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	Catholic Theologians Call for Change after Abuse Crisis in Germany By Jonathan Luxmoore Catholic San Francisco February 9, 2011 http://www.catholic-sf.org/news_select.php?newsid=2&id=58138 OXFORD, England (CNS) – More than 140 Catholic theologians from universities in Austria, Germany and Switzerland called for the church to take serious steps to address the problems of the priest shortage by allowing married priests and women to have more active roles in church ministry and allowing laypeople to help select bishops and pastors, among other changes. A spokesman for the German bishops' conference cautiously welcomed the theologians' memorandum, saying the professors "are contributing to debate about the future of the church in Germany." "The German bishops have invited this debate," Jesuit Father Hans Langendorfer, secretary of the German bishops' conference, said Feb. 4 in a statement. "These topics need urgent further clarification. To meet the difficult challenges facing the church in Germany with action needs an affirmation rather than just responsiveness by the bishops," Father Langendorfer said. "Weighty subjects should no longer be avoided." The priest's comments came in response to a 1,360-word memorandum, "The Church in 2011: A Necessary Departure," signed by 143 theologians from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and published Feb. 4 by Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung daily. The bishops will discuss the theologians' call during a plenary meeting in March, he said. Pope Benedict XVI will visit his native Germany Sept. 22-25. The professors said their appeal was in response to the clergy sexual abuse scandals that surfaced in Europe in 2010 and the growing numbers of Catholics who have "terminated their legal membership or they have privatized their spiritual life in order to protect it from the institution." The group said it no longer could remain silent in the face of what they say is a lingering crisis within the Catholic Church. "We have the responsibility to contribute to a new start," the statement said. "It looks like we struck a nerve," said Judith Konemann, a professor from Munster and one of the signatories, reported the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung. The theologians also said that the church should "trust in people's ability to make decision and carry responsibility" in their own lives and "must not revert to paternalism." They praised the church's esteem for married and unmarried lives, but said this should not exclude same-sex couples and divorced and remarried couples, though the statement stopped short of asking the church to officially sanction same-sex unions. The church teaches that any sexual activity outside of marriage, understood to be between a woman and a man only, is sinful. The theologians questioned the wisdom of lately bringing back old forms of liturgical worship and warned that liturgies were in danger of becoming "frozen in traditionalism." "Cultural diversity enriches liturgical life," they said. "Only when the celebration of faith takes account of concrete life situations will the church's message reach people.
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