The German Church seems to be the caput malorum omnium.
In the wake of the dissolution of the misplaced aspirations of promoters of female diaconate, comes this.
From CNA:
German bishop supports ‘Church strike’ for women’s ordination
Munich, Germany, May 15, 2019 / 02:15 pm (CNA).- At least one bishop has offered his support for a week-long “Church strike” organized by German Catholic women, during which participants organize their own prayer services rather than attending Mass.
Calling itself “Mary 2.0” the initiative issued an open letter to Pope Francis, which called for the ordination of women, and claimed “men of the Church only tolerate one woman in their midst: Mary.”
[NB:] “We want to take Mary off her pedestal and into our midst, as a sister facing our direction,” the letter said. [They want to drag down the Mother of God.]
The website features paintings of Mary and other women with their mouths taped over. [No doubt that is their way of trying to stop Mary from saying, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord…”.]
The campaign has met with considerable criticism from German Catholics, some of when even launched of a “Maria 1.0” website, which says that the Mother of God “does not require any updates and should not be instrumentalized.”
But several Church representatives have gone public in support of “Mary 2.0.”
The official news portal of the Catholic Church in Germany provided broad coverage of the call for a strike, taking place May 11-18. It also reported that Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück supports the campaign. [Of course.]
Bode, who leads the Commission on Women in the German bishops’ conference, told press agency EPD that while he regrets the strikes will not attend Mass, he believes it important to acknowledge the impatience of “many women in the Catholic Church” and their feelings of “deep hurt” for not being adequately appreciated for their contribution. [In other words, he is pandering.]
Bode said that while he does not believe women will be ordained priests in the near future, the Church could soon ordain them as deacons. [LOL]
Participants in the “Church strike” are refusing to step into a church from the week of May 11 to 18 and will not attend Mass. Instead, services such as a “Liturgy of the Word” are held throughout the week. According to the campaign’s Facebook page, these services have garnered between 18 and 155 registered attendees. [18-155? Wow! Tens of women!]
Referencing the abuse crisis as a reason for the urgent need for change, the group’s letter to Pope Francis makes a range of demands, from the abolition of “mandatory celibacy” to an “updating” of the Church’s teaching on sexual morality and the ordination of women to “all ministries” – including the orders of deacon, priest and bishop.
In an interview published on the official website of the Archdiocese of Paderborn, vicar general Fr. Alfons Hardt praised the organizers of the campaign as women who are “concerned about the sustainability of their church.”
Hardt said “this is a motivation that I value highly,” even though the campaign might also create division.
Whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is an open question, Hardt asserted, [wrongly] saying, [Get this… Wormtongue couldn’t do better…] “on the one hand we have a definitive decision by Pope John Paul II on the question of the ordination of women and on the other hand we still do not have a final answer. [LOL!] At least in Germany this question is discussed very openly, especially among theologians. It is clear that there is a need for a global ecclesial consensus for this which currently is not the case.” [It’s being discussed in Germany. Thus, there is not a global consensus which is apparently necessary to ratify John Paul II’s document. What a weasel this guy is.]
[…]
Germany, ladies and gentlemen. You think you have it bad where you are?
If they are so unhappy, they should get out. Of course there’s LG 14.
UPDATE:
From a reader in Germany…
Dear Father Zuhlsdorf,
ah, I was wondering when you would pick up on that.
Here’s a picture from the local newspaper about a local group going on strike
Yes, note the multitudes and masses. 14 elderly ladies of generation 65+ and 2 comatose gentlemen.
However, the newspaper wrote an article. I am sure if I organised 20 people praying the rosary they wouldn’t even bother to mention us.
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Fr. Z said, “[No doubt that is their way of trying to stop Mary from saying, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord…”.]”
And/or….. “Do whatever He tells you.”
“Off her pedestal”. Pretty sure that is from….wait for it….Elizabeth Johnson’s Truly our Sister: A Theology Of Mary In The Communion Of Saints. Yes, I did read it back in my deranged days. It sounds eerily similar if memory serves correct (+10 years).
If the BVM is the Exterminatrix of Heresies, then I pray that these women be exterminatrixed.
Have you noticed an uptick in attacks on the Mother of God? Can there be anything more calculated to bring down the swift and decisive wrath of her Son?
“We want to take Mary off her pedestal and into our midst, as a sister facing our direction.” No one as ugly as you could be the sister of the Virgin Mary.
Yep it is! Just read the introduction on Amazon. Last sentence, page xvi, “In a word, this proposal invites Mary to come down from the pedestal….”
the church in Germany – their god is money
Reparation must be made for these attacks on our Mother.
When the Blessed Mother “comes down” into the midst of female Catholics, she comes to humble children and faithful daughters… not to arrogant pushers of sacrilege and heresy.
Every single time someone strikes out at the Church or our Blessed Mother it just solidifies my belief that the Catholic Faith is the ONE True faith and none other. Satan would not bother with us if we were not from God and for God.
Besides…what is it with Germany? First it was Luther and now?
This movement to diminish our Holy Mother, fills me with grief. How can they be so blind? They wish to trade a diamond for a handful of mud.
If I were a bishop in Germany (there being a multitude of good reasons I am not), upon hearing this, I think I might do some sort of Marian Consecration of my diocese, and perhaps a Marian procession every day for the rest of the month….
Then again, I am not a bishop.
“We want to take Mary off her pedestal and into our midst, as a sister facing our direction,”
Well, Pope Francis did say the BVM is “a normal girl”, so they’re taking their cue from him.
How much longer, Lord?
So a bishop is in support of people intentionally missing Sunday Mass and thereby committing mortal sin? Though the number of participants may be small, this bishop will have to answer for all of them on the day of judgment. We need to pray for him.
If some people don’t go to Mass in a country where no one goes to Mass anyway…will anyone even notice ?!
From the article:
“…as a sister facing our direction.”
I have to admit, I was really surprised to see a call for Ad Orientem worship amid the rest of the commentary from that group.
/rimshot
As if they have ever revered our Blessed Mother in the first place…
These women are delusional. Our blessed Mother is Queen of Heaven……good luck with dragging her off some pedestal. The Bishop should be defrocked.
The Blessed Mother off her pedestal? Don’t try that near me, deutsche frauen! You’re now getting ordained. Don’t go away mad, JUST GO AWAY!
“We want to take Mary off her pedestal…”
Blasphemy.
14 elderly women with too much time they could use praying and sanctifying themselves before death.
They look like leftovers from the 1967 Summer of Love. Same age group as the women who get devout young priests tossed out of the diocese for offering the TLM. Don’t worry. They are almost extinct as a generation. In every single TLM that I have attended around the world, most people are under the age of 45 and Susan from the parish council is nowhere to be found.
Like Eric above, I too was subjected to Elizabeth Johnson’s rot about Our Lady. Her book is blasphemous and shameful, and the handbook for many progressive Catholic women.
The following text is free of references to “pedestal”.
But one cannot say that she had with certainty expected children from Joseph. In such an expectation, as in a vow of virginity, she would have determined something in advance. There would then have been two expectations in her soul that would not in every case have been apt to form a unity: an earthly expectation, such as that of every normal bride, and another that God gives her and that can only be fulfilled by him. Mary lives beyond this decision: for her the decision for marriage is not a decision against virginity, and the decision for the lay state is not a decision against the state of perfection. She does not reflect upon their compatibility. She knows only one rule, which she follows without any swerving, stopping, or turning back: to do the will of God perfectly in everything. Her life runs along a straight path, without detours, that leads from the Immaculate Conception to the betrothal, to assent to the angel, to the Nativity, and to the Cross. In this she shows that she is not subject to the law of original sin. For in Paradise there would not have been two mutually exclusive states: bodily fruitfulness would not have been opposed to consecrated virginity.[1] Instead, the spiritual fruitfulness of spouses in God would have been so great that it would have become both the prerequisite and the cause of physical fruitfulness and would in no way have impaired spiritual or physical integrity.
For Joseph everything is different. He is subject to the law of original sin, and he cannot help noticing the contradiction between the married state and virginity. The betrothal is for him a prelude to a normal earthly marriage. He is chaste and just; he lives in the spirit of justice inherited from his fathers. His chastity has nothing to do with the lackluster impotence that most pictures seem to give him. If he will have to make a renunciation, then his whole manhood will achieve it and will thereby be strengthened in its very masculinity. The intensity of his renunciation will give him the strength to keep growing within his mission. He will not stand languishing next to Mary; instead, he will stand beside her as a man who knows his strength but has sacrificed it in simplicity and generosity. His renunciation is made with strength and intensity and then forever concealed in silence. Everything is so thoroughly in order and so complete that the matter need never be spoken of again.
In the betrothal, however, he experiences real feminine love, and this love of his bride enriches him as only feminine love is able to fulfill a man. In the light of this love, he sees before him the life that he is to shape for his family as the husband. He has chosen marriage in freedom and responsibility, and he will receive from God marriage and not the religious life. And within the married state God will impose abstinence on him. He is not removed to a cloister for this. He lives in his house with wife and Child, outwardly indistinguishable from other married men. In the midst of the world, he must learn abstinence.
Von Speyr, Adrienne. Handmaid of the Lord: 2nd Edition 2017 (pp. 64-66). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.
[1] A great number of Fathers of the Church and medieval theologians are of this opinion.-HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
Von Speyr, Adrienne. Handmaid of the Lord: 2nd Edition 2017 (p. 203). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.
I am from Germany and i think that claim is false:
“However, the newspaper wrote an article. I am sure if I organised 20 people praying the rosary they wouldn’t even bother to mention us.”
Because if one would organise 20 people praying the rosary before an abortion clinic or an abortion counseling service, one has some chance to get mentioned
Evidence:
https://www.bento.de/politik/pro-familia-frankfurt-abtreibungsgegner-legen-beratungsstelle-40-tage-lang-lahm-a-73279788-a0e9-4088-8667-f2d794bb7ed0
Bento is from Spiegel/SpiegelOnline trying to target young readers; the people visibile in the picture are less than 20 (and in total probably less were there) and probably also prayed the rosary (evidence is the rosaries they carry and might have even put to use while the picture was taken) during their 40 days for life prayers; they stand in front of a “Beratungsstelle für Schwangere”, so an office for counseling pregnant women and they do that cause they probably think the counseling isn’t sufficiently pro-life (after all it is run be ProFamilia which is formally member of PP international).
Accordingly, the claim is false.
Gathering 20 rasary prayers can be sufficient for getting a newspaper article, if you pray against abortion in some location relevant for abortion.
As the claim did not indicate that the article should be a nice one, the claim is accordingly false.
@amerikaner:
In defense of the Church in Germany:
Some bishops rejected what “Maria 2.0” demands referencing to Church teaching and tradition. Many other bishops at least voiced criticism about the method or otherwise worded a denial of support.
You might claim that too few did this.
But at least enough to get katholisch.de write an article:
https://www.katholisch.de/aktuelles/aktuelle-artikel/umfrage-maria-20-stot-auf-wenig-zustimmung-unter-bischofen
that “Maria 2.0” does not find much enthusiasm among bishops.
So the bishops are not all in support of that.
I fear that such nonsense can also be found here in Austria. Still, take heart, for as noted above, there is substantial ‘push-back’ to such efforts (ex.: http://www.kath.net/news/67951). With mottos including ‘Maria requires no updating’ and ‘Maria 1.0: Because the original is better”, many Catholics of both Austria and Germany are making clear that they will not accept such divisive actions.
The “Amazonian” synod will likely prove fertile ground for this crew.
Just returned from a pilgrimage to Lourdes and Fátima
There’s no way way that the disillusioned are going to dethrone the Queen of Heaven and Earth
Ave Maria
O Mary conceived without sin Pray for us who have recourse to thee and those who don’t recourse
to thee
I fear these women are not humble enough to do like Our Lady, or enchanting enough to do like Judith.