Wolfgang F. Rothe (born July 16, 1967 in Marburg ) is a German Roman Catholic priest , theologian and canonist . In recent years he has become known for his criticism of the church hierarchy and moral teachings as well as for events and publications on the spirituality of whiskey .
table of contents
1Life
1.1youth
1.2theologian and priest
1.3"Whisky-Vikar"
1.4Alleged Abuse Victim
1.5Criminal charges against Roman Catholic clergy
2Theological positions and activities within the framework of church reform movements
3Awards and Honors
4book releases
5web links
6itemizations
life [ edit | edit source ]
Youth [ edit | edit source ]
Rothe comes from the parish of St. Heribert in Hallenberg and grew up in neighboring Bromskirchen , where he also attended elementary school. In 1987, he graduated from the Edertal School high school in Frankenberg (Eder) . [1]
Theologian and Priest [ edit | edit source ]
He completed his studies in Catholic theology at the Julius Maximilians University in Würzburg and at the Catholic University of Eichstätt in 1993 with a diploma and in 1994 with a license . Peter Krämer was in charge of the licentiate thesis in canon law . [2] By 1994, Rothe said he was active for four years in the controversial conservative Catholic Scouts of Europe . [3] According to the KPE, he is also said to have been a curate (undated) . [4] He became a deacon in 1995 for the Diocese of St. Pöltenand ordained a priest in 1996 . He then worked as a chaplain in Weitra until 1999 . [1]
He then studied canon law at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce , which is under the direction of the personal prelature Opus Dei , where he received his doctorate in canon law in 2002. Relator ( doctoral supervisor ) was Joseph Ratzinger 's private secretary at the time , Georg Gänswein . [5]
Since 2002 he was secretary and consultant for questions of canon law for the Bishop of St. Pölten, Kurt Krenn , as well as a lecturer for canon law at the Philosophical-Theological University of St. Pölten , from 2003 also subregent at the seminary there . [6]
In July 2004 he resigned from this office after being accused of being partly responsible for various abuses in the seminary in St. Pölten . [7] The measures taken by Krenn's successor Klaus Küng and confirmed by the Vatican in 2008 are based on the fact that "neither government nor church investigations have confirmed the behavior of Dr. Rothe brought to light that should be punished". [8] Rothe has since been employed in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising ; He is currently working as a parish vicar in the Munich parish association Perlach. [1]
In 2013, Rothe received his doctorate in theology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich; Stephan Haering was the first reviewer ( doctoral supervisor ) . In the 2010s, Rothe came out as gay . [9]
"Whiskey Vicar" [ edit | edit source ]
Rothe is considered an expert on Scotch whiskey and is known for linking this knowledge with spiritual topics in lectures and publications as well as on radio and television. [10]
Since 2015 he has been organizing so-called whiskey pilgrimages to Scotland in cooperation with the Bavarian Pilgrims Office ; places are visited that are important for both Iro-Scottish whiskey culture and Iro-Scottish Christianity. [11]
Also once a year since 2016 he has held a service in Munich, which is musically designed with bagpipes and organ; several hundred people regularly take part. [7] [12]
He is part of the team of authors of the largest German-language specialist magazine for whiskey, Der Whisky-Bobotschafter ; in it he has his own column entitled "Spurensuche" and he also writes regularly in the columns "Mystery Distillery Check" and "Taste Notes". [13]
The 2022 whiskey pilgrimage was accompanied by a film team from Deutsche Welle . The resulting 26-minute documentation is available in German [14] , English, Spanish and Arabic.
Alleged abuse victim [ edit | edit source ]
In 2019, Rothe filed a complaint against Bishop Klaus Küng , who was a high-ranking Opus Dei official before he was appointed bishop, for what he said was an attempted sexual assault in 2004. Küng, who is also a doctor, had previously given him a psychotropic drug from the benzodiazepine group . A statement from the diocese confirmed that Küng Rothe "offered" and administered a sedative in connection with a dizzy spell. However, Küng firmly rejected the allegations of sexual abuse and stated that he reserved the right to take legal action against untruthful allegations. [15] [16]
At the beginning of 2021, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that "there was no transparent church investigation into the Rothe/Küng matter". Instead, Küng's successor as Bishop of St. Pölten, Alois Schwarz , demanded that Rothe "not continue to uphold or spread the allegations in public with immediate effect". Otherwise he would have to reckon with penalties under canon law up to and including suspension . The Diocese of St. Pölten refused to comment on this threat to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. [16]
Rothe reported to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had to undergo a forensic psychiatric “gay test” on behalf of Küng in 2005 after “allegations” about his behavior as a former subregent. The authorized expert was Norbert Leygraf . [17] In concrete terms, the expert opinion should comment on the question of whether the clergyman in question "has a homosexual inclination that makes it advisable, appropriate or absolutely recommended to restrict his possible uses". The possible assignments expressly relate “also to pastoral work with young people and young adults”. The forensic scientist Harald Dressing , one of the authors of theMHG study , according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, rated the question of the report as "outrageous" and "clearly discriminatory". Dreßing did not comment on the report itself, as he did not have it. When asked if he would accept the commission for such an expert opinion, he replied: "Definitely no". The Diocese of St. Pölten left the Süddeutsche Zeitung's questions on this issue unanswered. [18]
Also at the beginning of 2021, Rothe told Catholic.de that Küng had also obliged him to stay in a monastery for several months ("Klosterhaft"). Furthermore, Küng tried in vain to urge Rothe to voluntarily resign from the priesthood, to have him laicized or deported to Romania. [19]
In the autobiographical work Abused Church, Rothe refrains from explicitly raising the accusation of attempted sexual assault again, referring to the church's threats of punishment, but he assumes that this is known to the informed public. [20] Rothe also reported another attack by Küng [21] and renewed the accusation that Küng had demanded a forensic psychiatric “gay test” [22] as well as a “convent detention” [23] also ordered by Küng .
Because the book Abused Church alludes to Bishop Küng's alleged homosexuality, he sued the Droemer Verlag , which published the book, before the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters and demanded compensation and the "publication of a short notice about the initiation of the proceedings “. The latter was rejected by the court on the grounds that "it cannot be assumed that the eligibility requirements for the award of compensation exist". Bishop Küng then lodged a complaint with the Vienna Higher Regional Courta. This complaint was dismissed at the end of 2021. According to the court, Rothe's book deals "just with the actions of the church organs and their dogmas in connection with sexual morality and the topic of sexual abuse or the abuse of power and authority relationships that often goes hand in hand with this behavior". Therefore, the information that Küng himself is said to be homosexual, "which is mentioned only marginally and above all in connection with a reported sex crime", is of public interest in the context of the debate intended by the author. Bishop Küng then withdrew his complaint, whereupon the proceedings were discontinued and the decision became final . [24] [25] [26] [27]
Criminal charges against Roman Catholic clergy [ edit | edit source ]
In 2021, following a complaint by Rothe, the District Court of Cologne imposed penal orders for sedition against the Polish priest and author Dariusz Oko and the chief editor of the journal Theologisches , the Opus Dei priest Johannes Stöhr . In two articles in the magazine, Oko denounced homosexual priests as “parasites”, “cancer” and “plague”, among other things. [28] Both priests lodged an objection to the penal orders, so that they did not become final and a main hearing had to take place. [29]
According to Rothe, after his ad became known, he received a large number of hate mails. He welcomed the penal orders and saw them as a sign that Germany had a functioning judiciary - there should be no refuge for hatred and hate speech. He also pointed out that he received a lot of positive encouragement from Poland - precisely because the complaint against Oko came from a Catholic priest. National conservative and conservative Catholic circles in Poland, to which Oko is close, reacted with great outrage and leveled allegations against the German judiciary. [30] The German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller also reported in the Warsaw magazine Do Rzeczyand compared the Cologne district court's decision with the criminal regime of Nazi lawyer Hans Frank in occupied Poland during World War II , when Polish professors and intellectuals were persecuted and murdered. [31] The editor of the journal Theologisches , Manfred Hauke , who teaches as a dogmatist in Switzerland, also repeatedly defended Oko's contributions and described Rothe as "informers" and his criticism as defamation and slander. [32]Rothe called Müller's statements "outrageous" and Hauke's attacks, which also alluded to Rothe's personal past in the St. Pölten seminar, "just shabby". The theologian Hermann Häring, on the other hand, defended Rothe's legal action against the "angry combat article against homosexual clerics" as appropriate and criticized his colleague Hauke for publishing such "unspeakable blanket judgments". [33] The competence center for democracy and human dignity of the Catholic Church in Bavaria also condemned the attacks against Rothe. [34]
At the beginning of December 2021, it became known that the Cologne public prosecutor's office had rejected the investigations initiated by Rothe against Hauke on suspicion of incitement to hatred. It cannot be proven that Hauke disputes the right of homosexual priests to live as equals in the state community. However, Hauke's statements were rated as "violent abuse and an attack on individual personal rights". [35]
On May 20, 2022, the main hearing against Oko and Stöhr took place before the district court in Cologne. After the two accused regretted their statements, apologized to those who might have felt offended by them, and also assured that they would no longer make such statements, the court stopped the proceedings against a fine of €3,150 (in case of Oko) and 4000 € (in case of Stöhr). Rothe, who attended the hearing, was then insulted by some of Oko's supporters who were present. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41]
In 2022, Rothe and the priests Burkhard Hose and Bernd Mönkebüscher filed criminal charges against the Archbishop of Cologne , Rainer Maria Woelki . On November 9, 2022, after the complaints had been rejected, the Cologne public prosecutor's office initiated investigations against Woelki on suspicion of false affidavit after a former employee of the HR department of the Archdiocese of Cologne had heavily incriminated him. [42] [43]
Theological positions and activities within the framework of church reform movements [ edit | edit source ]
The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes Rothe's theological orientation at the beginning of his career as "conservative". [18] In the 2010s and 2020s, he repositioned himself by criticizing the church's rejection of same-sex marriage [44] , an "exaggeration and overloading of celibacy " and the exclusion of women and homosexuals from the priesthood. [45] [18]
An interview with homosexual influencer Nico Abrell about homosexuality and the church , in which Rothe spoke out in favor of blessing homosexual couples, among other things, was viewed more than 200,000 times within a few days. [46] Rothe is one of the activists of the "#liebegewinnt" initiative, in the context of which Catholic clergy blessed homosexual couples in more than 100 services celebrated throughout Germany on May 9 and 10, 2021, although the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained this in a response shortly beforehand that the Church does not have "the authority to bless unions of persons of the same sex." [47]The action resulted in worldwide media coverage. [48]
According to Rothe, he supported the "#outinchurch" campaign, during which more than 100 employees of the Catholic Church came out as queer on January 24, 2022 , and described it as a "milestone"; However, he himself did not take part because he "has not been making a secret about [his] sexual identity for a long time " and has also "been active against discrimination against queer people for a long time". [49]
In a BBC radio portrait entitled "Germany's turbulent priest" Rothe was characterized as one of the most well-known figures within the church reform movement. [50]
In July 2022, he was the first Catholic priest who was openly recognizable as a priest by his clothing to take part in the Munich CSD . [51] [52] [53]
Rothe managed to get church asylum granted to a gay couple from Ukraine. [54] [55]
Awards and honors [ edit | edit source ]
Rothe is an honorary member ("supporter") of the "Sharing Angels", the largest German whiskey club for women. [56]
Scottish folk musician and songwriter Robin Laing dedicated a song to Rothe on his 2020 album Holding Gold; the song is entitled "Thank You Whiskey Vicar". [57]
In April 2022 he was awarded the honorary title of Keeper of the Quaich for his services to Scottish whiskey culture , becoming the first Catholic priest, according to his publisher. [58] [59]

Wolfgang Rothe, sacerdote de Múnich, bendijo el domingo a una treintena parejas lesbianas y homosexuales : www.twitter.com/BolivianDaily...Le gustan las faldas escocesas y el whisky, también... Whisky trinken, Whisky predigen
spiegel.de/…ky-predigen-a-cbc02014-0002-0001-0000-000142149882

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