In the beginning there was misfortune.

A plaster board had come loose from the ceiling of the nave of the Catholic Church of St. Mary and had fallen into the interior.

In order to examine the structure of the building, the pews had to be removed - and should not come back.

Instead, the church in the south of downtown Stuttgart was transformed into an experimental space.

Daniel Deckers

responsible for “The Present” in the political editorial department.

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Thomas Jansen

Editor in Politics.

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Under the motto "We have a church - you have an idea", the Stuttgart city dean Christian Hermes and parishioners of St. Maria wanted to know from neighbours, artists, scientists and politicians how a church used exclusively as a liturgical sacred space could be turned into a sacred resonance space for as much as possible many of the people around could be.

What could it serve as?

The response that reached church people and a team of urban planners, architects and designers from Stuttgart was overwhelming.

Five years later, the mighty double-towered building is called “St.

Mary as".

The high doors to the square named after the resistance fighter Rupert Mayer are wide open, and the church serves as an echo chamber for the young skaters.

For the past year and a half, St. Maria has been a suitable backdrop and shelter for "Harry's Bude".

The homeless living in the shadow of St. Mary's are far from the only ones making a living off the groceries Harry and his team collect or are sent.

"Some just want to talk because they don't have anyone.

That too is a form of poverty,” says one of Harry's comrades-in-arms.

Hardly documented sexualized violence against adults

The booth, which is draped with quotes from Joseph Beuys, Pope Francis and Aristotle, also makes poverty visible.

"We couldn't do something like that in Stuttgart on urban ground, only on church ground," Harry and one of his comrades-in-arms are certain.

Then there are the visitors to the 102nd German Catholic Day, which has been taking place in the Baden-Württemberg state capital since Wednesday.

For some, St. Maria serves as a meeting place, for others it is the goal of their search for the works that emerged as the winners of an art competition of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart on the subject of "vulnerable - vulnerable".

You will not be disappointed.

But it is not the masses who find their way to St. Maria, just as the number of those who have made their way to the Catholic Day at all is lower than it has been for decades.

Many Catholics are too deeply hurt by what they have experienced about the Church as such in recent years, too disappointed by how they have personally experienced Church in recent years.

The Stuttgarter is the first Catholic Day after the publication of the abuse study by the Bishops' Conference and the investigations in Aachen, Limburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich.

In the Beethoven Hall of the Stuttgart Liederhalle on Thursday, an aspect was discussed that has not previously been included in any expert opinion and has been severely neglected in the debate: sexualised violence against adults, especially against women.

In the panel discussion, it quickly became clear that in such cases, adults usually find it even more difficult than children and young people to be heard at all.

"The first false narrative is that adults cannot become victims of sexual abuse, that they can say no," said Ute Leimgruber, professor of pastoral theology in Regensburg.

Those affected have been trapped in a “guilt and shame entanglement” for decades.

Standing up and saying "No, it's not my fault, it's a crime" and then going public with it is "a really big step" for many.

In addition, sexualized violence against adults was hardly documented in the church files.