The days of the Frankfurt City Dean are numbered.

Well, hopefully not those of Johannes zu Eltz as a person.

But that of his office, because that will no longer exist from May 1, 2024.

This is how you could paraphrase the forthcoming restructuring of the Catholic City Church in Frankfurt in a somewhat lurid way.

She is not alone in this: the eleven districts in the Diocese of Limburg are being merged into five regions.

Bernhard Biener

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

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And in future there will no longer be a district dean or, as in Frankfurt, a city dean at its head.

But a dual leadership, one of whom must be "in pastoral service," as the new diocese statute says.

This can be a priest or deacon, but also a church or pastoral officer.

The second managerial position is open to women anyway.

A small revolution in the Catholic Church.

The committees that initially elect a transitional leadership must first be formed from the previous districts in the other future regions.

Frankfurt is a special case because here the borders of the new region correspond to those of the district.

That is why the existing city synod council in December, with pastoral officer Pia Arnold-Rammé and city dean Johannes zu Eltz, was already able to appoint the “temporary regional representation” who will be in office for almost a year and a half.

shared power

The name indicates that the two are not only concerned with the restructuring of the district, but also represent the new region externally in the diocese.

Because in Limburg, the so-called transformation process is also changing a lot, as Arnold-Rammé explains: The previous departments will become "service areas", the vicar general as head of the episcopal ordinariate will in future have an authorized representative - or an authorized representative - at his side.

The new regions also send representatives to a "diocese team".

Zu Eltz speaks of decentralization.

"The relationship between 'central' and 'area' is being rebalanced," says the city dean.

"I'm very much in favor of that." For Frankfurt, the interim management will, among other things, think about where the numerous supra-congregational offers such as the Haus am Dom, the St. Michael Center for Bereavement Counseling and the Heilig Kreuz Meditation Center on the Bornheimer Hang will be connected.

"These are actually institutions of the diocese, but of course they are also of great importance for the town church," says Arnold-Rammé.

If Eltz has his way, such non-parish institutions should also be represented in the future regional synodal council.

"Church life diffuses and also takes place where there is no congregational bond."

The city dean says that the focus of the reorganization is not initially on saving.

"The density of activities in Frankfurt is unique, we will continue to need the existing staff." For Arnold-Rammé, it is about lessons from the MHG study on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, named after the participating universities in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Giessen Church.

You have shown that the structures would have favored such incidents and the fatal handling of them.

Arnold-Rammé sees the Frankfurt transition team as an example of sharing power and not just confining it to men.

“We get along well,” says zu Eltz about his comrade-in-arms.

By May 2024, he also wants to show that the cooperation between two people and between a man and a woman works in such a line.

In any case, the transition management team will not run for office as the new regional manager in 2024.

Arnold-Rammé then retires, Johannes zu Eltz reaches the age of 68.

He remains cathedral priest, but the title of city dean then disappears.

That made him a little nostalgic, he admits.

"I wasn't in favor of it at first." Not least because of the visibility: The urban world of Frankfurt will only be able to understand the changes within the church to a limited extent, he suspects.

Especially with a view to ecumenism: Achim Knecht has only been a Protestant city dean since 2014, after the four deaneries were combined with the leadership of the Protestant regional association.

Synodal Aspirations

In his own words, zu Eltz has now reconciled with the decision made months ago.

"A lot happens if you let the Catholics go," he says in view of the synodal efforts.

"Then things are cleared that are no longer legitimate." After the election of the transitional leadership in December, the chairperson of the meeting, Monika Humpert, board member of the city synod council and involved in the women's protest movement Maria 2.0, made a correspondingly positive statement: "We women are closer to it than ever before". , she is quoted in a message from the city church.

For the Frankfurt Catholics in the diocese of Limburg – the communities in the north-east are in the diocese of Mainz and Fulda – not much is likely to change at first.

"The tasks remain," says Arnold-Rammé, "namely creating good framework conditions for those who work in pastoral care." However, an organizational change that is only indirectly related to the regions also took effect on January 1st .

The parishes of the previous Frankfurt Nied-Griesheim-Gallus pastoral area form the new parish of St. Hildegard.

On February 5th they will celebrate the founding service with auxiliary bishop Thomas Löhr.

Together with four other pastoral rooms, they are the last to become the “new type parish”.

What used to be 300 smaller parishes in the Diocese of Limburg has now become 47 major parishes.