UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
John L. Allen Jr. | Oct. 18, 2013
Over the centuries, the first tremors of earthquakes in Catholicism often have been felt in Germany. That nation gave birth to the Protestant Reformation, and it was also where the theological energies that erupted in the Second Vatican Council began to swirl.
Ralph Wiltgen captured the second point in the title of his famous 1967 history of Vatican II, The Rhine Flows into the Tiber.
Given that history, it’s worth casting an eye on Germany these days to track the fallout of the “Francis effect.” Two recent storylines are intriguing in that regard.
First, the Freiburg archdiocese recently issued a 14-page pastoral manual outlining circumstances under which divorced and civilly remarried Catholics might be readmitted to the sacraments, including Communion. That move compelled the Vatican to issue an Oct. 8 statement urging church leaders to wait for reforms to be adopted in Rome before implementing them on the ground.
Second, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg is currently basking in global celebrity as the “bling bishop” because of widely circulated accounts of how much he’s spent on remodeling his residence — $42 million in all, including almost $22,000 for a bathtub. Francis dispatched an investigator to Limburg in September, and this week, Tebartz-van Elst was in Rome for meetings while calls for his resignation mount.
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