A senior and influential figure in the Swiss Church has issued a
potentially incendiary appeal for church reform with a string of
proposals to empower the laity.The ideas, put forward in a pamphlet by Abbot Martin Werlen of Einsiedeln, include appointing women and young people as cardinals and arranging regular meetings for them with the Pope.
He also proposes giving lay people greater say in the choice of bishops, discussion of priestly celibacy and Communion for remarried divorcees.
The Benedictine abbot, who is a member of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, says his objective to end the turf wars between conservatives and progressives which he believes are having a deadening effect on the Church.
His message has been made all the more significant by being backed by the future president of the Swiss bishops' conference, Bishop Markus Büchel of St Gallen, who takes up the presidency on 1 January.