The Travails of Germanchurch

For those who understand German, katholisch.de, the official website of the Catholic Church in Germany, makes fascinating reading. For it is one of the few official new sources of the establishment Catholic Church anywhere that actually reports news instead of suppressing it (to borrow a quip of Damian Thompson’s regarding two similar-sounding US Catholic news services). 

Of course, the bias of the website is relentlessly progressive. Just in the last few days we learned from a “liturgical scholar” that it is entirely appropriate for priests to alter the text or the Novus Ordo mass. Bishop after bishop gives permission for the reception of communion by Protestant spouses of Catholics. A report on the historical status of female deacons has been submitted to the pope – it is insinuated that the conclusion is that the early historical record is “unclear” – coincidentally, exactly what Francis himself said “off the cuff” two years ago. Katholisch.de picks up a report (from the New York Times?)  about a “nun” who prays for Trump by sending him a tweet every day.  Katholisch.de then quotes one of her aggressive, hostile political “prayers.”

Yet katholisch.de ran several favorable articles on the recently deceased philosopher Robert Spaemann.  And when one of this site’s editors raged recently against Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis, stating that her “wish for Christmas” was that the princess “shut up,” katholisch.de did post a rebuttal from the editor of the conservative Die Tagespost.

And all is not well in the happy home of Catholic progressivism. Katholisch.de reports on cases of sexual abuse exploding everywhere, monasteries that are closing and financial and sexual scandals (that the Vatican is seeking to cover up) in a diocese in neighboring Austria. 

But perhaps the most surprising developments are financial. For we in the US have the impression that “Germanchurch” is awash in money. On a worldwide comparative basis that is undoubtedly true. It is only the famous church tax (Kirchensteuer) and more generally the relationship with the German state and its funding that is gives the Catholic Church in Germany what life it has – and I suspect accounts for its influence in the Vatican. But although the revenue from the church tax has hit a record level, the Catholic and Protestant churches continue to lose up to 500,000 members each year. 

And we learn from katholisch.de that three dioceses located in areas with a predominantly Catholic population have just recorded massive deficits; Würzburg, Mainz and Trier.  The stated causes are low interest rates and massive increases in expenses for personal including pensions. But in the case of Trier, the diocese is also reducing the number of parishes from 887 to 35 – triggering protests by the laity. The administrators of the diocese, however, don’t see any problem at all.

Similar financial crises have been happening in German dioceses for many years now.  For example, the critical situation of the Catholic church in Archdiocese of Hamburg – an area without a significant Catholic population – is prompting the closure of up to 8 of its 21 schools. Once again, the laity is up in arms. Do we need to add that even katholisch.de’s hero, Cardinal Marx of Munich (an archdiocese in in better financial condition than most of the others) has had to scale back expensive construction projects? 

Germanchurch is finding that when salaries get out of hand even their ample resources are inadequate. The future on the revenue side  is also dark – the impact of “demographic trends “and the uninterrupted decline in church membership call into question the long-term viability of the church tax.  And, as we all should know, all the money in the world can’t motivate people to attend church or serve at the altar.

For further information see:  katholisch.de