Archbishop fires music director over Christmas
NewsThere were protests during Christmas mass at Freiburg Cathedral over clerical plans to remove the popular head of the Choir School, Boris Böhmann, after 22 years’ service.
‘The Holy Masses were deliberately disrupted, and there was no room for disruption here, especially at Christmas,’ said Archbishop Stephan Burger. ‘The choir director at least approved of this. The Domfabrikfonds had to draw conclusions from this, as bitter as it is.’
Böhmann’s lawyer said: ‘Our client was not aware of the protests from the congregation.’
Some parents have written to Pope Francis.
More here.
“no room for disruption … at Christmas”
Er, Jesus’s birth was total disruption, first by God himself with the immaculate conception, then by Jesus himself in ushering in a new religion
Yes, Christmas is all about family as so many say – a single teenage pregnant girl with Jesus a Jew – hardly a new religion as he wasn’t a Christian – betrothed to this guy called Joseph who had no idea what was going on or how it came about, in the God-awful MIddle East when it was occupied by Romans! Yes, all about the family!
This is a typical example of the “landlord mentality” that the official church still thinks it can afford. Obviously, one cannot tolerate a widely popular choirmaster – especially not his (female) deputy. Critical believers are simply stifled and ignored. From the perspective of the ordained, they are second and third class Christians anyway. In view of this, the esteemed official church should not be surprised that it is abolishing itself at a rapid pace, at least in parts of Europe.
I just get sick of the whole lot really, all institutionalised into this church of all denominations not able to agree about being Christians, and behaving like a corporation with a Cross on the top! And I speak as a practising Christian but end up half the time listening to the Morning Service on Radio 4 on a Sunday for some kind of focus – but one can turn it off if it’s that bad!
Whatever the politics around the Choir master, the Eucharist is NO PLACE for staging protests or disruptions. The issue is between the Choirmaster and the Diocese. The Congregation can show support to the Choirmaster in many other ways but not in this manner. If they feel that it was the only way possible to show support then they DO NOT support the Choirmaster and neither are interested in the Eucharist.
People tried a lot. They organized a flashmob, gathered in front of the Diocese ‘s office, some wrote a letter to the Pope. As nothing helped, they resorted to a 5-minute-applause at the END of the ceremony (they didn’t disrupt any part of the ceremony (!)) before the final blessing (which was retarded as a result) … because of the live transmission they obviously hoped to come through with their concerns (said transmission was cut off quickly by the archbishop btw … there were some shouts and laughters when the archbishop started talking again, well deserved), which worked somehow as a lot of German papers reported (not to the advantage of the Diocese, even the conservative FAZ attacked the Archbishop in an ironic essay) about the whole thing, but didn’t work at the same time as the archbishop used the incident as a pretext to dismiss the choirmaster immediately, maintaining he at least approved of the protest (the choirmaster’s lawyer contradicts). So the ceremony was barely affected. BUT this kind of clerical behaviour actively sabotates the church.
Yes, it is the Godless clerics. No democracy, all men in positions of power.
It’s the only place when all other avenues have been used and ignored by the hierarchy. I don’t know what you had in mind as another way?
I agree, the Holy Eucharistic is not the place
Do unto others as you would have done to yourself. Archbishops think they are immune from karma but they are not.