The general assembly of the German bishops opened at Stuttgart on 18 February. Various issues will be discussed in this working session which will end on 21 February and bring together, in the diocesan academy of Hohenheim, 69 German bishops and cardinals under the presidency of Cardinal Karl Lehmann, bishop of Mainz. In the forefront of debate is the question of bioethics after the decision of the Bundestag of 30 January authorizing the importation of embryonal stem cells. “Science said. Cardinal Lehmann may certainly give explanations to the faith but neither can it undermine it nor empty it of meaning”. The importance of research, therefore, must not be underestimated, but it must not have “ulterior ends”. In fact “ the danger of conducting research for private convenience or utility, subordinating everything else to it, constantly exists“. Scientific research added the president of the German bishops is free but “must recognize right from the start its own limitation in the dignity and, hence, in the intangibility of human life, especially when it comes to practical experimentation”. As regards the cloning of animals, the cardinal pointed out that today “we can master other forms of life, dominate them and use them in a ruthless fashion”, and urged that we should “never forget, especially in the laboratory, that animals, as such, are subjects too and therefore deserve protection”. The programme of the assembly also envisages the drafting of a declaration on “Church and Eucharist” and the examination of the situation of Christians in the Holy Land. Discussion will also be devoted to the vexed question of Catholic marriage counsellors and on the preparation of the first ecumenical Kirchentag, scheduled to be held in Berlin in 2003.
