Holy See sacks German Jesuit

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Last week German newspapers reported the story of a Jesuit priest losing his job at the Saint George philosophy-theology institute in Frankfurt-am-Main.

Fr Ansgar Wucherpennig had been re-elected rector at the institute and subsequently lost his job when the Vatican sacked him.

Wucherpennig is an academic with expertise in biblical scholarship. He has questioned the scriptural interpretation of homosexuality. 

His pastoral outreach is to the homosexual community in Frankfurt city.

The 52-year-old Jesuit has also called for the church to recognise the love between homosexuals.

The story has been carried by a number of German newspapers including the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’, which is a highly regarded liberal-leaning newspaper, which despite its name, is a national paper, available across the whole of Germany.

There’s nothing new in such action from the Vatican but there are aspects to this story, which are interesting.

It’s important to remember that Wucherpennig is a Jesuit as is Pope Francis. What did Francis know about this case before it went public?

Often during the Vietnam War vital information sent from the field back to the Pentagon never made it to the sitting president. No doubt similar shenanigans take place on a daily basis at the Vatican.

Something relatively new is happening in the Wucherpennig case. 

The Bishop of Limburg, Gerorg Bätzing, whose diocese includes the city of Frankfurt, has come out in support of the silenced priest academic, so too has his Jesuit provincial, Johannes Seibner.

And another senior Frankfurt priest, Johannes zu Eltz has expressed great anger at the Vatican decision.

He said to the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’ newspaper: ‘Ansgar Wucherpennig is a genuine priest and a professional academic. 

There is no sense or reason to this. How stupid can it get?’

Germany plays an important role in the life of the Catholic Church.

In those seemingly innocent days fadó fadó when altar girls first appeared in the diocese of Cologne the Vatican was nervous but quickly changed its mind when the then archbishop of Cologne gently pointed out to Rome that Cologne was one of the wealthiest diocese in the universal Catholic Church. 

Thereafter altar girls were never a problem.

Issues concerning all matters of sexuality raise their heads on a daily basis in the Catholic Church, indeed, in all churches. Sexuality is close to all of us.

But the Catholic Church has a real conundrum when it comes to all aspects of homosexuality and it seems to be tying itself up in knots.

There is an idea in circulation that it is the liberal wing of the church that goes easy on homosexuality. 

Whether that’s the case or not can be disputed.  From my experience, I am far more inclined to believe that there is a strong link between closet homosexual priesthood and a rigorous upholding of a conservative outdated clerical lifestyle.

I remember as a young priest in Rome being dumbfounded by the numbers of openly camp clerics, including students, priest, lecturers, professors, I met every day at university. No doubt there are closet gay bishops and cardinals too.

Some years later, back in Ireland, in 1988 I attempted to discuss the issue at a forum. My opinion was received with a mix of smart-aleck comment, silence and an arrogant response that there was no foundation to what I was saying.

For the Vatican to respond as it seems to have done in the case of the German Jesuit priest and academic is not at all how to deal with such an important matter.

‘Houston we have a problem.’