2021 / 10:41 am (CNA).
Former Congressman Dan Lipinski has urged faithful to be “Catholics first” in the public square, putting their faith above an excessive loyalty to party, persona… […]
Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore pack the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen during a concluding listening session on the archdiocese’s major parish restructuring plan on April 30, 2024. / Credit: Matthew Balan
Baltimore, Md., May 1, 2024 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
Hundreds of Catholic residents of Baltimore packed the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on Tuesday evening to give their often-impassioned reactions to a process that could lead to the closure of two-thirds of the city’s parishes.
Several parishes from the state’s largest city organized large contingents to attend the April 30 meeting, which was the final of three listening sessions for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s “Seek the City” parish restructuring proposal. They made their presence known with custom-made T-shirts or ethnic attire, with some even carrying large banners that begged Archbishop William Lori to spare their churches.
Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in the Mount Washington neighborhood of the city printed a banner that proclaimed: “SOS! Save Our Shrine.” The group from the largely-Filipino parish also participated vocally in the session, including an emotional plea from John Tagle, a high school student. Tagle worried that his parish would be gone when he returned home from college.
Parishioners from the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Baltimore’s Mount Washington neighborhood display an “SOS! Save Our Shrine” banner at an April 30, 2024, listening session. Credit: Matthew Balan
A non-Filipino member of the shrine, David Bender, bluntly stated: “The proposal does not make spiritual sense.”
Many of those wearing custom T-shirts came from Holy Rosary, a parish in the Fells Point neighborhood that has connections to two Polish canonized saints. Some of their group wore ethnic attire and waved the white and red flag of their Eastern European homeland.
A young woman from Holy Rosary wondered why the archdiocese would shutter a place that was visited by St. John Paul II (when he was Cardinal Karol Wojytla in 1976). The parish is also directly tied to the canonization process of St. Faustina Kowalska, as it was the site of a documented miraculous healing attributed to the Polish sister.
Auxiliary Bishop Bruce Lewandowski gave a grim assessment as he spoke to local media before presiding over the listening session. “This is difficult. It’s heart-wrenching,” he emphasized. “But we’re at a pivotal moment in the city Church. We need to do this.”
Lewandowski led the attendees in prayer before starting the main presentation about the parish closure/consolidation proposal under “Seek the City.” He, along with two lay consultants, began a slideshow that first gave an overview of the two-year process leading up to the current juncture.
The trio then unveiled several slides that outlined the proposal to shrink the city’s parishes from 61 parishes to 26 parishes. The City of Baltimore, along with some immediate surrounding parts of neighboring Baltimore County, was divided into five regions (center, east, west, north, and south). While the first four regions would have three to five consolidated parishes, the south region would be reduced to only two.
An additional two parishes have been designated “personal parishes”: St. Ignatius, which is administered by the Jesuits, and St. Alphonsus, the home of the Traditional Latin Mass in Baltimore. During the listening session, the archdiocese disclosed that a final decision on the “Seek the City” proposal would be made by mid-June.
The slideshow spotlighted that four of the merged parishes would specifically minister to Hispanic communities. It also noted that the Filipino community — currently centered at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart — would move to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
“This is difficult. It’s heart-wrenching,” Auxiliary Bishop Bruce Lewandowski said. “But we’re at a pivotal moment in the city Church. We need to do this.” Credit: Matthew Balan
Other parishoners with deep roots in Baltimore City also bewailed the spiritual devastation the proposed restructuring would cause. A representative from St. Rita’s in Dundalk (a community that was directly impacted by the recent collapse of the Key Bridge at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor) begged: “Don’t let the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ leave Old Dundalk!”
Sue Jones, who has lived her entire life in the region, reflected on entering her eighth decade as a Catholic in the primatial see of the United States. Jones, who attends St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in the Hampden neighborhood, underlined that “killing [the parishes], or turning them into unrecognizable hubs, … is the final nail in the coffin for the Church in Baltimore City.” Her parish would be closed under the current proposal.
The lifelong Baltimore resident added that she remained hopeful.
“I’m so proud, because the remaining Catholics are here in spite of the archdiocese’s leadership,” she said after the listening session.
British human rights campaigner Benedict Rogers / Courtesy photo
London, England, Feb 7, 2022 / 04:40 am (CNA).
A British human rights activist said on Sunday that it would be “totally unacceptable” for the Vatican to establish formal diplomati… […]
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