A candid German cardinal takes stock on his 80th birthday

May 20, 2016

GERMANY: He was a longtime assistant to Karl Rahner, the Jesuit who, after playing a key role in shaping the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), became the Church’s most influential theologian in the first ten to fifteen years of the post-Conciliar period.

And he’s been bishop of one of Germany’s most ancient sees, the 4th century Diocese of Mainz, for nearly 33 years. In addition, he served as president of the country’s conference of bishops for a period that spanned three of these decades (1987-2008).

His name is Cardinal Karl Lehmann (pic).

And he turned 80 years old, May 16, the moment when bishops and cardinals — even if they have been allowed to continue in their official governing posts beyond the normal retirement age of seventy-five — finally lose their seats in all Vatican offices and, more importantly, lose their vote in a conclave to elect a Pope.

As a way of marking the occasion, the cardinal has given a book-length interview in which he touches on many of the so-called hot button issues facing the Church today, while putting all his hopes in Pope Francis.

The just-released volume is called Mit langem Atem (With a lot of Staying Power), from well-known German publishing house, Herder.

With a candour that is found on every page, the cardinal says that the election of Francis was nothing short of a real “stroke of luck” for the Church. And, he says much, much more than that, which is bound not to please everyone in Rome, or those Catholics who believe one should not criticize the Church’s central authority.

Cardinal Lehmann boldly calls for a “mental revolution” in the Church that will make it possible to discuss such issues as a married priesthood, women’s ordination, Rome’s interference in episcopal appointments and strengthening the powers of bishops’ conferences vis-a-vis the Vatican.

“The fact that we cannot talk about such questions calmly and impartially has been a shattering experience for me over the last 50 years,” he says in the new book.

The cardinal recalls the 1993 pastoral letter that he wrote with Cardinal Walter Kasper — then Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart — and the now deceased Archbishop of Freiburg, Oskar Saier. The three bishops outlined possibilities for remarried divorcees, in certain individual cases, to be allowed to receive the Eucharist, but the Vatican rebuffed their suggestions.

“For me, that rebuff was one of the greatest disappointments of my entire time as a bishop,” he admits.

“If, when we were called to Rome to discuss our text, we had been told, ‘We do not agree with everything, some points are not clear and some we will possibly have to reject, but we invite you to continue working along these lines,’ then, that would have been a great moment for the Church. Instead, we were rebuffed in a manner that was improper, for us as theologians and bishops,” the cardinal says.

“If the Church had taken up the issue (of the divorced and remarried) then, we would not be in the fix we are in now. As it is, there is a different practice in almost every parish today, which is not a good solution and, theologically, irresponsible,” he laments.

Discussing the drastic shortage of priests, Cardinal Lehmann recalls that he has been confronted with the problem of priestly celibacy and the question of possibly ordaining married men ever since he became a theologian. He says the need to address the problem is greater than ever today as the drastic shortage of priests is leading to changes in pastoral structures that are “hitting the very nerve of parish life.” Here the cardinal is blunt.

“Huge XXL parishes are not our thing,” he states flatly.

He laments that the need to discuss ordaining married men is so pressing that he finds it “most disturbing” that it is not discussed more often by bishops’ conferences.

“I could immediately find a number of permanent deacons in our diocese who have sufficient theological training, stable marriages and families and are well-rooted in their parishes. They do nearly everything a priest does, with the exception of celebrating the Eucharist. Why should one not be able to ordain them individually?” he asks rhetorically. — Global Pulse