Remember that National Catholic Fishwrap piece, "Compromised hierarchy needs relational wisdom of women" by Charlene Spretnak?
There is a news story from Germany today that Lutheran Bishopette Maria Jepsen of Hamburg has resigned.
From AP:
Report: First woman Lutheran bishop to resign
By JUERGEN BAETZ (AP) – 2 hours ago
BERLIN — A German news agency is reporting that the first woman elected as a Lutheran bishop is resigning amid allegations of failing to thoroughly investigate sexual abuse cases.
The news agency DAPD, citing an anonymous source, reported Friday that the Protestant Bishop of Hamburg, Maria Jepsen, is set to announce her resignation.
A church official confirmed that Jepsen will hold a press conference Friday afternoon, but wouldn’t elaborate.
The 65-year-old bishop recently came under fire because she allegedly knew about cases of sexual abuse for several years, but failed to act.
Jepsen was elected Lutheran bishop in 1992, becoming the first woman worldwide to hold the post.
Sooo… she handled very badly an abuse case of a Protestant pastor.
So much for the "relational wisdom of women"!
And of course, this has nothing to do with celibacy.
What the article doesn’t say is that a witness has testified under oath that she told Jepsen in 1999 about the case. Jepsen doesn’t remember.
It is all over the German news and an Italian article is on the Papa Ratzinger Blog.
Jepsen was a liberal darling, having espoused all the usual causes.
BBC has this.
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At least she had the good sense to resign.
By the very appellation “Lutheran” one is saying that they follow a drunkard arch-heretic named Martin Luther, who married a nun and had “farting matches” with the devil! [see Truimph by H.W. Crocker.] I don’t get it!? Although, then again, I was an atheist, so, I guess I needn’t judge…
At least she had the common decency to resign rather than deny the charges and plead ignorance.
Follow the link to the BBC website.
The section near the bottom of “More on This Story” is headed “Catholic Church Abuse Scandal”.
Hello, BBC? Catholic? Bias?
Real life has a way of vindicating the truth; either by showing the falsity of “claims” such as the ones in NCReporter or the ironies that emanate from “idealogues” that sit in their “ivory castles” and cogitate about how “things should be”…yeah; it reminds me of the insanity coming from the Rev. McBrien about exorcism/evil/possession (I don’t know if the man has actually heard many confessions/done spiritual direction/dealt with any number of the horrors that many families/individuals have to go through “in real life”, but I digress).
If you wait long enough, things eventually do “show their true face”.
As much as a mess we’re in, I’d be Catholic and with the Pope no matter what happened around me.
The rest of the world is just “crackers”!
I’m with RichardT on this. Certainly the BBC does report this matter but then cannot resist including digs at the Catholic Church. There is less comment about this resignation than there is about the extraneous acclusions to the “problems” within the Catholic Church.
Bishopette, heh.
She was in a man’s job, after all, so she acted like a man. Are you surprised at the outcome? Women have been encouraged to act like short men with high voices for years.
Maltese: it may be worse than you imagine. There are a few Lutheran Churches, not any one of which is obviously following their putative namesake. Of course, even in the sixteenth century, Luther’s followers were at each other’s throats in disagreement, each and every one ‘led by the Holy Spirit.’
“At least she had the good sense to resign”
Are you kidding?? Yes, 12 years after the fact…and after it became an allegation from which she couldn’t escape. She was FORCED to resign folks…not exactly a noble act.
If you read the BBC article it is more about the abuse in the Catholic Church than it is about this pretend ‘bishop’ and her failings. She doesn’t even admit fault to anything. She claims to be stepping down because her creditability was put into question, not because of the things she actually failed to do.
Re: Catholicmidwest….. I don’t think it’s fair to say that she acted like a man in this situation. Unless you were being sarcastic and then I’d agree with your humor.
“So much for the “relational wisdom of women!”
I thought the very same thing Fr. Z.!!!
I was thinking: ‘oh and people like H. Kung and other liberals say that women priests are the solution to all our problems…. NOT!’
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People… of course BBC is biased! No surprise there :P
World round, sun hot, BBC anti-catholic.
If only Lutheran clerics could mary! If only Lutheran women could be priests!
(And yes, I give her credit for resigning too. Let’s hope prayer and solitude bring her closer to Christ.)