First German Catholic diocese allows women to perform baptisms

America Magazine reports:

BERLIN (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Essen has become the first in Germany to allow women to perform baptisms, citing a lack of priests.

The diocese said in a statement Monday that Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck tasked 18 lay ministers —17 of them women — with conferring the sacrament of admission into the Church at a ceremony over the weekend.

Until now only priests and deacons — functions the Catholic Church reserves for men — were allowed to perform baptisms.

“Time and again, the Church has reacted to external circumstances over the past 2,000 years,” said Theresa Kohlmeyer, who heads the diocese’s department of belief, liturgy and culture.

The measure is temporary and will initially last for three years.

Link to article:

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/03/15/german-women-baptism-242597

Similar Posts

‘You are the sunshine of my life.’

Blog
1 Comment

We marvel that in Ireland the sun still shines after a couple of weeks of summer weather and Seamus Ahearne gets in the humour to write.
“The sun shines. Faces smile. Hearts are lifted.  There is warmth in the air. There is chatter in the companionship of life. We feel better. We walk with a spring in our steps. The world around us is a revelation of mystery …………. In the dull days of faith, we need to catch the beauty and brightness of God among us. Faith cannot be fearful. God cannot be dour.”

One Comment

  1. Soline Humbert says:

    First German Catholic diocese allows women…
    God only knows what churchmen will allow women to do next as a temporary stopgap for the lack of male priests and deacons!

    Reply

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.