A Benedictine abbess who granted refuge to female asylum-seekers faces trial for refusing to pay a fine, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. It could become a land-mark case by determining whe-ther granting church asylum amounts to the punishable offen-se of “aiding and abetting illegal residents,” as state prosecutors often interpret it. There is no supreme court ruling on this issue yet, KNA reported.

Mother Mechthild Thurmer granted refuge to female asylum-seekers in her monastery in the Bavarian town of Kirchschletten more than 30 times. The main hearing at the Bamberg district court was cancelled in mid-July because the judge wanted to wait for a possible further charges against her, a court spokesman told KNA.

“I acted out of Christian spirit,” the 62-year-old abbess said. “To give concrete help to a person in need can’t be a crime.”

Up to now, authorities in Bavaria have mostly dropped proceedings against people granting church asylum and imposed no penalties. In a few cases, they offered to close cases in exchange for a fine. If the accused agreed, the matter was over, although this did not amount to an acquittal. Franz Bethauser, the lawyer for Mother Mechthild, has long been hoping for a fundamental clarification of the issue by the justice system in order to give people legal certainty.

KNA said the hearing in Bamberg would not be just about Mother Mechthild. It’s also about whether the 2015 agreement between the churches and the government on church asylum still stands. Under that agreement, authorities tolerate asylum while the asylum-seeker’s individual application is exa-mined, provided that he or she is not hidden.

The Freising district court ruled in 2018 that as long as the state does not enforce an asylum-seeker’s obligation to leave the country, church asylum cannot be punishable.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy has published instructions on reforming parishes and restructuring dioceses to better serve their “singular mission of evangeli-zation.”

The 24-page document is called “The pastoral conversion of the parish community in the service of the evangelizing mission of the Church” and seeks to “foster a greater co-responsibility and collaboration among all the baptised,” according to Msgr Andrea Ripa, the under-secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy.

The under-secretary described the in-structional document as an “instrument with which to support and accompany the various projects of parish reform and diocesan restructuring.”

“One could say that the essence of the present Instruction is to recall that in the Church ‘there is a place for all and all can find their place,’ with respect to each one’s vocation,” Ripa said in an introduction to the document on July 20. The instruction, which does not introduce anything new to Church law, sets out provisions of the existing law and guidelines to preserve “the faithful from certain possible extremes, such as the cleri-calization of the laity and the secularization of the clergy, or from regarding permanent deacons as ‘half-priests’ or a ‘super laymen,’” the under-secretary wrote.

Signed by Pope Francis on June 29, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the instru-ction promotes greater cooperation among different parish communities, emphasizing the need for the parish to be inclusive, evange-lizing, and attentive to the poor.

The document builds on the 2002 instruction from the Congregation of Clergy, “The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community,” and the Vatican interdicasterial instruction “Ecclesia de Mysterio,” on the collaboration of laity in the ministry of priests.

It includes instructions on the suppression or merging of parishes, ways of assigning pastoral ministry within the parish, the pastoral council, the sacraments, and the renewal or “conversion” of parish and diocesan structures.

To hear Catholicism’s most famous former inmate tell the story, the experience of being in jail actually offers improbable insights for Church management, perhaps especially managing money.

In a new video released on July 14, Australian Cardinal George Pell, who spent more than 400 days in jail after a conviction for a sexual abuse charge that was eventually over-turned by his country’s High Court, said it was important for him behind bars not only to pray but also to maintain a healthy daily routine.” Basically, we believe that Grace works through nature,” he said in the video. “And it’s one thing to have a spiritual vision, which comes from Christ. Another thing is to have a plan or a project. Of course, to implement those things you need managerial skills: Human capacity which is trained for good and godly purposes.”