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With AfD on the rise, voices warning of electing nationalists have gotten louder. Warnings come from politics, society, and the Catholic Church as well, which is quite unusual, as the German church hasn’t gotten involved in party politics for decades. In the second half of the 20th century it was not uncommon for parish priests to call on their flock to vote for the Christian Democratic Union, Angela Merkel’s party. This has fallen out of fashion in recent decades though, at least until 2024.
In February, in an unprecedented step, the German bishops’ conference called AfD “unelectable” for Christians. Ethnically motivated nationalism should be incompatible with the Christian image of God and man, the bishops’ statement said.
“Right-wing extremist parties and those on the fringes of this ideology can not be a place of political activity for Christians,” the bishops insisted.
After the recent state elections, their words got even more direct. “I have to warn against voting for AfD,” the head of the conference, Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing, said at the annual St. Michael’s Reception in Berlin on Sept. 10.
Did the bishops’ earlier warning have any influence on the recent elections? It is hard to say. But interestingly, election maps show one clear distinction. AfD won most areas of Thuringia, except for the traditionally Catholic Eichsfeld region in the northwest. In a state with mostly religiously unaffiliated voters (after 40 years of antireligious socialism), this is the only region not going for AfD. The difference is marginal, with only a few percent less for the right-wing party and does not qualify for any definitive conclusions. Yet the coincidence is remarkable.
It’s not only the bishops’ warning against AfD, though. German lay Catholics have published strongly worded statements as well.
The laypeople in Germany are organized under the Central Committee of German Catholics, most known internationally for heading the “Synodal Path” reform project together with the bishops. The Central Committee of German Catholics is the head organization of most of Germany’s Catholic lay groups, such as Scouts or Catholic women’s groups.
Many prominent Catholics are members of the committee. They also warn against AfD. “We are convinced that the positions promoted by the AfD do not go in line with our principles,” Marc Frings, secretary general of the committee, said in a statement to NCR.
One of the committee’s most important jobs is to organize “Katholikentag,” Catholic Day, which is held every two years in a different city, calling tens of thousands of Catholics to participate in prayer and celebrations, but also in political discussions. This year, Katholikentag was held in Erfurt, the capital city of Thuringia, just a few weeks before the state’s elections. Even though Katholikentag is a highly political event, no speaker of the AfD party was invited.
“Groups and individuals with radical positions that contradict our Christian values are not invited as speakers,” said Frings.
The committee is going so far as to lobby for a federal ban on AfD as a political party, a move that hasn’t been initiated but has been discussed for years now. It seems many institutions are still figuring out how to handle Germany’s new political landscape.
However, at the 2018 Katholikentag in Münster, the committee did invite an AfD speaker to one of the panels. Ahead of the European elections, the committee held a workshop with the speakers for religious affairs of all the parties present in the Bundestag, the German parliament, which included AfD.
Frings now regrets this action, telling NCR: “This was an exception, and I can confirm that we do not intend to reach out to this party again.”
The future will show if all of these statements and actions by Catholic officials will play a role for German voters. The rude awakening might come next fall, when the nationwide Bundestag elections will be looking for a new German government. Latest polls see AfD in second place, but with a volatile political climate in Germany, it’s almost impossible to make any predictions right now.
Source link : https://www.ncronline.org/news/how-german-catholics-are-struggling-rising-right-wing-extremism
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Publish date : 2024-10-04 08:06:07
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