Drink-driving German woman bishop quits

Taken to a police station after failing a breathalyser test, the bishop was found to be several times over the legal limit.

BERLIN, February 24, 2010 (AFP) - The colourful head of Germany's 25 million Protestants, dubbed by the media as a mixture of Mother Theresa and US actress Demi Moore, resigned on Wednesday after being caught drink-driving.

"Last Saturday, I made a big mistake," Margot Kaessmann, 51, told reporters. "My heart tells me quite clearly that I cannot stay in office with the necessary authority... I hereby resign from all my Church responsibilities."

"I am very sorry to have disappointed many people who asked me to remain in office, and those who trustingly voted for me."

Prosecutors said Kaessmann had been "completely unfit to drive" after police pulled over her luxury Volkswagen Phaeton saloon late on Saturday after going through a red light 500 metres (yards) from her home.

Taken to a police station after failing a breathalyser test, the bishop was found to be several times over the legal limit, and now faces a hefty fine and the loss of her driving licence for up to a year.

Mass circulation daily Bild also reported that an unidentified man had been next to the divorced mother-of-four in the car at the time.

The council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the body that she has headed since October, had issued a message of confidence on Wednesday but left up to her "the decision on the common way forward."

"I was a bishop for more than 10 years, willingly with all my body and soul, and I put all my strength into this position," Kaessmann told a packed news conference in Hanover on Wednesday.

She said that she no longer had the moral authority to be able to comment on ethical and political topics, such as the presence of German troops in Afghanistan, a mission she sharply criticised.

Kaessmann made waves in 2007 when she became the first bishop in Germany to file for divorce from her husband, also a leading member of the Lutheran Church. She has survived breast cancer and written some 30 books.

She was Germany's youngest bishop when consecrated in 1999 aged 41 and was elected head of the Protestant Church in October 2009, the first woman to hold the post.

Newspapers, meanwhile, on Wednesday published earlier statements by the bishop, dubbed "the popstar of Protestantism" by Spiegel magazine, in which she condemned alcohol abuse and drink-driving.

"Sometimes there is a lack of awareness (among drivers), particularly when drink and drugs are involved," Spiegel quoted her as saying three years ago.

"Sometimes on the motorway I see people driving as though they have no idea of how powerful a car is, even at 50 kilometres (30 miles) per hour, in other words how a car can really destroy lives."

The incident also happened during Lent, the period of several weeks when Christians traditionally fast, or nowadays give something up like chocolate or meat.

"I'm giving up alcohol," Kaessmann said during last year's Lent.

"I have suddenly noticed how a glass of wine in the evening can become a habit."