Erosion of the German Church -- Gäswein: "Shepherds Must Not Make Decisions Based on Media Applause"

Flashmob in Rio... Reduced to Ridicule

(Rome / Berlin) The Catholic Church in Germany has experienced a record number of almost 218,000 leaving the church last year. 39,000 more than the year before.

More even than in 2010, when the German Church was shaken by the sexual abuse scandal of minors and was under massive public pressure.

The figures highlight a sideshow: Between 2005 and 2013 Pope Benedict XVI was  annually blamed, if there wasn't  a merely  local "culprit", who could share the blame, like  Bishop Krenn in Austria or the bishops Mixa and Tebartz-van Elst in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Church Exit Numbers Were Instrumentalized Against Benedict XVI. - Since silence

"Controversial actions of Pope Benedict XVI. were to blame"  the "like exclusion of homosexuals ", "lack of equality for women"  or the "lifting of the excommunication for Lefebvrian bishops"  which was said, for example in 2010 by the Austrian pastoral theologian Paul Zulehner (Vienna) and Episcopal Vicar Willi Vieböck (Linz). But there has never been when all things are considered, more leaving the Church than under Pope Francis. Since then there is an awkward silence until the  among the wordy Church representatives and the media. Their "interpretations" are subsequently exposed as a church-political instrumentalisation.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Church membership is directly coupled to tax aspect. The recognized denominations demand and  are payed the so-called "church tax", which is calculated and charged by the state  and sent to the churches.

Church-tax Secures Influence

The money supply is enormous. In 2011 alone, took the Catholic Church in Germany took in about 5.8 billion euros.

With 1.3 million employees, the Catholic Church is  the second largest employer in Germany next to   the public sector. The largest private company, Siemens, employs just over 400,000 employees.

With the bulging coffers, the German Church exerts considerable influence in the Third World.

Majority of the German Bishops Want to Change the Doctrine of the Church

Some commentators, such as the American George Weigel, writing of the growing erosion process, in addition to financial reasons, describes the tendency of most of the German bishops to trying to change the doctrine of the Church.

This includes marriage and sexual morality, especially the doctrine of the right to access the sacrament of marriage and the Eucharist. Concretely it  applies to the recognition of  second marriages and the admission of remarried divorcees to communion. It is exactly these issues that the Synod of Bishops will address this October.

What Curial Archbishop Geogr Gänswein Says

"It is interesting to hear what Curia Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. has to say in a far more extensive interview," said Marco Tosatti. Interview by Jaume Figa i Vaello for the Catalan and Spanish website +1 Sumant Hostories of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya .

Question: Some of these issues come from your native Germany. Why?

Archbishop Gänswein: Yes. It is true that not all the errors come from there, but the point in question is provided as follows: 20 years ago John Paul II  rejected, after a long and laborious negotiation,  that divorced and remarried would have access to communion.. We can not simply go and change things established in our Magisterium.

Question: Why do some shepherds want that  which is not possible?

Archbishop Gänswein: I do not know. Maybe they give in to the Zeitgeist, perhaps they can be  led by  the applause of the people, which is made by the media ... to be critical of the mass media, is certainly less enjoyable. A shepherd must not decide on the basis of whether the media applauds or not. The benchmark is the Gospel, the Faith, sound doctrine, Tradition.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG