Fri, Apr 22, 2005 page9

• Germany struggles against a slide into `heathenism'

  • DPA
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  Though its churches are well-financed and have millions of registered members, Germany, the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI, is only barely Christian in the eyes of church leaders.

  The Catholic Church and the various Protestant denominations are deeply worried at their long decline.

  A year ago, Germany marked the 1,250th anniversary of the death of Saint Boniface, the Benedictine monk and bishop who converted the Germans in the 8th century. Cardinal Karl Lehmann observed that today's Germans were reverting to heathens.

  Lehmann, the chairman of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, said Christian faith was drying up, with many of his countrymen knowing nothing of Christian beliefs or customs.

  Protestants have said the same. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who chairs the council of Lutheran and Reformed churches, has appealed for new fire to be breathed into the embers of the old faith.

  Protestant groups are planning advertising campaigns in the east of the country, where most people are non-Christian after 40 years of communist rule and atheism in schools.

  In a German population of 82 million, only about 52 million are registered members of the main Christian churches. About half of that number are Catholics, who are concentrated in the south, while the north tends to be Protestant. The fierce rivalry between the two has eased in the decades since World War II.

  Immigration has added new religions to the mix. Some 3 percent of the population is Muslim, with the National Council of Muslims stressing that Islam is now Germany's second-biggest faith.

  Since the beginning of the 1990s, 3 million people have renounced their church membership, a move required if they want to stop paying dues.

  Polls show that large numbers of those who remain are often ignorant about central matters of faith or disagree with church teaching.

  Many registered members only attend church once or twice a year, mainly at Christmas, and only seek the services of their church for baptisms, weddings, funerals or at times of crisis.

  Compared to other countries, the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany are affluent.

  They have been financed since 1875 by a 9 percent surcharge on income taxes collected by the state and passed on to the churches. The Catholic Church receives about 4 billion euros (US$5 billion) annually and the Lutherans about the same. The churches also receive state subsidies for their social welfare work, meaning they operate huge budgets.

  Separately, donations fund Catholic relief groups that include Misereor, for the developing world, and Renovabis, for eastern Europe. The Catholic organization Caritas relieves hardship within Germany, and offers disaster relief abroad.

  The Protestants have equivalent relief groups.

  Church budgets have been declining, both because of general reductions in income tax and resignations from the churches. The result has been cost-cutting and even staff lay-offs.

  Added to that has been a range of internal problems including a shortage of priests among the Catholics. Nationally, annual first-year seminary enrollments have hovered at about 200 for several years. That is far too few to replace priests reaching retirement age.

  In many places, priests have been hired from Poland, Africa and Asia to say mass.

  It is possible for men and women to study Catholic theology at universities, but graduates are only allowed to do a fraction of what ordained priests may do.

  Reform groups argue that allowing priests to marry would attract more men into the

  profession.

  However the German bishops cannot change celibacy rules in Germany alone.

  Cardinal Lehmann and his Lutheran counterpart Huber, who have joined pro-life initiatives, have nevertheless found that the views of the Church still have great weight in Germany.

  Both Catholics and Lutherans often offer faith-based comment on political issues, and sometimes even come into conflict with the Christian Democratic parties founded after World War II, which combine center-right policies with Christian-based attitudes.
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