Lehmann speaks out on divisive issues

Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz has described the Vatican’s refusal more than 20 years ago to consider communion for remarried divorcees as one of the greatest disappointments of his career. He made the remark in a book-length interview published by the German publisher, Herder, to mark his eightieth birthday, in which he also made the case for ordaining married men to the priesthood.

Cardinal Lehmann recalled that in 1993 (when he was Bishop of Mainz but eight years before he was made a cardinal), he and Cardinal Walter Kasper, then Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, and the late Archbishop of Freiburg, Oskar Saier, published a pastoral letter suggesting allowing remarried divorcees in individual cases to receive the Eucharist.

They were sharply rebuffed by the Vatican. “For me”, Lehmann said, “that rebuff was one of the greatest disappointments in my entire time as bishop. We were rebuffed in a manner that was improper for us as theologians and bishops.”

 If the Church had taken up the issue at the time, “we would not be in the fix we are in now with a different practice in almost every parish, which is not a good solution and theologically irresponsible”, he said.

The cardinal also called for the ordination of viri probati (married men of proven virtue) to the priesthood to address the drastic shortage of priests.

“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,” he said. “They do nearly everything a priest does with the exception of celebrating the Eucharist.
“Why should one not be able to ordain them priests individually?” he asked.

On the subject of women’s ordination, Lehmann suggested that the block imposed by St John Paul II on even discussing the issue could be lifted. He said that there were examples in church history of how the Church had believed that a certain decision was final for a long time but then, as if overnight, the door had been opened.