[ad_1]
The Christmas message is stronger than any virus; With these words, EKD Board Chairman Bedford-Strohm asked people to be confident. The Catholic clergy raised the abuse allegations.
In his Christmas Day sermon, the council president of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, tried to cheer people up in times of the crown pandemic. Christmas could also give new confidence and hope in times of crisis, Bedford-Strohm said in Munich.
The biblical message at Christmas is stronger than “everything that wants to bring us down now, and also stronger than any virus.” The EKD Council President also praised the “messengers of joy” and their commitment at this difficult time: in nursing homes and hospitals, in neighboring apartments or behind the bakery counter.
Bätzing: Abuse is not in the past
The president of the German Catholic Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Georg Bätzing of Limburg, spoke of the universal meaning of Christmas on the first holiday. “Christmas is therefore the celebration of human dignity. That is why it affects everyone,” he said at the Limburg cathedral. Among other things, he recalled the burning of the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, the numerous deaths by corona in Bergamo and the crimes against human dignity in Hanau, Nice, Kabul and Trier.
Bätzing also spoke out on allegations of sexual violence. Abuse in the church is not a thing of the past as those affected, physically and mentally, lived among us and described themselves as survivors, Bätzing said.
Cardinal Woelki asks for forgiveness
The criticized Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki also addressed the believers in a personal statement. After Christmas Mass, he addressed the believers without, however, specifically addressing his own failures. He is said to have not informed the Vatican of allegations against a Düsseldorf pastor.
The cardinal literally said:
“Unfortunately, I have added a burden to the concerns you all already have about Corona.”
He apologizes for this. Two years ago, he gave his word to use all available means to investigate the events and also to name those responsible. He still maintains it, Woelki said.
Woelki criticized for a case from the 1970s
The accusations against the Archbishop of Cologne concern a clergyman who has since died and who allegedly committed sexual violence with a kindergarten child in the 1970s. He was personally close to Woelki.
Additionally, the cardinal had commissioned a Munich law firm on how the archdiocese had handled the abuse allegations, but did not release it once it was completed.
