"Tearing down the walls in the name of ecumenism": this is what is going to happen in Mosbach, in the former city church of St. Juliana on July 27th, which was split into two parts 300 years ago a Catholic one and an evangelical one by a wall. On July 27th, this wall will be knocked down and people will be able to pass from one part of the church to the other through two doors. The event will be celebrated by an "Ecumenical feast of the knocking down of the wall", in the presence of the auxiliary bishop of Freibur, mgr. Bernd Uhl, and the evangelical leader Gerhard Vicktor on behalf of the evangelical bishop of Land Baden. At the time of the Reform, the Catholic Church was evangelical and Catholic Mass was banned. In 1685, the Catholic prince Philipp Wilhelm proclaimed full freedom of religion and decreed that Protestants and Catholics share the church. However, since no agreement could be found, in 1708 the church was split into two parts: the Catholics got the choir, the Protestants the nave. The knocking down of the wall is an important step for the two confessional communities. The two parish priests, Klaus Bader and Dirk Keller, consider the event the fruit of a long ecumenical process, which had its first highlight in the signing of an ecumenical cooperation agreement in 2005 and is still going on. ” “
