The Swiss Catholic Women’s Federation (SKF) has voted to remove the word “Catholic” from its name. The group, which with 100,000 members is the largest denominational women’s organisation in the country, will now operate under the title of the Women’s Federation Switzerland.
Its accompanying tagline, however, will reportedly still acknowledge its Catholic heritage and identity, stating: “Surprisingly Different Catholic."
The name change is driven by concerns regarding public perception of the term “Catholic”, reports <a href="https://de.catholicnewsagency.com/news/20053/nicht-mehr-katholisch-skf-wird-offiziell-zu-frauenbund-schweiz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">CNA Deutsch</mark></em></a>, the German-language news partner of US-based <em>Catholic News Agency (CNA).</em> <br><br>“As a Catholic umbrella organisation, we consciously and repeatedly adopt positions different from those of the official Church,” Simone Curau-Aepli, the federation’s president, said of the name change.
This is evidenced in SKF’s stance on homosexuality, <em>CNA</em> reports. Since 2001, the SKF board has advocated opening civil and ecclesiastical marriages to same-sex couples.
Manuela Winteler, head of the Bazenheid Women’s Community, argues that the word “Catholic” needs to be removed from the organisation's name in order “to save the ‘catholic’ in its original sense and the goals and values of the federation".
She referred to the etymological meaning of the lower-case version of “catholic", which comes from Greek and means “all-embracing, total, universal”. This, she argues, signifies that the Church was “sent to all people” and not just to “members of the Roman Catholic denomination”.
Originally founded a century ago, the SKF organisation was established to preserve Catholic life in families and communities throughout Switzerland. It was also established as an alternative to the predominantly Protestant women associations in Switzerland, <em>CNA</em> notes.
The name change, as well as the reasoning behind it, has drawn criticism from fellow Catholic organisations. Both the Cooperation Council of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference (SBK) and the Roman Catholic Central Conference (RKZ) expressed regret about the name change. As a result, the name change could also have financial consequences, reports <em>CNA</em>, given funding provided by SBK and RKZ.
The news agency reports that across the border in Germany, its two largest Catholic womens’ organisations have ruled out renaming themselves in the manner of the Swiss Catholic Women’s Federation . <br><br>The Catholic Women’s Community of Germany (<em>Katholische Frauengemeinschaft Deutschland</em>s/KFD) – with approximately 265,000 members – and the Catholic German Women’s League (<em>Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund</em>/KDFB) – with about 145,000 members – currently have no plans to remove “Catholic” from their names.
Agnes Wuckelt, deputy federal chairwoman of the KFD, <a href="https://www.pfarrblattbern.ch/de/artikel/deutsche-frauengemeinschaft-behaelt-katholisch-im-namen" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">states</mark></a> that removing the “K” from the association’s name is not an issue at the federal level. While acknowledging similar experiences to the SKF in terms of how Catholicism is perceived, she said the KFD is “proactively addressing” this by advocating strongly for women’s issues within the Catholic Church. <br><br>The KDFB said that the name change by the Swiss women's' organisation is an “understandable strategic decision, but it hasn't said that it has any plans for any rebranding of the organisation.
Instead, both German associations say they are focusing on redefining what “Catholic” should mean in the context of the organisations' work and outreach, <em>CNA</em> reports.
The KFD has expressed this intention for several years through the concept of “differently Catholic”. Birgit Kainz, KDFB regional chairwoman, <a href="https://www.engagiert.de/magazin/das-k-in-kdfb/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">explains</mark></a>: “We in the KDFB call ourselves ‘Catholic’ but understand ourselves not just as a Roman Catholic but as a Christian association.”
Similarly, in Austria, which shares a border with Switzerland and Germany, the Catholic Women’s Movement of Austria (<em>Katholische Frauenbewegung Österreichs</em>/KFB) – with around 170,000 members – has not yet made any moves to change its nominal designation.
<em>CNA</em> highlights that the Austrian KFB is organised as a lay Church organisation within the framework of Catholic Action, making it structurally more closely tied to Church hierarchies than its German sister organisations.
"This organisational integration may explain why discussions about abandoning ‘Catholic’ in the name have not yet taken place publicly," <em>CNA</em> reports.
<em>Photo: Priests process after an ordination Mass of the breakaway Society of St Pius X in Econe, western Switzerland, 28 June 2013. (Photo credit FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
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