kommt & seht: Kardinal Woelki

In the midst of the Church crisis, the Archdiocese of Cologne is establishing four new parishes. Tabea Wiemer, head of the Evangelization Department, explained the idea behind this in her keynote address at the "Come and See" faith festival on Friday. Different people need different churches, meaning parishes with diverse characteristics. People who have never had any contact with faith before should thus find a new home in the Church. "We are establishing parishes out of longing for the people we haven't been able to reach," she explained. She invited Cologne's Archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, to join her on stage. He said he was moved by the Bible's accounts of how many people found faith in the past. Why did it only work back then? With the establishment of these new parishes, "we want to challenge God's Spirit," he explained with a smile.